Exploring the Central Market in Athens, Greece

Central Market, Athens, Greece

One of the best ways to explore a city’s culture is through its food, and one of the best places to experience the food culture as the locals do is at the city market.

We love visiting food markets. On our recent visit to Greece, we discovered the bustling Athens Central Market, and got a sneak peek at the Athenian food scene.

The Athens Central Market, also known as the Municipal Market of Athens, or Varvakeios Agora, is a hive of activity and noise early in the morning. We visited on a Saturday, the busiest day of the week, and, as it was winter, we were among the only tourists in the packed food halls.

Although Athenians have come to this area to do their shopping for centuries, the Central Market building has been recently restored and updated to bring it in line with EU food regulations.

One of many aisles of meat in the Athens Central Market

The main Central Market building is divided into two sections; half for meat and half for seafood. We saw every type of meat and fish we could imagine (not to mention, every part of the animal in question). Believe me – if it has hooves, feathers or gills, you can probably find it somewhere here.

In addition to being crowded with shoppers, the market is noisy. The sellers shout out to every passer-by and there is a constant chorus of prices being called out.

Fresh fish and seafood on display

Surrounding the main market building are a variety of food shops selling other local products: cheese, spices, oils, dried fruits, nuts, sweets, coffee and tea, as well as small restaurants and tavernas, cooking up dishes from the bounty of local produce available.

Dried Spices for sale

Across the street from the Central Market building is another uncovered market selling fruits and vegetables. One of the main features here are the beautiful olives of every variety you can imagine.

Olives of every colour and size

The best way to get a sense of this incredible food market is to see it for yourself. Though, I must warn you, if you are squeamish about meat and animal parts, you may want to skip over some of the photos.

Fresh Seafood

Now that’s fresh!

Fish, fish and more fish

Pork chop?

Anyone for tripe?

Yes, it is a big box of sheep heads

This little piggy went to market…

And for the vegetarians…

The Athens Central Market is one of the most fascinating food markets we’ve visited so far on our travels. What are your favourite markets? Share them with us in the comments below. Join us on Facebook for even more photos of Athens.