Mythology park plans in trouble
An ambitious government project to build a tourist theme park featuring Greek mythology on the southern coast of Attica appeared to be in trouble yesterday following a high court decision on a challenge to the expropriation of the area in question. Owners of the land, at Alykes in Anavyssos, some 50 kilometers south of Athens, were forced in 1971 to sell to the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO), which proposed to develop it. Until 1989, GNTO took no action to make any use of the 160-hectare area, and in 1994 the former owners appealed to the Council of State seeking to have the expropriation revoked. In 2001, GNTO’s asset management branch, ETA, called a tender for construction of a multimillion-euro mythological theme park on the site by 2006. Four companies have submitted bids. In a decision made public yesterday, a section of the supreme administrative court ruled that GNTO’s behavior until 1994 indicated the state organization had no clear intention of using the land for the purpose that had dictated its expropriation. A final decision will be taken by the court’s plenary session.
