The Holy Church of Agia Irini may not be Athens' biggest church, or oldest or most popular but it is its most cinematic. A neoclassical masterpiece with some of the most unique and beautiful stain glass windows in all of the city. If Athens was a movie this is one of the stars of the film. Built on the site on an older Byzantine Church which was burned by the Turks this church was re-built in 1835 to serve at the Cathedral for the new capital of the Greek state.

I like to visit the church on Holy Good Friday, as it is an absolute chaos of Athenians pushing and shoving their way to pay their respects to the crucified Christ. The decorated tomb (epitafios) is covered in flowers and many of the faithful crawl underneath it. It is a scene that is hard to get out of ones head.