The Acropolis of Athens narrowly escaped the risk to be target of property hunters after the Culture Ministry failed to claim the ownership on time. In the Hellenic Cadastre it was regi-stered to have an “unknown owner.”
This grave mistake was discovered during the second stage of Land & Property Registration conducted by the Municipality of Athens and when the registration contractor handed over the digital database for final control of the “Hellenic Cadastre”.
The Acropolis of Athens was initially declared to have an “unknown owner.”
The reason was simple: the Culture Ministry had delayed the ownership submission to the registry.
Upon intervention of the legal department of the Registry, the issue was solved. Speaking to private Open TV, Giorgos Dimitriou from the Registry’s legal department said among others “we formally forced them to submit the ownership.”
“Greeks ought to know who is the owner of Acropolis,” was the brief comment by Culture Minister Myrsini Zorba to the same broadcaster.
Acropolis is not the only monument in Athens with an ownership that had to be clarified.
Several other historic monuments have no clear ownership titles. Many Byzantine churches in the historic center of Athens have been declared as in “adverse possession,” as they had no ownership titles.
Part of the University of Athens is reportedly built on land plots and roads that do not exist.
Also other public buildings have been reportedly built in land plots that do not exist in the Land & Property Registry.
