Apollo Tower is a residential high-rise in Ampelokipoi,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. It is the tallest residential building in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, standing at 80 m (≈262,5 ft). It has 25 floors.

History

During the reign of the

Greek Military Junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

, the height limit for buildings was abolished, thus giving room for much taller buildings to be built. So in 1973, Apollo Tower was able to be built. Thanks to having been built with generators, during a powerful earthquake of 1981 that happened in

, Apollo Tower was one of the only buildings that stayed intact and even had power. The same happened during the deadly 1999 earthquake. The Building back then had a bar on the

rooftop A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...

with a

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

. Today the bar is closed and the pool is empty. Also, Today many of the

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s made for living are now used as

office An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...

s and

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

s. In fact, residents often joke about having a domiciliary

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

. The tower lacks a 13th floor (the actual 13th floor is named 14th) because 13 is regarded as a number of bad luck. On August 9, 2013, a man, later found to be called Basilis Theodorou (Βασίλης Θεοδώρου), recorded and uploaded footage on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

of him BASE jumping off the 25th floor. The video garnered over 5.000 views and some

media attention In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization ( company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always ...

from local outlets in

References

External links

ΑΛΜΑ ΑΠΌ ΤΟΝ 25ο ΟΡΟΦΟ ΤΟΥ ΠΥΡΓΟΥ "ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ"
{{Skyscrapers in Greece Skyscrapers in Greece Buildings and structures in Athens