A multiplicity of cities

Leslie:  Outside of Greece, Athens is famous primarily for its ancient past, the 5th century B.C.E.  That city is, of course, without parallel, but Athens has so many more cities contained within it.  There is the Byzantine, like this church in Plaka from the 11th century. It sits right in the middle of Ermou Street, which is a busy shopping seat, and was nearly demolished in the 19th century because it was in the way.

The doorway to the Kapnikereas church (11th century).

 Or this one below, which is tucked under a modern building.  I've seen several churches like this that suggest much older cities with different priorities existing like a palimpcest inside the modern city.

Tiny church tucked beneath a modern building

 Then there are little survivals that seem not to be protected, so much as surviving because they go unnoticed, the way language preserves little bits of history (like the days of the week that come from the names of Teutonic deities) because we have stopped paying attention to them and so don't notice that they preserve something we've given up.

Not sure what this is.  It isn't a doorway.

 There is also the Ottoman past, which to some extent was deliberatly excised, but some useful structures, like wells, are remarkably untouched, and even still used.

In Nauplion, an Ottoman well

Inscription on the Ottoman well -- never been defaced!

There are no signs explaining what these things are, nor any protective barriers to keep visitors from touching them.  They are just there, adding to the fabric of the city.  It turns innocent little walks into magical adventures.  This is one of the pleasures of old cities -- they accrete as we build around existing structures.  Things are built, are neglected, are forgotten, and the city slowly grows around them and so they survive to delight us as unexpected flotsam.  In Jacksonville, I think about how instead of maintaining existing structures and building around them, we raze the land and start from dirt. When the Whole Foods was built in Mandarin, half the shopping center was demolished and rebuilt from the ground up.  There is nothing left to remember what was there before (of course it was a different shopping center, so maybe no loss?).