The words chiselled on a plaque outside a derelict neoclassical house at 50 Tatoi Street, Kifissia, state: “Pavlos Melas left from here to go to Macedonia in 1904.”
The house where Pavlos Melas, officer of the Hellenic Army and among the first who organized and participated in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia, has obviously seen more glorious days. Now, on the 111 anniversary of the death of Melas on October 13, 1904, the 100 square meter house lies in a state of deterioration and decay.
Tax authorities are doing their best to drive away the heiress and guardian of the home off the premises by requesting she pay 6,500 euros in taxes for her estate, something that is hard for her to do from a pension that amounts to 800 euros per month.
In 2009, the building had been rendered a national monument. Former conservative ND prime minister Antonis Samaras decided that work should be done to support the structure and prevent it from crumbling away, disappearing forever along with its stories. In 2012 funds were approved for a study for repairs, however the blueprints now sit forgotten in a ministerial drawer.
Now, the granddaughter and custodian of the “monument” is not only not being helped to keep the house from crumbling, she is being called to pay the single property tax (ENFIA) that she simply cannot afford. Asked about the Melas legacy, she tells Proto Thema: “I no longer hope in anything. I am disillusioned. The people voted for them, so what can we say now…”
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