Agricultural University of Athens
| Γεωπονικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών | |
 |
|
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1920 |
| Chancellor | Konstantinos Feggeros |
| Vice-Chancellor |
Epameinondas Paplomatas Georgios Papadakis |
| Location | Athens, Greece |
| Campus | 250,000 m² |
| Website | www.aua.gr |
The Agricultural University of Athens (AUA; Greek: Γεωπονικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών) is the third oldest university in Greece. Since 1920, it has made contributions to Greek agricultural and economic development, by conducting basic and applied research in the agricultural sciences.
The university is situated in the neighborhood of Votanikos, on a 25-hectare green campus that straddles both sides of the historic Iera Odos (the Sacred Way of antiquity), close to the Acropolis, at the heart of the ancient Olive Grove.
Its sixteen buildings comprise auditoriums, 41 laboratories, a library, computer rooms, agricultural facilities (arboretum, vineyard, experimental fields, flower garden, greenhouses, cowshed, sheep pen, chicken coop, dairy installations, and aquaculture tanks), museums, student center, indoor gym, and sports fields.
The university is located on the alluvial plain of the Kifisos river. Its address is 75 Iera Odos. It is bordered by Kavalas avenue, Spyrou Patsi Street, the bus depot of AUTO, and the EVGA factory. To its east lies the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos and to the west was the location of Plato's olive, whose remains are exhibited inside the main building of the University. The site is split in two by the Iera Odos (Sacred Way) which connects Athens and Eleusis.
The plain where the university is located was created by the perioding flooding of the Kifisos river. In antiquity the district of Elaionas (olive grove in Greek) where the university is located was considered among the healthiest of Athens. The largest part of the site where the university is located was appropriated by Hadji Ali Haseki, an 18th-century Ottoman ruler of Albanian origin of Athens and used as his personal farm. From his time survives one building on the University which is one of the very few of that time that still stands in Athens, though not in its original condition.
After the 1821 revolution the plot was confiscated along with the rest of Turkish property of Greece and became the Ruf National Farm. In 1888, after the national benefactor Triantifillides donated money to create three post-secondary schools of Agriculture, one of them was created on the site. By some this is considered as the founding of the university. Others though consider 1920 as the founding date, when the Athens College of Agriculture was founded by law submitted to parliament by Eleftherios Venizelos. No matter which date is used it is still the fourth oldest university of Greece, after the University of Athens, the National Technical University of Athens and the Athens University of Economics and Business.
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Wikipedia