Greek Presidential Palace

Greek Presidential Palace

The Presidential Mansion is located at the National Garden, at the corner of Herodes Attikou Street & Vasileos Georgiou B Street. This is the official residence of the President of the Hellenic Republic.

It previously served as the Royal Palace until the abolition of the monarchy by referendum in 1974. The history of the mansion began right after the birth of Crown Prince Constantine in 1868 when the Government decided to build a private residence for him. In 1888, at the period of Constantine’s engagement to Princess Sophia of Prussia, the design for the Crown Prince’s palace was assigned to the famous Saxon architect Ernst Ziller. It was completed in 1890. Construction works on the initial building began in 1891 and were finished in 1897. Ziller’s designs for the building were an application of the simplified style of the unexecuted design of Theophilus Hansen for a summer Palace.

On Christmas Eve, 1909, a fire destroyed a large part of the Royal Palace (now used by Parliament), with the result that the Crown Prince's Palace was used temporarily as the residence of the royal family. After the assassination of George I in 1913 and the accession of Constantine to the throne, the Crown Prince's Palace finally became the primary royal residence of the King of the Hellenes. The use of the building as a Palace was interrupted in 1924 when the monarchy was ended, and a Republic was declared. It was then used as the Presidential Mansion until 1935 when the monarchy was restored, and the King returned. Since 1974, when democracy was restored after a 7- year military dictatorship, the building has been used as the Presidential Mansion and the residence of the President.