Ahmed Kapantzi house

What I can see

This eclectic building was designed by Pierro Arrigoni and is impressive mainly for its heterogeneous architectural motifs, such as neoclassical, renaissance, neo-Arabic, neo-Gothic and art nouveau. Consisting of 3 floors and a semi-basement, it is inspired by Austrian villas and is covered with red brick, which is interrupted by horizontal strips. The ground plan is assymetrical, there is a sachnisi (enclosed projection) on the first floor, sheltered balconies and the wooden roofs protrude in the standards of the Alpine folk architecture. On the lintel of one of the balconies we see the initials of the owner Ahmet Kapantzi. We also see large lacy cantilevers and 2 distinctive towers.

What I can't see

Internally, there is a central elongated corridor, around which all the spaces are organized. Much of the interior decoration is not preserved, except for some impressive frescoes. The recent restorations, although careful, did not lack cases of small arbitrary interventions. The villa belonged to the Kapantzi family and later to Ahmet Kapantzi, Mehmet Kapantzi’s younger brother. The Kapantzi family was Donmeh, i.e. Jews who converted to Islam. With the Treaty of Lausanne (1924) and the population exchange between Greece and Turkiye, the Donmehs also had to leave the country. Thus, the building gradually passed to the Greek government. Then, it housed the Spanish consulate, the Red Cross, the Gestapo, NATO services, later it was occupied by anti-authoritarian groups and finally housed public organizations. Today it belongs to a private individual.

Info

• Address: 105 Vas. Olgas St.

Bibliography