Syntagma · Athens
Hotel Grande Bretagne.
Athens' grand dame, since 1874.
Athens' grand dame on Syntagma Square. Built in 1842 as a private mansion by Theophil Hansen, opened as a hotel in 1874. 320 keys, two MICHELIN Keys, a rooftop with the only direct sightline from a bar to the Parthenon.
"The rooftop bar has the only direct sightline from a bar stool to the Parthenon. It has since 1874."
Syntagma Square. The building you walked past on the way to the Parliament — that's the hotel.
A neoclassical mansion by Theophil Hansen, built in 1842 for a merchant from Trieste. Converted to a hotel in 1874, kept running through every Greek upheaval since: occupied by the Wehrmacht in '41, host to Churchill and the December crisis in '44, the suite Hitler slept in still labelled. Two MICHELIN Keys, 320 rooms, a guestbook with most of the twentieth century in it.
The roof is the only one in the city with a bar that looks straight at the Parthenon, no buildings in the way. The pool warms in winter and opens in May. The Winter Garden does the English afternoon tea — a tradition that arrived with the British in 1944 and outlasted everyone else.
This is not the discreet choice. It is the only choice if you want the room where history happened and breakfast on the same plate setting the King ate from. Reserve the rooftop, sit at the corner table, time it for sunset.
1874
Since
320
Keys
