Marika Kotopouli Museum

The Marika Kotopoulis Museum is located at the junction of Al. Panagouli (formerly King George) and Lieutenant Th. Kavvatha streets in the district of Zografou. It was the summer residence of the important Greek actress of the 20th century, Marika Kotopouli, who was born in Athens in 1887. It was one of the few houses in the area, about 100, that formed the nucleus of the settlement known as Zografou, named after Ioannis Zografos, a politician, university professor and large landowner of the district. These first houses were mainly used as vacation residences for Athenians.

This magnificent and distinctive building is a remarkable example of a 1920s country house, as its construction began in 1918 and was completed in either 1923 or 1926. It is a square, two-storey building with riveted shutters. It has a remarkable roof with a large pitch that imitates a Swiss CHALET, wooden balconies and perforated decoration on almost all the wooden elements inside and outside the building. All the wooden structures of the building are handmade by the artist Ioakeim. The basement of the building was built in 1908 by the theatre entrepreneur Giorgos Helmis, who later donated it to the famous actress who was also his wife.

Villa Kotopouli was a benchmark not only for the urban fabric of the region, but also as a meeting place for the intellectual and political leadership of the time. Apart from rest, study and meditation, the late actress also organized receptions and performances at the villa. Many important artists of the time, such as V. Logothetidis, M. Myrat, D. Rontiris and G. Vassiliadou, the Kaloutas sisters and M. Merkouri, were guests of the villa.

Today, the Museum houses the Art Gallery of the Municipality of Zografou, and often hosts exhibitions, artistic and other cultural activities. On the ground floor of the Villa there are the reception halls where civil weddings are now held, the kitchen, the dining room and the living room. On the same level there is also the hammam. Marika Kotopouli died on the 14th of April 1954. The use of the actress’ house changed several times: during the German occupation, the house was requisitioned. It was then used as a police station by the Municipality of Zografou and finally, in 1990, it was inaugurated by the Municipality of Zografou as the Marika Kotopouli Museum and later, in 2019, as the Municipal Art Gallery. Finally, it was classified as a modern protected monument by a legal decision.