The excquisite royal home at Tatoi – 27 km from the center of Athens at the southeast slope of Mount Parnitha – had fallen into decay as years of neglect saw ivy and erosion swallow up its former grandeur. In an effort to avoid further disrepair, the Ministry of Culture’s Curators of Modern Monuments in Attica started rescue work in the area. Specifically, they began work at the gardener’s residency and the roof of the Cemetery of the Church of the Resurrection (over 20 members of the former royal family are buried here). All up 70,000 euros have been benchmarked for the entire estate.

Tatoi Palace was the summer palace for the ousted Greek royal family and the birthplace of King George II of Greece. The estate had been obtained in the 1870 and constructed from 1886-1888. During WW1 it was burnt down, possibly as a result of Queen Sophia being a sister of the Kaiser that caused Greeks to suspect that the family was pro-German. In the 1920s most of the estate was stolen but it was returned to King George II in 1936. King Constantine inherited the estate but it was forcibly requisitioned following the referendum of 1973 that evicted the royal family from Greece. King Constantine took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights that ruled in his favor but the estate was kept by the Greek state nonethless. Trying to embarrass the former king, the government paid him money from the Greek Natural Disasters Fund to pay for the estate. In turn, the former king set up the Anna Marie Foundation to give grants to needy Greeks.

In June 2007, after years of neglect, the Greek government expressed the intent to turn the former palace into a museum. This never eventuated.

Architectural firm Altera Pars has already created designs for the renovation of the work with funding by the Friends of the Royal Estate at Tatoi, who are relieved that the state is finally rescuing the building from inevitable destruction.