File:The archaeological site on Falirou and Petmeza streets on August 10, 2020.jpg

The residential fabric of Athens was created during the Archaic and Classical periods (6th - 5th cent. B.C.) without a regular city plan. Its center was the sacred rock of the Acropolis, and its general principles were maintained until the end of antiquity. A number of main roads started from the Acropolis and its peripheral road, concluding in radial fashion at around 15 gates in the fortification wall.

One of the major roads was the Phaleric Road, along the axis of the modern Phalirou Street and Singrou Avenue. It led from the city to the Phaleric harbour, Athens’ chief port until the mid-5th cent. B.C. before the construction of Piraeus. The Phaleric Road was also a sacred way, since processions like that of the Mystics (Initiates) of the Eleusinian Mysteries followed its course down to the sea.

At this point, we are just a few meters beyond the road’s exit from the Phaleric Gate, at the junction of Falirou and Spyrou Donta Streets. During excavations for the metro (1996-1998), burial enclosures and graves were discovered that date from the Archaic to the Roman period. Of these, four clay children’s sarcophagi dating between 450 and 425 B.C. stand out. The most important find, however, consisted of five Early Christian (5th - 6th cent. A.D.) built tombs, in one of which an inscribed cross had been preserved in the walls, and inscribed fish on the floor, as well as a hypostyle building of the same era.

This rectangular building had a length of at least 15,25 m., a width of between 6,57 and 8,45 m., and an E-W orientation, with its entrance on the West via an opening 1,45m. in width. The wall on the eastern side curves outward, forming a small apse. According to some scholars, it was one of the first houses of worship where Christians gathered for such purposes. Wooden pillars supporting the roof rested on three rows of stone bases. The floor was of rectangular clay plaques. Following excavation, the building was removed and reinstalled at a higher level.”