Former minister Stefanos Manos helped preserve the character of Plaka, Athens’ picturesque historic district, by implementing laws to designate listed buildings, replace underground utility networks, create pedestrian streets, and ban all neon signs that marred building facades. [Nikos Panagiotopoulos/Intime News]
I first met Stefanos Manos (a former New Democracy minister who died on August 15 at 86) in 1977 at a friend’s house, just a few days after he’d assumed the Environment Ministry portfolio.
The Hellenic Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (ELLET), which had been founded in 1972 in response to the demolition of the grand Venetian-era Catholic Church of the Savior in Iraklio, Crete, to make way for a parking lot – approved by Stylianos Pattakos during the dictatorship – had launched a Europe-wide campaign to have Plaka listed for protection in its entirety. The historic Athens district had become packed with bars and nightclubs, and had been largely abandoned by the locals, save a few elderly residents.
So, I approached the new minister and said: “Will you help us save Plaka?” With his usual sense of humor and distinctive bass, he replied: “But I am a man, and I like Plaka by night!” Joking aside, he went on to do everything in his power to save the neighborhood and was always quick to respond to the demands of the Coordination Committee to Save Plaka, which he was founded with other organizations. He was always honest: “That I can do,” That I can’t do” or “That’s going to be difficult.”
