King Charles arranged a long meeting with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis last week. The duo got together and discussed the $15 million restoration of Prince Philip’s old Greek home. King Charles pledged to assist the Greek authorities to finish the project and restore the abandoned Tatoi Palace.
The palace now lays in ruins. 10 000 acres of forest surround the palace, making it the perfect getaway location. The palace that once was the summer residence of the Greek royal family needs moderate investments in order to shine once again. The Greek royal family used the Tatoi palace as their summer residence before 1973. Then, the monarchy was overthrown by a military junta, which seized the palace and forced the royals into exile.
King Charles Announces Spending $15 Million To Restore Prince Philip Greek Family House
Prince Philip had a great affection for the place. The palace is the final resting place for his father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.
King Charles came to the idea of restoration of the palace last year. He visited Greece to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Greek War against the Ottoman Empire. During the trip, he visited the palace and saw its shockingly bad condition. He spoke to the authorities and they decided to turn the palace into a museum with King’s financial help.
King Charles will use his son’s Foundation to provide expert advice to Greek authorities on how to do the restoration. The foundation took part in several restorations until now. The experts will use the restoration of Dumfries House, and the Palladian country house in Ayrshire restoration as a model.
“They want to use it as an example of best practice.” – a spokesperson for the King Constantine of Greece told TheMirror.
Constantine represents himself as a King, however, he has been in exile for almost 40 years. His kingdom voted to become a republic and confiscated his palace.
Before this, King Charles led a consortium that paid for the saving of the 18th-century Dumfries House. He paid an enormous amount of $55 million which left him almost bankrupt. King Charles says that even though this investment was ‘an appalling risk’, it was worth taking.
“I wanted to rescue the house because it is of such importance.” – King Charles says. “We knew it was a very deprived area. I wanted to use it as a proper example of, what I’ve always believed in, heritage-led regeneration. If we hadn’t stepped in, somebody would have bought it. Said they had a great idea, you know for golf courses and it would never have worked. So, it would have joined the list of yet more derelict country houses.”
