Hotel Grande Bretagne

Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens
Hotel Grande Bretagne in Central Athens
General information
Location Athens, Greece
Coordinates 37°58′35″N 23°44′08″E / 37.976300°N 23.735448°E / 37.976300; 23.735448
Opening 1874
Owner Lampsa Hellenic Hotels S.A.[1]
Management Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Technical details
Floor count 9
Other information
Number of rooms 320[2]
Number of restaurants 8[3]
Parking Valet Parking
Website
www.grandebretagne.gr

The Hotel Grande Bretagne (Greek: Ξενοδοχείο Μεγάλη Βρεταννία) is a luxury hotel in Athens, Greece. It is located next to Syntagma Square, on the corner of Vasileos Georgiou A' and Panepistimiou Streets. It is owned by Lampsa Hellenic Hotels.[4]

History

The Hotel Grande Bretagne in 1874, still housed at the original Dimitriou's mansion, designed by architect Theophil Hansen.

The original structure was built in 1842 as a house for Antonis Dimitriou, a wealthy Greek businessman from the island of Limnos, only twelve years after independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire. In 1874 it was bought by Efstathios Lampsas, who restored the mansion with an 800,000 drachma loan and named it "Grande Bretagne." By 1888 the hotel had electricity installed. In November 1930 a new wing on Panepistimiou Street was inaugurated and in 1950 another wing on Voukourestiou Street. In 1957 Dimitriou's mansion was demolished and a new wing was built on its place. The architect Kostas Voutsinas and the owners tried to keep much of the style of the original building.[5]

During the Greco-Italian War and the Battle of Greece in 1940–41, the hotel housed the Greek General Headquarters. Following the Axis occupation of Greece, the hotel served as the Nazi headquarters. British forces made the hotel their headquarters at the end of the war in 1944.[6][7]

During the early stages of the Greek Civil War, the hotel housed Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, the Council of Ministers and the British military assistance force under General Ronald Scobie.

In 2003, Hotel Grande Bretagne underwent a €112-million renovation to restore it to its former glory. The hotel has 320 rooms and suites, including a 400-square-metre (4,305 sqf.) suite on the fifth floor.

References

  1. ↑ "OWNER". Grande Bretagne. Retrieved 2016-06-02.
  2. ↑ "Rooms & Suites". Grande Bretagne. Retrieved 2016-06-02.
  3. ↑ "Restaurants & Bars". Grande Bretagne. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
  4. ↑ "Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens". Lux Hotels. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  5. ↑ E. Papandreou, The History of the "Grande Bretagne" Hotel, archaiologia.gr.
  6. ↑ Alan Crawford; Tony Czuczka (12 June 2013). Angela Merkel: A Chancellorship Forged in Crisis. Wiley. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-1-118-64109-5.
  7. ↑ "Greece debt crisis: What happened to democracy when it's a case of 'Vote Yes or else'?". The independent. 2015-07-03. Retrieved 2015-07-06.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.