Greek Court Rules Athens Hotel Blocking Acropolis View Must Tear Down Top Floors
A hotel located in the heart of Athens has three months’ time to demolish its two top floors which are blocking the view to the Acropolis, according to a decision by Greece’s highest court.
More specifically, the Council of State has ruled that Coco-Mat Athens BC, located in the Koukaki neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis, must carry out relevant studies and proceed with the demolition of the two last floors in the next three months.
The hotel was one of two constructions that spurred the angry reaction of locals in February 2019 after exceeding the 24 meter building limit of the area by 12.5 meters. At the same time, locals said the building was located within the archaeological area of the Acropolis, a world famous UNESCO heritage site.
The public uproar in 2019 prompted the environment and culture ministries to investigate possible gaps in current zoning laws that would allow such interventions.
The hotel had received the approval of the Athens Municipality, which later revoked the said decision. In response to media reports this week, the municipal authority said it had proceeded with “a partial revocation” which had also been published. “The Municipality of Athens has no other obligations regarding the procedure,” it said, adding that “the obligation to demolish the arbitrary floors comes under the jurisdiction of the Decentralized Administration of Attica, which must do so within three months”.
The City of Athens went on to add that the Tourism Ministry must also “seal off the business as it has been operating without a legal license”.
Coco-Mat Athens BC is one of the highest value assets in the real estate portfolio of Ble Kedros REIC and recently listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.
Sorry to hear such a nonsece… apparently your luck of knowledge using your rettoting indicate that.
You may or you may not that ancient cities an countries have a tremendous amount of beauricracy to deal with… You can’t view the Parthenon for everywhere!!! Therefor the entire city should be demolished for the Joe blow down the street living in his basement apartment… Not a great logic..
In the end coco mat didn’t have enough money to bribe the judge , only the Municipality
“Oversight.” Oversight indeed! The full pun intended.
The company deserves a huge construction and business operations fine! And I mean huge!
Welcome to corrupt Greece. Who got paid to approve this monstrosity?
Hideous looking obstruction….”Coco-Mat Athens BC is one of the highest value assets in the real estate portfolio of Ble Kedros REIC and recently listed on the Athens Stock Exchange”…. And operating without a License!…
It is quite remarkable that a hotel of such height was permitted to be constructed and operate without a licence. One would expect the building regulations in to be considerably more stringent in Greece, where such oversights are unlikely to occur. It appears that somewhere along the line, a critical aspect was overlooked.