After a several-year break, the granddaughter of Ioannis Metaxas, Ioanna Foka Metaxas, will open the infamous house on October 28th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It is worth going and feeling the history!
Whether one agrees or not with Ioannis Metaxas and the policy he followed after the imposition of the dictatorial regime of "August 4" in 1936, one thing is sure - no one is going to dispute that within the walls of the imposing mansion in Kifissia, one of the most important moments of recent Greek history took place 83 years ago.
Early Monday 28/10/1940. The clock shows 02:45, and the ambassador of fascist Italy, Emanuele Grazzi, somewhat awkwardly rings the bell of the secondary entrance of the prime minister's residence in Kifissia, asking the guard to wake up Metaxas urgently.
What Metaxas said in French: "Alors, c'est la guerre!" that is: "Well, this means war", which transformed into the legendary "OXI/NO", which united all Greeks and is celebrated today as Oxi Day.
All this occurred in the two-story mansion, architecturally in an eclectic style with medieval, Byzantine and Gothic elements, which was built in 1928 by the publisher Petros Dimitrakos as a country house.
A decade later, Ioannis Metaxas - now dictator-prime minister - settled in it as a tenant with his wife. Earlier, from 1928 to 1938, the Metaxas family lived at 150 Patision Street - in the centre of Athens - in a house that was given to him as a "dowry" during his marriage in 1909.
Ioannis Metaxas caught up and lived in the house on the corner of Stratigou Daglis 10 and Kefallinia streets for just six months, until 29/1/1941, when he passed away.
However, in the small living room on the ground floor - which Grazzi considered very poor - he spent perhaps the most dramatic minutes of his life, having his rendezvous with history and with him all of Greece.
The house was ransacked during the Civil War, as a result of which all the household goods were destroyed, and valuable family heirlooms were stolen. Today, few pieces of furniture have been saved from the "OXI" era, such as the sofa and the armchair where Metaxas and Grazzi sat when the Italian ambassador handed him the fatal ultimatum.
The Library with all his books and the awards and souvenirs he had received as prime minister were donated to the Hellenic Parliament, post-war.
In the tiny back hall on the ground floor, the wall phone with which Metaxas contacted the Deputy Press Minister Theologos Nikoloudis, asking him to immediately inform the newspapers that "we are at war" and with King George, is still preserved and functional. The clock stopped 83 years ago.
Today, the granddaughter of Ioannis Metaxas, Mrs. Ioanna Fokas and her children and their families live in the residence. Mrs. Fokas, daughter of Evgenios Fokas - professor of Medicine and rector of the University of Athens - and Nana Metaxas, youngest daughter of Ioannis Metaxas, is a historian, archaeologist and author of children's books awarded with the State Literary Award.
Every year, on October 28, Mrs. Fokas and members of her family open the courtyard of the historic residence to the public. She informs visitors about the events that took place within the four walls of the imposing mansion.
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