It stands as one of the most emblematic buildings in Athens and perhaps one of the most recognizable in the whole country. The hotel Hilton is one of the capital's trademarks, with such a long history that even the wider area around the building has now taken its proper name.
The ageless hotel is a member of the international hotel chain "Hilton Worldwide" and its official opening was a milestone for the social and cultural history of Athens and the transition to a cosmopolitan status that the capital was beginning to acquire.
It opened its doors to the public in 1963, marking a new era of prosperity and development for Greek tourism. With three days of festivities gathered by guests of the economic, political and cultural elite from around the world, the official opening was an unprecedented event for the city's secular chronicles.
The statement by the founder of the well-known hotel chain, Conrad Hilton, during the inauguration was indicative of the importance of the opening of the hotel in Athens: "I agree with those who believe that the hotel Hilton Athens is the most beautiful Hilton in the world "
The arrest of his erection Hilton in Athens was considered a daring for the time. The process for its construction began in 1959 on a plot of 17.011,50 square meters and was considered an unprecedented project started by the Peza family.
The Peza family, however, during the project declared inability to complete the construction. At that time, the ownership of the company's shares passed to the Ionian Bank, which financed the rest of the hotel's construction.
Consulting architects were Messrs. Warners, Burus, Ioan and Lunde from New York in collaboration with the Hilton International Architecture Department. Indicative of the size of the project was the cost of construction, which, including the value of the plot, amounted to 15.000.000 US dollars. Of course, the cost must be calculated with the financial data of that time.
The Hilton holds the top spot in the first branch of an international hotel chain ever opened in Athens. From an architectural point of view, it combined imposing grandeur with the ancient Greek simple line.
Architectural "success" consists in setting up "a prominent building of claims on a difficult plot", where the concave axis and other solutions chosen, manage to some extent to reduce the rigidity of the volume.
The designs are due to the architects Emmanuel Vourekas, Prokopi Vassiliadis, Spyros Staikos and Antonis Georgiadis. The Hilton Athens was among the buildings that defined the architectural aesthetics of the 60's and, despite its cosmopolitan character, had strong Greek elements thanks to the use of Pentelic marble and the monumental relief compositions of the painter Giannis Moralis with their archaic themes.
During the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, the Olympic Committee became the headquarters, while in the period before the Olympics, renovations and additions were made to a new six-storey wing by the architectural offices of Alexandros Tombazis and Haris Bougadelis.
The original plan included 960 rooms, dance halls, shops, restaurants, parking spaces, a swimming pool and recreation on the terrace. In fact, what changed in Athens at the time, but to a large extent remains the same today, is that the capital has entered very strongly in the field of cosmopolitan and business class hotel facilities.
The Hilton may have given a cosmopolitan air to the capital but things have not been so rosy in the beginning. Before the plans are even published, if we take into account the peculiarity of the plot, which dictated a hollow axis that was considered not to keep pace with the profile of the urban landscape, Mr. G. Koromilas will call Hilton a "skyscraper" that will destroy the en due to landscape. Thus, its construction will be treated as an economic-political scandal by a large portion of the press and the opposition.
There were many voices against him, which went so far as to speak of the destruction of the urban landscape of Athens and the "desecration" of the Parthenon. And this is because the height of the new building would automatically put it in contrast to the historic peak of Athens. Experts were also divided over the trend of modernization. From the first period of Hilton's operation, however, the objections disappeared.
From the beginning of its creation, Hilton has had the character of a hotel that would become a pole of attraction for high figures of the political scene worldwide as well as the global jet set. This does not mean that the high society of the city did not have the hotel among its favorite hangouts.
All these years, his threshold Hilton Athens Many great personalities have passed, such as heads of state, famous artists and internationally renowned scientists. From Aristotle Onassis and Frank Sinatra to Ingmar Bergman with his wife, Anthony Quinn, Hillary Clinton, Richard Nixon's daughter, Julie, Hugh Hefner and Juan Carlos.
From the first years of its operation, the Hilton Athens He also played an important role in the cultural affairs of the city, inaugurating his collaboration with Marilena Liakopoulou, who founded the Hilton Gallery by organizing a series of historical exhibitions in the period 1968-1972. Today, Hilton incorporates a number of great works of art by great Greek artists such as Chryssa, Aphrodite Lytis, and Stephen Antonakos.
From 2015 onwards, however, Hilton acquired another character. Somewhat special. It became the center of business negotiations of the government with troika (later "institutions") for the course of the support programs of the wintering Greek economy.
For several years in front of the emblematic hotel there was an unfamiliar image in relation to the cosmopolitan aura it has had over time. MAT squads guard the hotel's entrances for "fear of the Jews" while police cages kept away dozens of demonstrations aimed at Hilton.
The consortium TEMES - Dogus had acquired the Ionian Hotel from Alpha Bank in October 2016 for a price of 142 million Euros. The serious problems faced by the Turkish giant, however, led to the liquidation of its participation in Hilton but also in the sale of various assets around the world.
These moves were made in the framework of a loan restructuring agreement signed with creditor banks, due to the significant financial problems that "ignited" from the crisis in the Turkish lira.
The Hilton hotel passed under the full control of a Greek company of Athens at the end of February 2019. The Greek company TEMES of the Konstantakopoulos family, to which the Costa Navarino, increased its stake in the hotel to 51%. At the same time, the Turkish group Dogus, which owned 49% of Hilton via D Hospitality BV, withdrew. Its percentage was acquired by a company affiliated with the Olayan Group, a shareholder of TEMES.
The financial details of this deal have not been disclosed, however, TEMES aims to put it back Hilton loud on the business map. The aim is to upgrade and relocate the property in the Greek and international market, in order to create a unique city destination that will include in addition to the hotel infrastructure of top quality, luxury private homes served by the hotel, iconic gastronomy, themed shopping malls and more. level services.