If you have been walking along the dirt road that connects Thissio with Plaka under the Acropolis, you must have seen Coletti’s house. This is the first house that is found next to the Ancient Agora. In a large courtyard with palms and orange trees, with an impressive statue of a woman in a niche between the first floor windows. It has stood majestically for many years, but is completely abandoned. What is the history of the building? What is his fate?

In search of answers, we ended up in an architectural office in the center of Athens. In the same place, in the meeting room, among the presentations of projects that the architects of the office make from time to time, there are also photographs of the building in question, completely restored. “They are photorealistic,” explains architect Kyriakos Kikilias. This is an image of what the building might have looked like today if the work he started in 2009 had begun.

Angelos Philippides, then president of the Postal Savings Bank, agreed to provide them with a Ministry of Culture building to house a museum dedicated to Cavafy. He was friendly with the Savvidi family, who had a dossier on the poet. From personal effects, furniture and his library with hundreds of his letters to his death mask. Philippides convinced them not to sell it to the top American university that had a claim on it, but to stay in Greece. “Our country is famous for its ancient culture. I believed that such a museum would become living proof that we continue to engage in culture,” he says today to “K”. Walking with the officials of the Ministry in search of a suitable building, he came to Polignotu Street. The mansion, built in 1870, became the property of the Ministry in 1960 and was recognized as a historical monument. For many years it housed the 2nd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Antiquities, but the 1999 earthquake forced them to leave. “Ioannis Kolettis, the country’s first prime minister, lived here,” he was told. It was not so much about this information (it was refuted and it remains unknown how the building arose and got its name), Philippides was fascinated by the building. Having secured money for construction (then the budget was 1 million euros) and maintenance costs, he contacted the architect Kikilia, who was already working at the Postal Savings Bank. He immediately declared that he was ready to take on this. Not only because, having grown up in this area, he was sad to see such a special monument crumble, but also because he found an old photograph of his mother in front of the fence of this particular house.

The Coletti House, built in 1870 under the Acropolis, has been abandoned since 1999.

But first, a few questions needed to be addressed. For example, leaving a contractor who previously carried out restoration work on behalf of the ministry and demanded a debt of 400,000 euros from him. Antonis Samaras, as Minister of Culture, dealt with this issue personally. Kikilias was also called upon to manage the other homeless and drug addicts who had settled there. Neither the ministry nor the police took up their removal. He knew from colleagues who were involved in similar projects that there was a risk of fire. They advised him to move them to some other unoccupied area. He took a different tack. He singled out the householder himself and instructed him to look after the building. He, taking his role seriously, slowly emptied it.

Since the spring of 2009, several months of inactivity on the part of the ministry had passed, until a contract was signed to cede the building to the bank a week before the elections of that year. Those involved made no secret of their concern about whether a change in government or post office would change their plans. However, they continued to prepare various studies, and when they were approved in October 2010, the Minister of Culture, Pavlos Gerulano, held a presentation in the Concert Hall. However, Kikilias had already seen resistance to the project from the Postal Savings Bank. His fears were confirmed when they canceled their sponsorship contract a month later. The architect, realizing that the building would sooner or later return to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture, began looking for private sponsors. However, they informed him that a decision had been made to hand over the property to the YSMA (Acropolis Monuments Service). Their offices are right across the street, and they asked to expand and house their archive there.

Kikilias met with them. Although he represented the Cavafy Museum in this building, he was relieved to see YSMA’s interest in the project and the opportunity to receive funding through the NSRA. Since he knew they needed mature studies—one that he himself had established in his own hands—he decided to offer them for free. They enthusiastically accepted the offer, but returned saying that in the end… they couldn’t accept it. “He takes items from other scientists if you give them away for free,” he was told. “But research is 4% of the project, why don’t you see how it provides an opportunity for 96% of the market?” he responded, but the partnership did not continue. The following year, based on the memorandum, several changes were made and the position of director of the YSMA was abolished, resulting in no administrative action being taken for several months. The building remained abandoned for another eleven years until work began last December.

We met Ms. Vasiliki Eleftheriou, Director of YSMA, in her office overlooking Coletti’s house. He explains that the delay is due to the fact that in the crisis years the Acropolis projects were a priority. However, in 2018 he received funding from the Paul and Anna Kanellopoulos Foundation and the Friends of the Acropolis Union to repeat the studies. The project is included in the state investment program. The budget, of course, has increased (from 1 million to now 3.1 million euros for construction and restoration). Work has already begun and is expected to be completed in three years.

Discovering old frescoes

Megaron Almirantis experienced similar adventures at the intersection of Vulis and Kolokotroni streets. At the beginning of the century, it became the property of the Hatzikyriakei foundation, which for the past twenty years has been trying not to exploit it, but to keep it from falling apart, while trying to cope with property taxes (total costs were 14,000 euros per year). So when a catering company leased the property for 25 years in 2016, they were delighted. But they saw that work was not starting, and in the summer of 2022 they announced what they were afraid of: they would not continue. A few weeks ago, the first workshop entered the building and repairs began.

This building was built in 1900. When the Old Parliament functioned, it was the burial place of politicians, later a small hotel, and then shops and offices. However, in the late 1990s, his last tenant, a glass merchant from the Hermitage, disappeared, leaving most of his goods behind. The Foundation was (by law) required to wait years before releasing him. Then he had to store all the glassware somewhere at his own expense, while for 15 years they demanded 60,000 euros in rent in the courts (they never recovered). Along the way, three different companies began leasing, but after a while they gave in to the bureaucratic obstacles and restrictions placed by the state on the altar of protecting an architectural monument. In 2010, the State Real Estate Company proposed to the then Prime Minister G. Papandreou to use the Maximos Mansion for ceremonial functions and move the Prime Minister’s office to three buildings on Voulis Street, one of which is the Almiranti Mansion. Studies were carried out, but remained on paper. Two years later, they received an optimistic phone call. Archbishop Jerome was interested in building a new synodal palace here. The Foundation felt compelled to warn him of the high cost of repairs and the various obstacles they faced. “Don’t worry, we have experience in such cases,” they were told. But that didn’t go any further. At some point, the tile burst, water got inside, because of which the truss rotted and the floor collapsed. To make any repairs required an incredible amount of red tape and a building permit. One morning, the then-president of the institution took the keys, ladder, and materials, patched up the hole himself, and limited the damage. When the last tenant decided not to move last year, they despaired. What they didn’t know was that before abandoning their plan, they approached the developer, Zafido, who was intrigued – with the permit in hand, they were ready to go.

Last week we entered the building with the team of an experienced antiquities and art restorer, George Pavlopoulos. Although inside we saw a picture of complete abandonment, thanks to their persistent work, unique wall paintings and ceiling paintings began to appear, which were hidden for years. “Previous tenants, unable to support them, covered them with paint. We feel like archaeologists. Others are on the ground, and we are on the walls,” he says, leading us through the three floors of the neoclassical building. He estimates that they will complete the restoration in 16 months. At the same time, other crews will work to complete the project in the summer of 2024. Then they hope to accept the first tenants. The mansion will become a hotel.