Hellenic Parliament House

The building that now houses the Hellenic Parliament is the Old Royal Palace, the former royal palace in Athens. The Parliament House is located in the heart of Athens, it faces onto the Syntagma Square and is surrounded by the National Gardens.

The former royal palace was designed by Friedrich von Gärtner for the first king of Greece, King Óthon and was completed in 1843. Friedrich von Gärtner decided to erect the palace on this location, fact that proved an inspired choice forming the face of the social life of the new capital city of Greece.

Among the ideas and proposals that were set aside was also Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s for a palace to be built on Acropolis Hill. His unexecuted plans for the transformation of the Athenian Acropolis into a royal palace for some saved the archaeological treasures of the Temple of Parthenon.

The founding stone of the palace was laid on February 6th 1836 and more than 520 people were working at the site, among them German architects and Greek builders mainly from the Cycladic island of Anafi. Otto and Amalia, king and queen of Greece, took up residence on July 25th 1843. Queen Amalia took care of the formation of the Royal Gardens and assigned the French garden artist François Louis Bareaud to plant and design them in the late 1840s.

Following King Otto’s expulsion in 1862, the Palace became house of the new king, George Ι in 1863. The palace suffered two damaging fires, one in 1884 and one in 1909 that forced the royal family to move to the summer residence in Tatoi. At that time with Greece being involved in major political events as the Balkan Wars, the World War I and the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922 were more pressing matters than the renovation of the building.

The new King Constantine I, after the assassination of King George I in 1913, went on using the Mansion on Herodou Atticou Street as his residence, which today is the official residence of the President of the Republic.

The palace was permanently abandoned by the royal family in 1922, while Greece was undergoing a regime change, from monarchy to republic. The building accommodated public bodies, private charities and international organisations dealing with easing the pain of millions of refugees of the Asia Minor Disaster. The building changed dramatically only in 1928 when the Monument to the Unknown Soldier was decided to be erected.

During the government of Eleftherios Venizelos in 1928, the Palace was decided to be turned to the House of Parliament and constitutes the most radical transformation after its initial construction. The first parliamentary session took place in 1935 and the Hellenic Parliament has been housed in the building ever since.

Every Sunday at 12:00 tours are made to the Parliament building for individual visitors. In order to to arrange for a visit call at 210 3692429 or 210 3692106 Monday to Thursday (9:00 to 16:00).