Old Municipal Theater of Athens

The construction of the building for the Municipal Theater of Athens was a decision made by King Otto in 1857, who, by royal decree, designated the area known at the time as "Plateia tou Laou" (People's Square) as the site for its construction. However, problems soon arose, and the project was halted, only to resume in 1873 under the mayoralty of Panagiotis Kyriakos. For the second time, construction of the Municipal Theater of Theater was stopped due to budget overruns. In 1887, the banker Andreas Syggros funded the completion of the theater according to the plans of architect Ernst Ziller, and it was inaugurated in 1888 by King George I. The curtain at the "most beautiful theater in Europe," as the press of the time called it, rose with the melodrama "Minion" performed by the French troupe "Lasalle - Charlet". After the Greco-Turkish War and the Asia Minor Disaster, the Ministry of Welfare decided to open the theater’s doors to temporarily house 150 refugee families. In 1927, efforts were made to renovate the building, as it was in poor condition and had ceased operations, but these efforts were not completed. Ultimately, in 1940, the Minister of Capital Administration, Konstantinos Kotzias, decided to demolish the dilapidated building. Pictured: The Old Municipal Theater of Athens on K. Kotzias Street, opposite the main branch of the National Bank in 1890. ©Municipal Photography Museum of Kalamaria ‘Christos Kalemkeris’.