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The Grande Bretagne has overlooked Syntagma Square and the Greek Parliament since 1874, and its rooftop restaurant, with a floodlit view straight across to the Acropolis, serves what is widely considered the single most iconic dinner setting in Greece. Through coups, occupations, and the occasional revolution conducted more or less on its doorstep, it has remained the fixed centre of Athenian political and social life; during the German Occupation, the Nazis requisitioned it as their headquarters, which the hotel has spent the subsequent eight decades quietly living down. 320 rooms, and a location so central that Greek history has essentially happened around it rather than to it.
Go deeper...
Historic Hotels Then & Now — Dimitriou's Stadtpalais becomes a hotel
Greek Reporter — Two bathrooms for eighty beds
Athens Insider — Electricity before the city had it