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Torment of Tatoi, the last refuge of the Greek kings



Sunday, February 17, 1991. Several trucks, loaded with nine large containers, entered the Tatoi estate, about 15 kilometers north of the Greek capital, and left with innumerable objects of great historical and artistic value to take out of Greece. Traces of these pieces, including paintings and sculptures, were lost until, in 2007, Christie’s put some of these art pieces up for auction. The whereabouts of the rest of the unsold merchandise is, to this day, unknown. Since the 1980s, the buildings have been the victim of burglaries. The legacy of the heritage is dwindling with the years of abandonment of the farm. Through the ages, hundreds of citizens have entered buildings and taken everything they found in their path: marble railings, tiles for swimming pools, even the wallpaper that adorned the walls of some rooms of the royal palace, was torn down and stolen by angry mobs. The latest looting, according to Kostas Stamatopoulos, historian and tatoi specialist, occurred in April 2019. Related News Yes family reunion in Athens without a photo of the king with his father Marta Canetti, separated by the strict protocol of Constantine’s funeral in Greece. In the temple, although it coincided in an earlier dinner, Tatoi is a farm located at the foot of Mount Parnés. Its magnificent views of the whole of Attica and its coast made it a place of great strategic importance from time immemorial. During the Ottoman rule of Greece, it was one of the most important fiefdoms in the northeastern region of Attica. Until it turned to ashes during the summer fires of 2021, it was a veritable paradise that was home to dozens of tree species, mammals (such as red deer, wolves, and foxes), endemic birds and reptiles, forming a unique ecosystem. A few kilometers from the Greek capital. Summer residence Scarlato Soutsos acquired the land in the 19th century when he married the daughter of the owner of Tatoi, and once attached to his estate, it became a 150,000-acre (60,702-hectare) estate. However, the Soutsos family did not develop a proper activity in this region with such natural wealth. Interest in Toi on the part of the royal family was born decades later thanks to German architect Ernst Ziller, who advised then-King George I of Greece to buy the property from the Soutsos family. The purchase agreement, according to which the royal family acquired 16,000 acres (6,474 ha) for about 300,000 drachmas, a real fortune at the time, was closed in 1873. Little by little, the estate expanded thanks to new land acquisitions and donations, above all , from an Act of Parliament in 1877 greatly expanded the monarchy. Thus, at the end of the 19th century, the royal possessions on Tatoi amounted to 47,427 acres (19,193 ha). Tatoi became the permanent residence of people who worked on the estates and in the private service of the royal family, forming a practically self-sufficient community. In order to build the palace that has been preserved today, Kings George I and Queen Olga were inspired by a palace in Saint Petersburg, the Queen’s birthplace. With Olga, Tatoi lived his first golden age, but not his only one. Since the middle of the 20th century, it has been the official residence of monarchs. Dona Sofia spent her childhood among the pines, oaks and chestnut trees in this beautiful place where she surely keeps unforgettable family memories. Tomb of the parents of Constantine II Evi In 1994, the socialist government of Andreas Papandreou nationalized the property of the royal family and revoked Constantine’s Greek citizenship forever. The king, after exhausting all legal avenues, managed in 2003 for the European Court of Human Rights to recognize that Tatoi, among other properties, belonged to the Greek royal family and that the Greek state was obliged to pay him compensation in the amount of 13, 2 million. euro. Months later, Tatoi became part of the historical and cultural heritage of the Greek people. Since that year, the abandonment and negligence of governments, along with damage to the buildings during the earthquake of 1999 and the surrounding forests during the fires of 2021, has turned the place into a dilapidated place that has lost all its charm. Key phrase For decades, the royal estates were a battleground between the Greek Republic and the monarchy. Two institutions were judged not to understand each other, as was verified in the burial of King Constantine, who was celebrated without honors as head of state. Tatoi’s close connection with the history of the Greek monarchy means that citizens have never shown interest in this place of great value for the country’s historical heritage. Last Thursday, days after the death of Constantine II, Doña Sophia went to the royal cemetery in Tatoi to supervise her brother’s burial work. The image found was devastating: the cypress forest in the cemetery disappeared under the flames of 2021. His mother’s grave still showed signs of the vandalism it had suffered in 2020, dirt, fallen trees, etc. A harrowing picture of someone who has just lost a loved one. The air-conditioning and accessibility works were carried out in the area in record time, and since last Monday the enclave has become the last resting place of Constantine II, the last king of Greece. The futuristic museum, with a budget of 14.3 million euros, is funded by the recovery funds of the European Union. Since 1973, when the monarchy was abolished in Greece, there have been some attempts to preserve the estate. The conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented an ambitious project to rehabilitate the royal estate a few years ago with the aim of turning it into a culturally significant area with a museum, exhibition halls, entertainment areas and a spa hotel. The project, which has a budget of 14.3 million euros, is funded by the recovery funds of the European Union. We hope that it will become an area where the visitor can learn about the history of this enclave, which was the scene of important historical events for understanding the past of Greece. In the words of Stamatopoulos, “We cannot go back in time but we can at least try to reconstruct what daily life was like on Tatoi with the help of the testimony of those who knew its splendor. Among them, Dona Sofia ». Among the objects belonging to the royal family, will be Showcasing the cars that once belonged to her, among them a gorgeous Rolls-Royce Phantom III from 1938 and two MG TDs from 1952.

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