Part of a two-storey historic building close to Agia Irini church in the center of Athens collapsed on Wednesday. The 200-year-old house was described by the Culture Ministry as “jewel. Authorities in charge wanted it stand at the intersection of Aiolou Street with Agia Irini square. But they did nothing to help it keep standing.
Pieces of wall and plaster fell on the street that is normally bursting with shoppers and tourists. Nobody was injured as the collapse occurred very early in the morning.
Municipality workers and police rushed to the spot and cordoned the area around the building, one of the many abandoned in the center of the Greek capital.
According to the deputy mayor of Athens, the building belongs to the Hadjikostas Foundation.
The Municipality of Athens convened the Committee on Risky Building decided to temporary isolate the area with fences and have a 24-hour surveillance. It described the building as “dangerous.”
In co-operation with the Culture Ministry is to decide about the next steps.
The building on 38, Aiolou street was built in 1833 and is known as “Othon hotel,” as it hosted the first king of Greece, King Otto, after the withdrawal of the Ottomans and Athens was proclaimed the capital of Greece.
The building operated as hotel “Anatoli”, King Otto stayed there during his first visit in Athens and took important decisions for the future of the country.
Nobody wants the decaying construction to be torn down.
“Although it is one of the oldest surviving buildings on Aeolou Street, maintenance work has never been carried out neither by the owner nor by the authorities,” notes daily ethnos.
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maintenance work has never been carried out? probably because with the entangled maze of contradictory rules, the huge costs and delays for permits for every last thing, and the so called archaeological or antiquities ‘service’ hanging around dictating arbitrary details and requirements as they dream them up, perhaps with all that, the owners couldnt afford to
do any maintenance? especially with these so called ‘protected’ buildings, they dont allow you do pretty much _anything_ in the building without permits, long delays for review by those ‘services’, outlandish demands by the same, and endless (multiple years , sometimes) delays to get even something simple approved. Unless you get a politician to pull strings for you, indeed the building might just fall down before youre allowed to repair it.