It was time to go the motorbike for a ride. I haven’t been using it much since we moved to Nafplio but I try to drive it once in a while, to keep the battery charged. Anyway it isn't a drudgery, I always enjoy riding it. I kind of miss it, as it is not part of my daily life any more but I am glad that it has been replaced with more walking. If I had to use the bus or anything similar it would have been a nightmare. I am not the public transportations kind of guy :)
Anyway I drove around a bit and I parked outside the abandoned hotel on the hill of Acronafplia. Can you spot the bike on the left of the first picture, next to the parked cars?
This location is just amazing! It offers amazing view in every direction. The castle of Palamidi, the old town, the beach of Arvanitia and the Argolic golf, they are all great. That’s why the hotel was built there, in the first place. The local flora and especially the flourishing prickly pears, are completing the scenery in the most charming way!
After taking a few pictures of the exterior and the surrounding area, I went closer to the hotel. There is some sloppy fencing at the entrance but it isn’t hard to get in and so I did. I crossed the ground floor and I went to the big balcony above the beach. Despite the decay it is still a lovely place to be. The view is still wonderful as it was when the hotel was brand new and the lines of the building harmoniously integrated with the Venetian fortification in the background indicate a sensitive and respectful architect.
Inside the size of the destruction goes way beyond abandonment. Entire walls have been knocked down, marbles have been removed from the floors, all the windows are smashed and/or removed. It looks like someone started a renovation but stopped on the tearing down phase without replacing or fixing anything at all.
The graffiti on every available surface it doesn't annoy me, I find it rather ironic to see those figures painted in a building that used to be a fine hotel. And I amuse myself imagining it renovated and back in business, without removing this graffiti. Surrealism :)
But the signs of people that have found a temporary shelter in the wrecked building leaves me with an uneasy feeling. Everyone deserves better than that.
Despite the extended damages, I could still discern beautiful architectural elements and grasp the designer's philosophy. A much more discreet and down to earth architecture in comparison to what we usually see in the new flashy hotels. One of the last remains of an era with good intentions that are now scattered under the flood of bad taste and pomposity.
I used to believe that the abjection of this, once beautiful, building was the result of one more mismanagement case of the Greek state. Which is partly true. It was built as a state-owned hotel but since 2000 it is under the management of a private company. Exactly the years that turned it from an old hotel, to a wreck. So much for the success story of the private sector that will solve the problems of state-owned businesses.
This was the Xenia Hotel in Nafplio, Greece that opened in 1961. I have written one more post about it, a couple of years ago, that you can find here.
The camera that I used is a Canon EOS 850D with an EF-S 18-135mm lens attached. I edited the photographs in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic .
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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