The Academy of Athens' Building constitutes one of three parts in an "architectural trilogy" consisting of the National Library - the University - and the Academy. The latter was designed in 1859, by the Danish architect Theophil Hansen (1813-1891), the younger brother of the University's architect, Christian Hansen. It is considered the most important work of Hansen, and is regarded by some experts as the most beautiful neoclassic building worldwide. The architect's source of inspiration was the classical architecture of fifth century B.C. Athens, as portrayed in the monuments of the Acropolis. In particular Hansen emulated the aspects of the Ionian rhythm that dominate the Building of the Academy, from the Erechtheion monument. The epitome of all ancient Greek tradition can be found in the Building's sculptural and pictorial decoration; simultaneously the character of that era's Hellenism and its visions for the future are also expressed.
In 1856, Simon Sinas made a substantial donation to the Greek state for the erection of a building where the future Academy would be accommodated. Concurrently he appointed the architect Theophil Hansen to design the plans for that building.
Three years later, in July 1859, the Petraki Monastery and the Municipality of Athens ceded an area of 9.900 squ.m. alongside the University for this purpose, and on Sunday 2nd of August of that same year in a celebratory official ceremony, the cornerstone of the Academy's Building was laid. On it the following inscription by the eminent intellectual Filippos Ioannou had been engraved:
WHEN OTHO REIGNED IN GREECE, HE WAS PRESENT WITH THE VENERABLE QUEEN AMALIA WHEN THE CORNERSTONE OF THE REINSTATED ACADEMY WAS LAID, THE COST OF WHICH WAS GLADLY BORNE BY SIMON SINAS, THE APPOINTED AMBASSADOR OF GREECE IN GERMANY WHO ADORNS HIS HOMELAND, GREECE
During the laying of the cornerstone, Otho expressed the hope "that this Academy will contribute to the restoration of Greece to its ancient scientific glory". In the course of the ceremony a printed text with the following Ode by Georgios Tertsetis was distributed:
Holy Science! The Lover of the Arts who has resolved
to reawaken the former glories of Greece constructs your temple.
Noble priests attend that the Rites of Wisdom
are performed in Sinas' temple,
so that our race becomes the Glory of the
World once again.
Both the above extracts clearly reflect the expectations that had been invested in the founding of the Academy.
Over the two-year period between 1859 and 1861, the construction of the Academy's Building progressed rapidly. Meanwhile, at the start of 1861, the execution of Hansen's architectural designs was assigned to his student, the architect Ernst Ziller (1837-1923).
As a consequence of the expulsion of Otho there was a slackening in the pace of construction and eventual disruption by 1864. Work recommenced four years later, in 1868. At that point Hansen assigned the sculptural decoration of the Academy's Building to the sculptor Leonidas Drosis (1843-1884), who had studied in Munich and Dresden on a scholarship from Simon Sinas, and who was Professor at the Scholeion Technon, as the Polytechnic was then known. In 1871, he assigned the Building's painted decoration to the Austrian artist Christian Griepenkerl (1839-1916), a student of the great painter Karl Rahl (1812-1865), who went on to become Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1874.
In April 1876, Simon Sinas passed away. At that point the responsibility for the continuation of the Building's construction passed into the hands of his widow, Ifigeneia. Her tireless efforts led to the project's realization nine years later, in 1885, at a total cost of 2.843.319 gold drachmes.
On March 20th 1887, Ernst Ziller, as plenipotentiary of Simon Sinas' heirs, delivered the Building of the so-called "Sinaea Academy" to the then Premier Charilaos Trikoupis. Thirty-one years had passed since the announcement of Sinas' donation in 1856, and twenty-eight years since its cornerstone was laid in 1859.
On March 22nd 1887, two days after the handover of the Academy's Building, it hosted its first scientific event: the celebration of the fifty-year anniversary of the founding of the Medical Association. Following this the Building went on to house the Numismatic Museum from 1890, the Byzantine Museum from 1914 and in the same year the General State Archives (GAK).
In March 1926, thirty-nine years after the Building's delivery in 1887, the Academy of Athens took up residence in Simon Sinas' edifice; however its operation was initially beset with practical difficulties. The description by General Secretary Simos Menardos in his first review of the Academy's work, on the condition of the Building at the handover from the then Director of the General State Archives (GAK) Giannis Vlachogiannis, is telling:
When we first convened, the President [Fokion Negris], the two poets [Georgios Drosinis, Kostis Palamas] and the then Dean [Simos Menardos], all bearing copies of the Charter, in order to receive from the Minister [Dimitrios Aeginitis] the marble structure, we learnt from Mr. Vlachogiannis, the former guardian/custodian, something unexpected: That the roof leaked, and that the building's main means of illumination and heating was Promitheas' painted torch. As far as the garden was concerned, suffice it to say that Mr. Drosinis was able to detect a mere two flowers.