Tatoi Palace

Tatoi (Τατόι, ta.ˈto.i) was the summer palace and estate of the former Greek royal family. The area is a densely wooded southeast-facing slope of Mount Parnitha, and its ancient and current official name is Dekeleia. It is located from the city centre of Athens and from Kifissia. King George I purchased the estate in 1872, purchasing it with private funds he had brought from Denmark. In 1916, during the First World War, the house was burned down.During the Republican regime in the 1920s, most of the estate was confiscated from its owners. Around 1929-1930 the government allowed Dimitrios Gaziadis to film the movie The Apaches of Athens (1930) at the lavish estate. In 1936, it was returned to King George II of the Hellenes following the monarchy's restoration. During the Second World War, when the King was in exile and Greeks suffered considerable hardships under German occupation, the woods at Tatoi were chopped down for fuel and corpses were buried in shallow graves. King George II regained possession of the estate in 1946. It passed down as private property to King Constantine II until 1994, when the royal estates were confiscated by the government of Andreas Papandreou. Constantine took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, who ruled in his favour in 2003. They were not able to force the return of the estates, but they were able to legally force the government to pay him €12m in compensation; this amounted to only one percent of its real worth. In an attempt to embarrass the ex-King, the government paid the compensation from the Greek Natural Disasters Fund, thereby claiming that by paying out money to him he was harming Greek people in need. Constantine used the funds to set up the "Anna Maria Foundation" (named after his wife Queen Anne-Marie) to provide grants to needy Greeks in time of hardship caused by natural disasters. In 1973 the property was abandoned completely. Lack of funding resulted in the cows and horses dying of starvation in the stables. The buildings were subject to vandalism and looting, resulting in significant losses.