Maria Callas’ house in Athens, where the leading Greek opera diva lived for seven years, is once again gaining a new lease of life and in two years will be ready to serve as the Academy of Lyrical Art that will bear her name.

The reconstruction plans for the much-maligned Papaleonardou building, at 61 Patission Street, were presented yesterday, in the presence of Athens Mayor Harris Doukas, by the President of the Academy of Lyrical Art Maria Callas, Vasso Papantoniou, thanks to whose vision and many years of efforts this extremely difficult, as it turned out, project will be realised.

The president of the Academy of Lyrical Art Maria Callas, Vaso Papantoniou with the Mayor of Athens Harris Doukas

The President of the Academy of Lyrical Art Maria Callas Vasso Papantoniou with the Mayor of Athens Harris Doukas
She spoke of a “personal marathon” that began in 2007, at the time when the Naval Warfare Fund (NAT) issued a call for interest for the development of the building.

This was immediately followed by the creation of the first plans by the important architect Alexandros Tombazis, but work could not begin as the building was occupied in 2009. “These gentlemen stayed for six years. They destroyed the building,” Papantoniou said.

However, she did not give up and with the valuable assistance of representatives of the government and the municipal authority, she managed to put the ambitious plan into action. “In 2020, at the Ministry of Development, there was a meeting with the Minister Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, in the presence of the former Mayor Mr. Kostas Bakoyannis. This meeting took place after the recommendation of Mr. Bakoyannis.

We ought to say that these people were very helpful in getting the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund
(E.S.P.A.). We, as a non-profit society, had no right to get the E.S.P.A. We cooperated with the “Athens Redevelopment”, which is the Municipality of Athens, and so we managed to join it,” she explained, referring to the financing of the project with a budget of 5,492,255.76 euros, with GDM Assets S.A. as the contractor and NPL Architects responsible for the architectural design.

As can be seen from the reconstruction studies presented, the aim is for the architectural interventions to be limited so as not to alter the character of the building, the work of the architect Konstantinos Kitsikis, which was built in 1925 and was considered pioneering for its time.

Maria Callas lived there from 1937, when she came to Athens with her mother and sister after the separation of her parents, until 1945, when she left for New York.

Ownership of the building passed in 1950 to the Naval War Relief Fund, which intended to demolish it.

Fortunately, the Central Council of Modern Monuments intervened and in 1989 it was declared a listed building.

However, the 1999 earthquake and the long occupation deeply damaged the building, which since 2018 has been under the ownership of the Maria Callas Academy of Lyrical Art, which has undertaken its rescue and reopening.