The Oldest Apartment Building? Athens

Thirst for life

Dimitris from Athens

About Me Hi! I'm Dimitris Hall. I've been an Athens Spotter since 2013 and have worked with Spotted by Locals as the site's editor, social media and content manager since early 2017. I was born a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and grew up in Nea Smyrni (New Izmir), a suburb of Athens that a century ago didn't even exist as a concept. I’m a μισός-μισός, a “half-and...
"I can't decide what I like more about this spot - the presence of Athens' oldest apartment building or the decrepit Coca Cola ad next to it?"

My decision to write about this spot came from stumbling upon this oddly beautiful sight while exploring Patision St. I thought this decrepit old building next to an equally decrepit Coca Cola ad summed up the visual identity of the center of Athens quite nicely. Old ad murals like this one are slowly disappearing, but finding one (e.g. the one I've also written about in my IWATSU Japan article) always gives me a twitchy shutter finger. The slogan under the ad reading δίψα για ζωή (dípsa gia zoí - thirst for life) just makes this portrait of modern urban decay all the more compelling.

Those of you with a keener eye for details might notice another ad (about a furniture shop, by the way) hidden beneath - or is that laid over? - the one about Coca Cola. The past and the even deeper past get entangled, just like they eventually do in our collective memory, until no-one knows, or cares, what came first.

Talking about collective memory: the apartment building on the left, with its two floors, eight apartments and more than a century of life clocked in already, is apparently Athens' oldest apartment building still inhabited today! You can check out more pre-war apartment buildings on Patision street here.

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Athens Spotter Dimitris

About Me Hi! I'm Dimitris Hall. I've been an Athens Spotter since 2013 and have worked with Spotted by Locals as the site's editor, social media and content manager since early 2017. I was born a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and grew up in Nea Smyrni (New Izmir), a suburb of Athens that a century ago didn't even exist as a concept. I’m a μισός-μισός, a “half-and-half”, my constituent parts being Greek and Australian, which honestly doesn’t sound quite right, since the last time I was in Australia was more than 15 years ago, and that just for holidays. I woul...

About this spot

Laskaratou 2 & Patision 348

no-price

Nov 13, 2025

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