Four buildings in need of immediate intervention
Studying the history of Tatoi has been the lifetime work of Costas Stamatopoulos. His lavishly illustrated two-volume book «The Chronicle of Tatoi: 1800-2003,» published by Kapon, is both a pleasure to read and an exemplary piece of research. The author is well known to the Culture Ministry and other public offices involved in the matter for the serious, well-founded proposals he has presented through the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment and the Cultural Heritage but which have never been implemented. «We wrote to the ministry in early autumn,» Stamatopoulos told Kathimerini, «pointing out the need for immediate emergency work on at least four buildings – the forestry official’s residence, the workers’ cottages in the two wings dating from the 1870s, the dairy built in 1898, and the gardener’s house, which is almost in ruins.» He explained that the original 19th century roofs of the workers’ houses and the dairy have barely survived, but will soon need replacement with manufactured tiles, which will create «a completely different aesthetic effect.» There is talk, said Stamatopoulos, that the state «is preparing a plan which it has not yet announced. It would not be good for the public to be surprised by a decision that concerns it. This requires cooperation. Just think that the person who knows every inch of Tatoi, agriculturalist Christos Lelingos, who worked on the estate from 1954 to 2003, can offer his valuable experience.»
