of promoting nationalistic ideas, especially through representations of what was considered the country’s ‘glorious past’, with a particular focus on either traditional traits that commemorated the nineteenth century Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire, or iconographies of Ancient Greece. Given the totalitarian state’s significant control on the built environment in general, the fact that the Junta did not address Greece’s recent urban past did not favour the conservation of ‘recent monuments’.7 In his book The Conservation Movement, Miles Glendinning considers how the emergence of the architectural participation movement in Europe throughout the 1960s and 1970s accompanied, enhanced, and enriched the practice of architectural preservation. The importance of these two decades for heritage practices lies within the fact that the ‘user-participation’ movement fostered a connection between the values of architectural heritage and a wider audience, practically rendering preservation a social issue.8 Under the Junta regime, however, any movement that involved ‘bottom-up’ processes and social engagement could not develop. Thus, not only did the political circumstances define what kind of cultural heritage was preferred, but they also defined a particular interpretation of urban conservation in Greece, which did not favour the ideological merging of heritage and the contemporary public. While for the rest of Europe this period is marked by a resonance of that ideological merge with overtones of the Venice Charter, something that seemingly organically resulted in the European Architectural Heritage Year of 1975, in Greece this period arguably drove the public further away from potential social engagement with heritage. The international framework for the conservation and restoration of historic buildings was institutionally assimilated shortly after the collapse of the Junta in 1974, leading to a constitutional change in 1975.9 The European Architectural Heritage Year 197510 instigated ideas that several architects, artists, academics, journalists, and political figures embraced, leading to the dissemination of a certain nostalgia towards an Athens of the
7 ‘The cultural crime of Junta’, Documentary, ERT (National Greek Television), 1997, from Online ERT Archive, http://archive.ert.gr/6686/ [accessed on 30 December 2017] 8 Miles Glendinning, The Conservation Movement: A History of Architectural Preservation: Antiquity to Modernity (London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013), p. 326. 9 The revision of Article 24 of the Constitution of Greece pronounced the preservation of the cultural environment a ‘constitutional right’, ensuring that the State would be obligated to interfere to guarantee it. Until then, the phrasing allowed interpretations that resulted in less strict measures. 10 ‘The European Architectural Heritage Year was devised as a means to make Europeans conscious of their shared treasures: centuries and centuries of great buildings which are not only visible but often very usable. The hope is that the people who live in landmark cities and towns will become aware of the dangers which threaten the monuments they often take for granted, and will be ready and willing to take action to preserve them.’ from H.R.L., ‘European Architectural Heritage Year’, The New York Times, (2 November 1975), [accessed 1 April 2018]
LISTED BUILDINGS IN DECAY
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