The smallest village in Greece has one house and no inhabitants. The first house of the settlement is to be completed in the next few days. The owner will have to wait for the creation of the public infrastructure in order to become the first resident of the village.
The newly created village of Nea Pontokomi by Kozani, western Macedonia, is claiming the title of the smallest village in Greece, having only one house and no more inhabitants, but it aspires to be filled with life n the coming years.
A village is born
The settlement is planned to be built near the city of Kozani, at a distance of 18 km from the old village of Pontokomi, with 1,100 inhabitants, which was expropriated by the Public Power Corporation PPC and residents were relocated.
Almost a decade after the start of the expropriation and four years after the payment of the first compensations to the residents of the old village, the construction of the first house in the area selected for the construction of the new village is being completed these days.
Owner, Ioannis Palasidis, took the risk to proceed with the construction of his new house and become the first resident of the new village, despite the insurmountable obstacles that hinder the creation of the settlement.
The detached house with the ground floor and the basement are in the last stage before the completion and these days the frames are to be installed.
However, he will have to wait for the completion of basic infrastructure, such as electricity, water supply and sewerage, in order to live in.
During the groundbreaking ceremony last September, he said he was optimistic that the problems would be resolved and that the history of Pontokomi would continue, albeit with fewer houses than the old settlement had.
The works of the 2nd phase for the creation of Nea Pontokomi – water supply, sewerage, road construction, asphalt paving, sidewalks, etc. – have recently started, while the electricity supply will be done under the responsibility of the Municipality of Kozani.
However, the main obstacle that needs to be removed is the PPC’s high voltage pylons that pass through the beneficiaries’ plots and do not allow them to issue a building permit. According to local media kozan.gr, the property titles were given to beneficiaries in May 2019.
“Recently, the second building permit was issued, while another 5 or 6 are pending. But the issue of the pillars must be resolved in order for the new village to begin to be born,” the president of the Local Community of Pontokomi, George Pilianidis, told ethnos.gr.
“Most of those who want to build have plots of land under these pillar, and urban planning, of course, does not issue building permits unless they are removed.” [full story ethnos.gr]
PS So why did the state give property titles without the obligation to remove the PPC pylons? Ah, dear, that’s Greece… Maybe that was part of the deal as compensation for the expropriation.
