The Varvakeio High School () is a public Greek junior high school and high school located in Psychiko. It was founded by Ioannis Varvakis, who donated a big part of his fortune to the state, in order to build a public, fee-less high school. The realization of Varvakis' dream came true after his death as the building was opened in 1860, initially across from the present-day Varvakios Agora (central market). Badly damaged in the civil war, the original Panagis Kalkos-designed building was demolished in 1955 or 1956. The school moved several times before settling on its current location in Psychiko in 1983. Originally all-male, the school became co-ed in 1979.
Notable alumni
The Varvakeio High School has produced, over the years, notable alumni in varied fields. Some of them include:
Arts and literature
Freddy Germanos, actor
Georgios Drosinis, poet
Dimitri Mitropoulos, composer and pianist
Alexandros Papadiamantis, novelist and poet
Antonis Samarakis, writer
Economics and politics
Evangelos Averoff, former President of New Democracy party and Minister
Leonidas Kouris, former Mayor of Athens
Theodoros Pangalos, current Member of the Hellenic Parliament
Alexandros Papagos, former Prime Minister of Greece
Dimitrios Papadimoulis, current Vice-President of the European Parliament
Yagos Pesmazoglou, former economist, Member of the Hellenic Parliament and MEP
Konstantinos Tsatsos, former diplomat and President of the Hellenic Republic
Nikolaos Vettas, AUEB professor of Economics
Science
Constantinos Daskalakis, MIT professor of computer science (1999 alumnus) Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, architect Christos Papakyriakopoulos, mathematician Mihalis Yannakakis, Columbia University professor of computer science
Other
Kostas Axelos, philosopher
Saint Nectarios of Aegina
Michael Stathopoulos, former UoA Professor of Law and member of the Greek Academy
See also
Varvakeion Athena, a statue found near the original (demolished) site of the school