Splinter Rock (Shisti Petra)
Athens
Greece, 2022

Schisti Petra in Athens is a rock formation that has not so much disappeared as been gradually enclosed by the city. Once, this rocky rise formed part of the slopes of Lycabettus, at a time when Athens was still much smaller and the contours of its landscape remained open and clearly legible. In the nineteenth century that began to change. The hillsides were quarried for stone, first under the initiative of Stamatis Kleanthis and later on a larger scale, while the city at the same time expanded through new houses, streets and speculative development.

Splinter Rock in 1841 (photo Hubert Pernot)

In this way the rock was gradually detached from its original surroundings. What remains is no longer a hill at the edge of the city, but a compact, almost forgotten mass of stone embedded in the urban fabric, surrounded by houses as if the city had slowly silted up around it. Schisti Petra shows how Athens was not only built over the landscape, but also cut it into pieces and absorbed it into the body of the city.