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Demolition of buildings in front of New Acropolis Museum blocked by Greek courts

The two buildings blocking the view from lower levels of the New Acropolis Museum have continually been a source of contention within Greece. A court decision to block their demolition may now put an end to this argument that has marred much of the press coverage [1] about the New Acropolis Museum in the past two years.

From:
Athens News Agency [2]

07/13/2009
Court blocks demolition of buildings near New Acropolis Museum

Demolition orders for two listed buildings at numbers 17 and 19 on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street in Athens, near the New Acropolis Museum, have been cancelled by the Council of State, Greece’s supreme administrative court. This accepted a petition by local residents that the two buildings remain standing and found that a culture ministry decision to remove them from a list of cultural heritage monuments was not legally sound.

The building at Dionysiou Areopagitou 17 was a noted 1930s example of Art Deco that has been protected by a preservation order since 1978 and as a work of art since 1988. That at number 19 is a prime example of the neoclassical architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Greece. The management of the museum had asked for their demolition because they border on the museum and partially obstruct the view from the museum to the Acropolis.

A petition by the Civil Society Monumenta for the protection of turn-of-the-century buildings on the corner of Makrygiannis 10 and Hatzichristou 21 was rejected by the court, however. The court approved demolition orders for these buildings issued by the Athens municipality as legally justified.