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Xenia (Ξενία) was a nationwide hotel construction program initiated by the

Hellenic Tourism Organisation The Greek National Tourism Organisation ( el, Εθνικός Οργανισμός Τουρισμού, ''Ethnikos Organismos Tourismou''), often abbreviated as GNTO ( el, EOT) is the governmental Board for the promotion of tourism in Greece. It fun ...

(Ελληνικός Οργανισμός Τουρισμού, E.O.T.) to improve the country's tourism infrastructure in the 1960s and 1970s. It constitutes one of the largest infrastructure projects in modern Greek history.

History

Until the 1950s, Greece featured only a few major hotels, mostly situated in the country's great cities, and a few smaller ones in islands like

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

. In 1950, EOT began a program to construct and operate hotels across the country, especially in the less-travelled areas. Locations were specially selected and the architecture combined local knowledge with standardized elements. The buildings were embedded in the landscape, but at the same time followed a modernist style. The first manager of the project was the architect

Charalambos Sfaellos Saint Charalampos ( grc, Ἅγιος Χαράλαμπος) (also variously Charalampas, Charalampus, Charalambos, Haralampus, Haralampos, Haralabos or Haralambos) was an early Christian priest in Magnesia on the Maeander, a city in Asia Minor, ...

(from 1950 to 1958) and from 1957 the buildings were designed by a team under

Aris Konstantinidis Aris Konstantinidis (; 4 March 1913 – 18 September 1993) was a Greek modernist architect. Aris Konstantinidis was born in Athens and studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich from 1931 to 1936, where he came into contact wi ...

. Many private hotel projects in Greece were inspired by the ''Xenia'' hotels and the program had reached its aims in the early 1970s. In 1974 the construction program was complete. The ''Xenia'' program itself was officially terminated in 1983, and the hotels were given over to private operators or eventually sold off. Some hotels are still operated privately under the ''Xenia'' name. Many of the program's hotels have been designated as historic monuments for their architectural value. Three have been demolished, while other surviving examples have been substantially altered or are in a dilapidated state.

Bibliography

*Donat, John: "Architecture of the Xenia Hotels" in World architecture, Volume 3, 1966. Page 145ff

External links

A still functioning XENIA Hotel at Hora SfakionArticle of the Eleftherotypia about the program (Greek)

Pictures of the abandoned hotel in Andros, (1958/ today)Pictures of the abandoned hotel in Paliouri, Chalidiki (1962/ today)
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