page_title: Christian Hansen (architect)
section_title: Years in Athens
hierarchical_section_title: Christian Hansen (architect) / Biography / Years in Athens
caption_attribution_description: Lloydarsenal in Triest
context_page_description: Category:Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog
  Hans Christian Hansen was a Historicist Danish architect who worked 18 years in Greece where he was active in the transformation of Athens from a small town to the country's capital and an international metropolis. Later in his career he returned to Denmark where he became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and designed buildings such as the Copenhagen Municipal Hospital and the Østervold Observatory. He was the brother of Theophilus Hansen who was also an internationally successful architect, active in Athens and Vienna. He is considered to be a pioneer in the study and application of polychrome architecture.
context_section_description: In 1833, Hansen travelled to Athens, recently been chosen as the new capital of the nascent Greece which had recently gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire. At the time, Athens was just a small village with a few thousand inhabitants, chosen as capital for historic and sentimental reasons. It was therefore set for massive redevelopment to become a modern metropolis. Hansen won the favour of king 
  Otto of Greece and was appointed Court Architect in 1834. In 1838, he was joined by his brother Theophilus who had also studied architecture at the Academy in Copenhagen but had been unsuccessful in getting commissions.
  Christian Hansen's most famous work in Athens is the original main building for the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Construction started in 1839 using the proceeds of a fund-raising campaign from Greeks at home and abroad. It was inaugurated in 1841, though not entirely completed until 1864 due to lack of funds. It is built in marble in Greek Revival style, also known as Neohellenic Classicism, of which it is considered one of the most important examples and a source of inspiration for many other buildings of the time, particularly in Germany. It is part of the so-called Neoclassical, or Athenian,  Trilogy which was completed by his brother with the Academy of Athens and the National Library of Greece.
  Hansen also designed private houses and churches. The latter include the Anglican St. Paul's Church. It is designed in a mixed Victorian and Gothic Revival style.
  Hansen's work in Athens also involved archeological excavations and investigations. Together with the German architect Eduard Schaubert he excavated and reconstructed the Temple of Athena Nike at the Acropolis and he contributed to the compilation of material for Joseph Hoffer's account of horizontal curvature and optical corrections in Greek temples.
  Hansen's reputation reached outside Greece and in 1850 the shipping company Österreichischer Lloyd commissioned him to build a marine arsenal and dockyards at Trieste. The extensive building complex designed in the Rundbogenstil with details inspired by Byzantine architecture was constructed from 1852 to 1856.
caption: Österreichischer Lloyd's Arsenal and Dockyards at Trieste, c. 1900
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