The Presidential Mansion in Athens is considered to be one of the best examples of neoclassicism in town planning. The project for the building was designed by Ernestos Tsiller, the Greek architect of Saxon origin. Apart from this mansion, he designed a range of prominent landmarks in Athens – the Numismatic Museum, the National Academy, the National Library of Greece, the National Archaeological Museum, the National Theatre, and the Panathenaic Stadium.
The history of this landmark began in 1868, with the birth of Prince Constantine. His father – King George I –decided to hand down the private dwelling to the Crown Prince on the day of his adult age. After the 21-year old boy married the princess Sofia of Prussia, one decided to build the mansion. Ernst Ziller was the architect who worked on a project for the new building. Over 700 public buildings throughout Greece were built upon his designs. The king gave a clear instruction, which did not require the construction of a luxurious palace with a colonnade and plenty of elaborated details. At the same time, he did not want to get a usual design for the area of 3.7 hectares, including the gardens and a tiny house. The works on the building construction began in 1891. Ernst decided to realize the unexecuted project of the summer palace by Theophilus von Hansen. Ernst drew a simplified project of a three-story central-symmetric palace.
The initial project of the architect was slightly different from what we can see nowadays. The building had to be rectangular. It should have the main hall for diplomatic meetings and high-society events, surrounded by the living quarters. The hall had to be adorned with the massive marble two-level staircase, surrounded by the Ionic colonnade at the first level, and the Corinthian colonnade at the second level. The plan of the building stipulated that it would have a basement and three floors. The facade would have three sides with an accent on the protruding side wings. The axis had to be highlighted at an expense of the entrance porch, having four ionic columns and a balcony on the first floor. Its double openings were alternated with embossed parapets. It was planned that the space between the openings and cornices would be covered with textured finishing. The foundation had to be of marble on the facade, replaced by the high-quality imitation on the sides. The statues, drawn upon the plans of Ziller, had to be installed on the corner supports of the parapet.
In 1909, the architect had to review his ideas. This resulted from the great fire, which occurred on Christmas and destroyed the old royal mansion. As a result, all the members of the royal family moved to the prince’s house. After that, people regarded this house as the “New Palace.” To place all his relatives with comfort, Ernst had to think of possible ways of expansion of the existing living quarters. Thus, in the course of these changes, the building got its ballroom. Later, the prince invited other architects who advised Ernst to give up his eclectic ideas and think of something neoclassic. This included the addition of a single-storey construction with the Ionic columns, supplemented with fronton. This construction and the main building were linked through a folding wing.
There also was an idea to build the dome over the ballroom with the use of the oxidized copper sheets. Unfortunately, this idea did not find its implementation.
When the country was a republic, this residence served as the home for the government and the presidents. After the establishment of the monarchy in the country, the building turned into a center of the monarchy. In 1964, the building expanded its area with the new ballroom due to the wedding of King Constantine.
This time, the project on the manor’s expansion fell to the talent construction engineer, Alexander Baltatzis, the architect Maria Dimitriadou-Loukakou, and a set designer Cleovoulos Klonis.
They decided to build the gated and improve the second entrance. They also constructed a small premise in 1964 году. According to their idea, it had to imitate the initial building. Nevertheless, a lack of style differentiation, amount of works, and common objective did not bring the desired success.
The royal family owned the mansion until the unsuccessful attempt to initiate a revolution in 1967. In 1974, Greece went back to democracy. The mansion became the residence for the presidents. Its interior decoration has been continuously updated since 1967. The last renovation ad conservation of the building took place in 2002.
The Presidential Mansion is surrounded by gardens. They cover the territory of 25.000 square meters. They were established upon a clean geometric project of the French type, featuring seasonal flowering plants and symmetrical thick grass. The composition’s formalism was softened by perennial plane trees, lindens, palm trees, and cypresses.
If you want to easily access the Presidential Mansion in Athens, you should take the metro train. You should leave it at Syntagma station.
