Lost Place Hotel Xenia Traditional Cache

Being a national property, selecting a wide variety of good locations was possible, e.g. at the harbour of Varhy on the island of Samos.

The EOT have a building department that dealt with objects for tourist utilisation, for instance a professional renovation of towers in the Mani that are now deserted but were earlier used as permanent habitation. After the renovation they were adapted as hotels. In 1950 all new building projects were integrated in a new department handling the Xenia program from that time on. The model for this program was the national school building program of the 1920's, when over 4000 new schools in the style of classical modernism were caused to be built by the architect Patroklos Karantinos. The technical director of the new program from 1950 through 1958 was the Greek architect Charalambolos Sfaellos, and from 1959 Aris Konstantinidis was head of the planning staff. He selected a team of young architects for planning and building the houses. One of the members was Dimitris Pikiounis who designed the hotel in Delphi (1951 – 1956).

During this time, about 50 hotels were built throughout the whole country. Tourist locations like archaeological places, islands, mineral springs or also important traffic junctions were preferred as locations for these hotels. This was co-ordinated with numerous other projects improving the infrastructure of the places, like road construction, kiosks for tourists, museums, rope ways, etc. It was an important contribution for tourist and economic development on a local as well as a national level; it developed into the biggest patron of public buildings after WW II and the Civil War.

The Xenia program became a model for private enterprises building hotels, resorts and hiking facilities. From the beginning of the 1970's it had fulfilled its purpose and the EOT was able to restrict itself to its function of indirectly promoting tourism and of advertisement. The hotels were leased or sometimes sold. Unprofitable objects like the motels were closed. During the last years, many objects were given to communities, pending certain restrictions. In all, about 40 objects of the Xenia program are still in the portfolio of the national tourism realty company Etaasa S.A.

While the architectural features were lauded in international professional journals, visitors appreciated the hotels' luxurious settings.

Karl-Heinz Krause wrote about the hotels in an account from a journey in 1983: "The (Xenia) hotels in which we stayed were not cheap, but we were accommodated with all conveniences.
You have to give the Greeks this: they never let slip the standards for tourism. Here you cannot find the confusion prevalent in Southern countries. The hotel categories are well-defined, and the prices are non-negotiable and are clearly displayed in all the rooms."

H. Korte, about meeting with Norbert Elias: "I still remember sitting in 1969 with him and friends in Samos on the terrace of the rather fancy hotel Xenia, when he was pontificating about no theory being worth its salt that did not lead to a liberation of the working class."

Beverly Beyer and E.A. Rabey write in Passport to Europe's Small Hotels and Inns: "One night in a double room with bath was quoted as $ 20.00."

V. Strong looks back in nostalgia in her In Those Days.

The American writer R.B. Weber wrote Poems from the Xenia hotel about one of those hotels, and the Finnish graphic designer E. Bertell named one font Motel Xenia.

In the past, three hotels were torn down. The city administration of Chania discovered irregularities in the building permit, as the hotel was built illegally in part over an already previously designated archaeological excavation site. Therefore, the ministry was forced to tear down the hotel. The hotels in Irakli and Laumina were also torn down. The latter was the only large-scale project of the architect G. Vokou and his only building with over 100 rooms. A hotel compound with over 500 beds was built. Modern tourism expects to a large degree a post-modern or neo-rustic design for the accommodation, which explains why the hotel chain was not quite appreciated in travel literature. As just one example, Dirk Schönrock in the "Dumont" travel guide criticizes the hotel's location in Nafplio and calls the building a block of concrete. Many hotels were altered to meet the aforementioned expectations of mass tourism. The hotels in Messolongi and Poros (now: Poros Image Hotel) were altered past recognition, the ones on Kos, Patmos and in Larissa enlarged. In its original state and under its original name are run the hotels in Drama and the one in Chora Sfakion on Crete. The Xenia hotel that was built in 1960 in Mykonos was restored as an architectural monument and is being run under the name of "Theoxenia". The hotel in Serres (today "Phillipos Xenia Hotel") was also renovated, albeit on a slightly less costly scale.
The respective locations of the hotels were mostly selected with the aspect of a promotion of tourism in mind, but in many places the hotels were not profitable. The Xenia hotel in Amnissos, the resort village Xenia in Paliouri, Chalkidiki and the hotel on Andros are not in good repair and are deserted, just like the hotel in Vathy on Samos, on which island the city administration wanted to (unsuccessfully) purchase the building. Some of the hotels were sold to cities or donated, with the condition that they be preserved in its original state. Amongst those cases is one hotel of two in Olympia (nowadays used by the fire department), in Volos and in Arta. The building is Arta is supposed to serve, after its renovation, as a Museum Hotel.

Numerous Greek theoreticians and historians of architecture have drawn attention to the importance of the program. Dionisis Zivas, a professor for architecture in Athens, even took inventory of all the building projects of the EOT. In the year 2004, the Association of Greek Architects (SALAS) issued an urgent appeal to the ministers Vasso Papandreou and Evangelos Venizelos to "care for these monuments of the history of tourism in Southern Europe". Seven hotels are classified as Historical Monuments, nine others are being considered. A seminar at the Technical University of Athens is dedicated to the study of these hotels.

I'm in Greece several times a year myself and, furthermore, papalia has agreed to support me, if necessary, in the maintenance of this cache (many thanks at this point!).