Green spaces are exceedingly rare. As summer temperatures climb into the late 30s visitors might be tempted to pluck an orange for refreshment, that was my instinct when I first spied them.

A mosaic of a city

The fruits on these trees are nerántzi, too bitter to eat. Nerántzi can be used for marmalade or syrupy Greek ‘spoon sweets’. However, the abundance of car fumes render the nerántzi on Athens’ streets unsuitable. They are left to ripen and drop where they are squished by pedestrians and flattened by cars and motorcycles flooding every corner of the city. The oranges are emblematic of a place where things should never be taken at face value.

There is much to be unpeeled. Athens as an ancient city captures only a fragment of the history and one aspect of this mosaic like city of 48 municipalities in the Athens metropolitan area. From the elegance of Kifisia and Kolonaki, to edgy, political Exarcheia and cool post-industrial Gazi.

A concrete sarcophagus

Modern Athens soon makes itself apparent. The Airport thrusts you onto the National Highway towards the city centre, fully 33 km away. Arriving during a rare rainstorm is an unnerving mix of speed, overtaking, and undertaking - with some ferocity.

As you leave the airport, olive groves and vines slip past, prior expectations of Greece are met. The scene recalibrates and you are aware of the vast commercial centre modern Athens is. Parts of the National Highway run over the river Kifissos, one of the great lost rivers of Athens. Its disappearance beneath a concrete sarcophagus speaks of an obliteration of nature in much of 21st century Athens. The enshrouded river adds to the feeling of being funnelled down a valley, inexorably. to the city.

Unwanted geriatrics

A city of vast, often perplexing contrasts, the ancient zone around the Acropolis, is justly world famous, not reflective of the wider city. A concrete sprawl largely formed after a population explosion during the 1950s and 1960s. Dominated by the squat ‘polykatoikia’ multi-housing apartment blocks, buildings from earlier eras still endure, but are increasingly under threat. In all, 80% of 19th and early 20th-century buildings in Athens have been destroyed, time is running out for what’s left.

This loss is captured in elegiac essays by the committed urbanist Nikos Vatopoulos, In Walking In Athens he lingers in the back streets of ‘deep Athens’, contemplating the lives lived by those who spent their days in the now crumbling buildings. There is a growing ‘silent list’ of ‘sad houses’ in the city, ‘double locked and ruined, like forgotten and unwanted geriatrics’.

As with the tempting oranges, things are not as they first appear. Behind charming facades, nothing is salvageable, just rotting holes waiting to be developed. Respect for heritage manifests in the ways parts of the ancient city skilfully restored, sit alongside neglect and ceaseless demands to develop. Building back bigger.

Ready ammunition

The desire to pick up a bitter orange and hurl it still lies under the surface. There’s a long history of demonstrators using projectiles – against occupying German soldiers, junta policemen, or contemporary riot police. As the economic crisis deepened, many trees in the city centre were divested of their fruit in an attempt to deprive protestors of ready ammunition. An art project by Ino Varvariti and Persefoni Myrtsou in 2012-13, involved harvesting nerántzi from the trees that line the roads of Athens and Thessaloniki. The aim was to identify ‘the taste of the economic crisis’.

The bitterness of the nerántzi is echoed in the political realm, where mistrust and cynicism reign. Evidence that the authorities covered up aspects of the 2023 Tempi train disaster again brought violent clashes to Sygmata Square (Constitution Square) - the scene of many bitter political protests over the decades - and home, incidentally, to several orange trees.

Tree-rich squares

Viewing the bitter oranges as a waste is simplistic. They are planted because their crown remains dark green throughout the year, producing sweet-smelling blossoms in the spring. Their small size and hardiness are deal for the narrow pavements of Athens, where they ​provide cool shade during the summer. This is absolutely essential in making Athens vaguely liveable during mid-summer which is increasingly marked by ‘heat episodes’.

The tree-rich squares dotted throughout Athens are absolutely essential to the city’s life, providing ideal spots to sip your iced freddo espresso and contemplate the culture and dramas around you.

In 2025, the nerántzi and Athens, have many clandestine qualities and reasons for being.a fragment of the history and one aspect of this mosaic like city of 48 municipalities in the Athens metropolitan area. From the elegance of Kifisia and Kolonaki, to edgy, political Exarcheia and cool post-industrial Gazi.