Fourteen years after a fire gutted Athens’ beloved Attikon cinema complex on Stadiou Street, the only visible progress is a repaved sidewalk.
The building, torched during anti-austerity riots on February 12, 2012, has stood charred and scaffolded ever since, its grand facade hidden behind corrugated metal sheeting that forced pedestrians into a narrow passage for over a decade.
The sheets have now been removed, the exterior minimally cleaned, and the pavement restored to its pre-2012 width – a change so modest it reads, in context, as tragicomic.
The Attikon once housed two of central Athens’ most storied cinemas and shaped generations of the city‘s cultural life. A private investor has been identified, but no concrete timeline for restoration exists.
The contrast with Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris – also destroyed by fire, rebuilt and reopened within five years – hangs over the story like an indictment. Athens has spent 14 years and four months fixing a sidewalk.
