Deserted places around crisis-hit Greece

Starting in 2009, the Greek debt crisis and the subsequent policies of austerity, have taken their toll all over Greece. Unemployment and homelessness have soared, while state-provided health, education and welfare services have deteriorated. 

Even though the country's de-industrialization began back in the 1980s, the economic crisis was the last nail in the coffin for Greece's factories. Many of them went bankrupt while other were moved to neighboring countries with growing economies and lower wages. 

The country is now dotted with the hulks of formerly flourishing factories that for decades churned out wealth for their owners and provided a sure if modest livelihood for multitudes of workers. 

Some of the plants are guarded by former staff, others padlocked or open to anyone prepared to dirty a pair of trousers. Inside are the relics of their former activity: Piles of wine bottles, stacks of crockery, idle machinery. Scattered among them are the imprints of the people who worked there — rotting boots and gloves, personnel files, dust-infused jackets left hanging on nails and never reclaimed. 

The crisis, combined with political incompetence, was also the main reason why other infrastructure, such as the former Athens airport or the former Olympic Games sites remained deserted and weren't put to use for years. 

Associated Press photographer Petros Giannakouris travelled around Greece to capture those abandoned places. 

Source 

SEE ALSO: More abandoned industrial sites around the world // More abandoned airports // More abandoned sport facilities // More abandoned Olympic venues // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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A meat factory in Corinth, destroyed by fire in August 2014 while it had stopped working months before

Petros Giannakouris/AP

An abandoned Hellenic Ceramics (ELKE) factory in Halkida 

Petros Giannakouris/AP

An abandoned factory of The Chemical Products and Fertilizers Company in Piraeus, shut down in 1999

Petros Giannakouris/AP

Abandoned strawberry hothouses near the village of Manolada

Petros Giannakouris/AP

A plane in the former Hellinikon International Airport

Petros Giannakouris/AP

Inside Keranis cigarette factory in Athens

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Starting in 1933 and for more than 70 years, this building in Piraeus, near Athens, was the headquarters of Keranis, one of Greece's largest tobacco companies. In its prime, more than 2,500 people were working inside the 28,700 m² (309,000 ft²) factory, manufacturing more than 2.5 million cigarettes per shift and making Keranis the biggest Greek tobacco company. 

Things started to change from the 70s and 80s when more and more Greeks would rather buy imported cigarette brands instead of the Greek ones. In 1998, the family controlling the business sold it to a brokerage firm which shut down a few years later, together with Keranis. Today, the building belongs to an asset management company and it is up for lease. There were plans for the Piraeus courthouse to move inside the abandoned factory but those plans fell through. 

All photos by Vassilis K. Makris

SEE ALSO: More abandoned industrial sites around the world // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Vassilis K. Makris/lifo.gr

Vassilis K. Makris/lifo.gr

Vassilis K. Makris/lifo.gr

Vassilis K. Makris/lifo.gr

Vassilis K. Makris/lifo.gr

Athens Olympic Games sites, 10 years later

Two years ago, we took a look at the 2004 Athens Olympics venues, 8 years after the Games, and found most of them to be abandoned and in disrepair.

This summer, 10 years after the Olympic Games, we find that almost nothing has changed. Even though the Games were considered a success back in 2004, there were no plans whatsoever for the future use of most of the sporting facilities. Many of them were never used again in the last 10 years, while others, such as the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, don't receive proper maintenance due to lack of funding.

Meanwhile, just last week the Greek government announced that it has no responsibility for the condition of the Athens Olympic facilities and that most of them will be sold to private investors soon.

SEE ALSO: Athens Olympic Games sites, 8 years later // More abandoned Olympic venues around the world // More abandoned sport facilities // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

An abandoned record factory in Athens

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To expand in the markets of the Middle East and the Balkan region, British Columbia Graphophone Company, later known as Columbia Records, decided to operate a factory in Athens, Greece. Built between 1928 and 1930 in an area of 3,5 acres (14,000 sq. meters), the Columbia factory produced gramophones, vinyl records, radios and later cassettes for over 50 years. In 1935 a recording studio, the first in Greece, also opened inside the factory.

Being the only record production facility in the region, more record companies, such as His Master's Voice (later EMI), Odeon, and Parlophone chose to produce their records there. Columbia factory saw its golden years between the 1950s and the 1980s. Hundreds of Greek music records were produced there during this time. The factory's success however was mainly due to the exports of records and later cassettes to the Middle East, especially Lebanon and Egypt. By 1978, 350 people were working in the factory while the exports proceeds were about 5 million dollars per year.

Columbia's recording studio closed in 1983 and the whole factory was shut down by 1991. In 2006 it was decided that one of the 7 buildings would be preserved in order to be turned into a museum while the rest of the factory would be demolished. Activists and politicians vowed to resist any development plans in the area and until today the Columbia factory remains abandoned.

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SEE ALSO: More abandoned industrial sites around the world // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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flickr.com/anthi tzakou

flickr.com/anthi tzakou

flickr.com/· · · — — — · · ·

flickr.com/anthi tzakou

The old airport of Athens

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Elliniko International Airport (also spelled Hellinikon) was the first, and for all its 60 years of operation, primary airport of the Greek capital. Its construction begun in 1938 but was cut short due to World War II. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Kalamaki airfield, as it was known then, was used as a Luftwaffe base. After the end of occupation, a second runway and later, in 1969, a second terminal were constructed. Olympic Airways, the Greek national carrier used the West Terminal for its flights while all other airlines operated through the newly constructed East Terminal.

Even from the 70's it was obvious that the airport was nearing full capacity and Athens needed a newer airport, further away from the city center. The location was chosen early on but the construction begun only after Athens was given the 2004 Olympics. Eleftherios Venizelos airport finally opened on March 27th 2001. On the same day, an Olympic Airways Boeing 737 bound for Thessaloniki was the last flight to depart Ellinikon. 

After its closure, the western part of its runways was redeveloped. An Olympic Complex was constructed with venues of Canoe/Kayak, Hockey, Baseball and other sports. Those venues though were mostly left abandoned after the 2004 Olympics. At that time, the Greek government pledged to turn Ellinikon into the largest metropolitan park of Athens area, with a small portion only sold to private developers. Finally, in 2015 a Greek-Chinese-UAE fund bought the former airport for €915 million to implement a redevelopment project that will include a 500 acre Metropolitan park, as well as residential and commercial development. However, plans were once again stalled as the current government is against the redevelopment of the area. Since the summer of 2015, an unofficial refugee camp maintained by NGOs has been housed at the abandoned Ellinikon airport. 

SEE ALSO: More abandoned airports // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Vassilis K. Makris

Vassilis K. Makris

Vassilis K. Makris

Vassilis K. Makris

Vassilis K. Makris

Abandoned villas in the Greek islands

As the economic crisis hit Greece, the development and sales of many hotels and villas in the Greek islands has been postponed. Many buildings have been left unfinished, waiting for a better time, sooner or later. 

Dutch photographer Patrick Van Dam travelled around Greece for this project. He says:

The projects were developed on the most wonderful and unique locations. On hillsides with breathtaking sea views or on mountains surrounded by olive trees, enclosed with privacy and serenity.  

The architectural lines combined with the ash-grey concrete structures are an attractive contrast against the rough, red-coloured rocks, the warm yellow high grass and the olive green bushes and trees. This almost abstract scenery shows a unique synergy between architecture and nature. It creates a new and intriguing landscape in which failure, poverty and hopelessness are easily forgotten.

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SEE ALSO: More abandoned houses around the world // More abandoned places on islands // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Patrick Van Dam

Patrick Van Dam

Patrick Van Dam

Patrick Van Dam

Patrick Van Dam

Empty billboards in Greece

They can still be found all around Greece, along the highways and inside the city centers. Today though, many advertisement billboards have stopped carrying messages.

As turnover in retail trade has dropped by 54.6% since 2009, the advertising companies that own the billboards have suffered greatly from the economic crisis, as those advertised, in their attempt to reduce operational costs, have slashed their advertising expenses.

Worn by time and assaulted by bad weather, the message the billboards carry today, is the absence of message.



SEE ALSO: More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Alkis Konstantinidis/EPA/bernardinai.lt

Orestis Panagiotou/EPA/bernardinai.lt

Alkis Konstantinidis/EPA/bernardinai.lt

Orestis Panagiotou/EPA/bernardinai.lt

Orestis Panagiotou/EPA/bernardinai.lt

A deserted hotel on Parnitha mountain

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athpap/dpgr.gr

If there is one building in Greece that keeps attracting the attention of paranormal enthusiasts and urban explorers, that is the abandoned Xenia hotel, over mount Parnitha.

Xenia was built in 1912 as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. Its location, 30 km away from the city of Athens, inside a forested area was ideal for the sufferers of the disease. In the following decades though, with the use of penicillin and other antibiotics to cure TB, there were fewer patients and the sanatorium shut down in 1960.

Greek National Tourism Organization bought the building next,  and operated it as a member of the -now defunct- Xenia state-run hotel chain. The hotel, with a capacity of 200 beds, couldn't withstand competition from the nearby Mont Parnes hotel and casino and eventually shut down a few years later. It continued to operate though as a School of Tourism Professions from 1967 to 1984.

Then, the building was left abandoned and over the years has been heavily vandalized. Due to its remote, isolated location it has become the center of attention for urban explorers and paranormal phenomena researchers.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned hotels around the world // More abandoned schools and universities // More abandoned hospitals // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 

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Leonidas Tsementzis/flickr.com

xpolis.blogspot.gr

William Tell/dpgr.gr

William Tell/dpgr.gr

William Tell/dpgr.gr

Athens Olympic Games sites, 8 years later

Athens 2004 Olympic Games were considered successful at that time. The Greek organsizers invested about 9 billion Euros (11 billion US dollars), although the exact cost of the Games has not been determined. Most of the sports facilities were built exclusively for the Olympics without any predifined plans for their future use. 

As a result, many of those facilities have been hardly ever used after the Games ended. Even in sites that are still in use, for example the Athens Olympics Sports Complex (OAKA), many parts have been left without adequeate maintenance. 

Other, such as the Nikaia Weightlifting Hall, the Helliniko Softball Stadium have been left unused since 2004, awaiting future plans for their fate. 

 


SEE ALSO: Athens Olympic Games sites, 10 years later // More abandoned Olympic venues around the world // More abandoned sport facilities // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Faliro Olympic Complex, Athens.

good.is

The Olympic Stadium "Spiros Louis", Athens.

good.is

Indoors pools, Olympic Aquatic Center.

Jamie McGregor Smith/New York Times

Training pitches, Faliro Beach Volleyball Training Center.

Jamie McGregor Smith/New York Times

Spectator strand. Helliniko Olympic Canoe/Kayak Slalom Center.

Jamie McGregor Smith/New York Times