The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens, sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institutions of Greece and the most prestigious among engineering schools. It is named Metsovio(n) in honor of its benefactors Nikolaos Stournaris, Eleni Tositsa, Michail Tositsas and Georgios Averoff, whose origin is from the town of Metsovo in Epirus.
It was founded in 1837 as a part-time vocational school named Royal School of Arts which, as its role in the technical development of the fledgling state grew, developed into Greece’s sole institution providing engineering degrees up until the 1950s, when polytechnics were established outiside Athens. Its traditional campus, located in the center of Athens on Patision Avenue on a site donated by Eleni Tositsa, features a suite of magnificent neo-classical buildings by architect Lysandros Kaftantzoglou (1811–1885). A new campus, the Zografou Campus, was built in the 1980s.