Pallis Building

The Pallis Building, also known as Pallis Manor and Pallis Mansion, is an ornate early 20th century building in the heart of Athens whose development mirrors important events in the Greek capital's history. The building is located in Syntagma Square (Constitution Square), an important center of political and cultural life in the city that is home to the Hellenic Parliament. 

Originally built as the personal residence of the Pallis family, the site of the Pallis Building has seen many different uses throughout the years. After the family patriarch's death in 1885, his son Filippos hired Architect Anastasios Metaxas to design a new mansion on the family property. Metaxas designed a neoclassical style mansion to be built with reinforced concrete, one of the first buildings in Athens to make use of the material which would later become instrumental in building the apartment buildings that give Athens its distinct look today.

Filippos approved the design, and the old family home was demolished, leaving room for a much larger and more luxurious mansion to be built between 1910 and 1911. The new mansion was 62 feet in height, with 5 different stories and 2 elevators. The mansion was considered one of the finest in the city at the time and hosted many high-profile events with important dignitaries in attendance.

The area slowly became a hub of commercial activity and the Pallis family relocated to a quieter area.  The Greek government took over use of the mansion and it became the headquarters of the Ministry of Transportation. The Greek government used the building until April 1941, when the German Army invaded Athens. On October 12, 1944, the German army withdrew out of central Athens and six days later Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou famously addressed the citizens of Athens from the balcony of the building.

Numerous schools and banks occupied the building for the next twenty years until the 1960s when the building was renovated as a cafe popular with the capital's artist crowd. In the 1990s, the building was listed as protected by the city to prevent its demolition. Approved renovations occurred in 2006 and it now houses a large department store.

After the post-war reconstruction boom altered Athens's architectural fabric, with the construction of the polykatoikia-style apartment buildings that dominate the city today, the Pallis Building stands as one of the few remnants of the capital's neoclassical past.