Yesterday, the Prime Minister visited the new flower shops along with Greek Parliament Speaker Kostas Tassoulas, Minister of Culture Lina Mendonis, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras and, of course, Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis. The weather—even though we were in late October—was downright springlike, as if it too wanted to mark a new beginning for this iconic landmark, which remained deserted and dark except for two flower shops that had gone through a crisis. It was a “losing wound” for at least 12 years in the heart of the capital.

Now eleven old flower shops, created during the reign of Vasilisa Sophia in the 1930s, have completely changed their appearance both externally and internally. They contain not only flower shops (two survived), but also an exhibition and a shop with objects from the Archaeological Resources Fund, as well as publications of the Greek Parliament. “Once again we are acquiring a space that is identified with historical memory,” stressed the Prime Minister, who even received a bouquet of flowers from the children with special gifts.

However, both symbolically and functionally, this is a reboot in the most unnerving part of Athens, a place that, as the Prime Minister himself noted, seemed “haunted” and now conveys an image of elegance and optimism. The process of their rehabilitation was neither easy nor simple, but the stubborn Kostas Tasulas did not give up. With the help of YPPO, the Public Real Estate Company and the construction company that took on the project, a corner of Athens that hundreds of thousands of people pass by every day has been transformed. The Chairman of the Parliament stressed: “Other ‘flowers’, other ‘flowers’ will be sold at this moment. Since the books of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation are the flowers of culture, the copies of ancient works of art exhibited by the Organization for the Management and Promotion of Culture of the Ministry of Culture are the flowers of culture.”

The happiest and most excited yesterday was the columnist’s good friend Spyros Kontoyannis, who inherited the flower shop from his father and grandfather. Although he studied in Chicago, he returned and took over the store he still runs with his French wife Florence, the first thing you encounter on the road to the Constitution. “My joy is immense and I feel justified because in order for the project to be realized, we also had to work hard since we were closed for a year and I was unemployed. But now the result compensates me, as well as the huge love that we received over the last 2-3 days, when we opened for trial, from the world. There is no Athenian of a certain age, but there are younger ones who would not like flower shops.”