Streets are one of the main features of how a city is structured, and change along with the city over time. Indeed, a careful observer would see that the first signs of a change that is about to happen in any city can be seen in its streets.

During Greek antiquity most cities had adopted the well known Hippodamian plan, in other words a system of parallel horizontal and vertical streets cutting across each other at right angles to create blocks in between. According to the Hippodamian plan, spaces for public buildings, forums and religious places were laid out in advance, together with housing areas.

The new cities in the Roman Empire followed the principles of the Hippodamian plan, but established a new way of organizing their centres, along the lines of the perfect rectangle used for Roman camps. There were two main streets at right angles to each other, aligned with the four points of the compass: one running East-West (the decumanus maximus) and the other heading North-South (the cardo). These began from the city walls, and where they met there was a market (forum) with galleries, public buildings, shops and workshops. An extensive network of secondary streets with arcades led to these main streets, with several other smaller ones in between. A network of straight streets could not be used on very hilly land, but the basic design principles of two main streets meeting in the centre were followed.

Cities began to change shape from the middle of the 6th century onwards. This was partly as a result of foreign raids, though mainly because of the empire’s serious economic problems. Cities shrank in size, many monuments fell into ruin as they could not be maintained, and large mansions were divided into smaller houses to accommodate more families. Makeshift shops, workshops or houses were often built over the streets, and only the main roads survived as before. Over the years, middle and late Byzantine cities were left with few main roads. The badly maintained, potholed streets must have been in a terrible state as far as sanitation is concerned, since lack of city planning meant that house sewage ended up in them.

Middle and late Byzantium new settlements known as castle cities were founded on naturally fortified sites. The streets led in from the few gates in the fortifications, and wherever possible followed the contours of the ground. They were narrow and steep, paved with cobblestones often interrupted by flights of steps. Their width varied and did not follow any plan, being left wherever there was room between the densely built houses. In some cases upper floors were even built out over the streets to create arched passages. Diagonal cuts called chamfers were made on very tight house corners to allow people and animals to pass. All of these features can still be found in traditional villages today.

We do not know if the building regulations for Constantinople that are found in imperial decrees were ever put into effect throughout the empire. It is also unclear whether the requirements in Constantine Armenopoulos’ Hexabiblos (Six Books of Law) were applied in provincial towns. Whatever the case may be, the Modern Greek State kept the Hexabiblos requirements in force until it introduced the first General Building Regulations.