On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly granted a charter by Abraham Baldwin for the University of Georgia as the first state-supported university. In the late 18th century, a trading settlement on the banks of the Oconee River called Cedar Shoals stood where Athens is today. History Historic American Buildings of Athens in 1936 The 2020 book Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture describes Athens as the model of the indie culture of the 1980s. The city is also known as a recording site for such groups as the Atlanta-based Indigo Girls. Major music acts associated with Athens include numerous alternative rock bands such as R.E.M., the B-52's, Widespread Panic, Drive-By Truckers, of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Harvey Milk. The city is dominated by a pervasive college town culture and music scene centered in downtown Athens, next to the University of Georgia's North Campus. Metropolitan Athens is a component of the larger Atlanta–Athens–Clarke County–Sandy Springs Combined Statistical Area. Athens is the sixth-most populous city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens metropolitan area, which had a 2020 population of 215,415, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's population of the consolidated city-county (all of Clarke County except Winterville and a portion of Bogart) was 127,315.

In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County where it is the county seat. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an R1 research institution, is in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. Athens lies about 70 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S.

Saint michael iconography