The University of Athens is the oldest university in modern Greece and perhaps the most prominent. It is also the first modern university in the Balkan Peninsula and the Eastern Mediterranean region. It was founded in 1837 during the reign of King Otto and was originally housed in a building in Plaka. In 1841, the institution moved to a building on Panepistimio Street, and in 1932 it was renamed the "National and Kapodistrian University of Athens". The main building of the University of Athens is a neoclassical building designed by the Danish architect Christian Hansen.→