A court ruling that could save Athens’ soul
A court ruling that could save Athens’ soul
Giorgos Lialios
27.02.2025
Athens, a city that has seen empires rise and fall, has just secured a small but significant victory in the battle for its architectural soul.
The Council of State ruled that a building’s designation as a landmark should not hinge on its current condition. If its historical significance can be documented and restoration is feasible, it can – and should – be preserved. This decision spared a building in Koliatsou Square from demolition, a structure whose fate had been fiercely contested.
Preservation groups Monumenta and the Hellenic Society for the Environment and Culture had long championed its cause, while its owner sought to raze it. After a bureaucratic tug-of-war, the nation’s highest administrative court intervened, invalidating a ruling that had allowed demolition. The decision has broad implications.
Until now, many building owners had quietly stripped away architectural details, reducing historic structures to unremarkable shells to ease demolition approval. The ruling also acknowledges that architectural significance isn’t confined to a single stylistic lineage – hybridity, too, is worth saving.
With thousands of early 20th-century buildings vanishing from the Athenian landscape, this judgment signals that the past, however battered, still has a claim on the present. For now, at least, history gets to stand.
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