Xenia (Ξενία) was a nationwide hotel construction program initiated by the Hellenic Tourism Organisation (Ελληνικός Οργανισμός Τουρισμού, E.O.T.) to improve the country's tourism infrastructure in the 1960s and 1970s. It constitutes one of the largest infrastructure projects in modern Greek history.
History Until the 1950s, Greece featured only a few major hotels, mostly situated in the country's great cities, and a few smaller ones in islands like Corfu or Rhodes. In 1950, EOT began a program to construct and operate hotels across the country, especially in the less-travelled areas. Locations were specially selected and the architecture combined local knowledge with standardized elements. The buildings were embedded in the landscape, but at the same time followed a modernist style.
The first manager of the project was the architect Charalambos Sfaellos (from 1950 to 1958) and from 1957 the buildings were designed by a team under Aris Konstantinidis. Many private hotel projects in Greece were inspired by the Xenia hotels and the program had reached its aims in the early 1970s. In 1974 the construction program was complete. The Xenia program itself was officially terminated in 1983, and the hotels were given over to private operators or eventually sold off.
Some hotels are still operated privately under the Xenia name. Many of the program's hotels have been designated as historic monuments for their architectural value. Three have been demolished, while other surviving examples have been substantially altered or are in a dilapidated state.
Α special category of hotel units was created under the name "Xenia Helios" for school of tourism operate in Anavyssos in Attica, Parnitha in Attica housed in the former , Peraia in Thessaloniki, in Heraklion. Xenia Helios they were both hotels and school of tourism, as model tourist units in which students of the country's tourist schools were training with a combination of theoretical training and practical training in real time hotel operating conditions. "Xenia Helios" in Peraia, Thessaloniki launched in 1978 exclusively for housing the School of Tourism Professions of Thessaloniki, where in the summer it operated as a 3 stars, with a capacity of 77 rooms and the rest of the year as a model training school, where students stayed in the rooms as boarders.
In 2025, as part of the general effort to upgrade state tourism education, the Ministry of Tourism is proceeding with the utilization of historic Xenia Helios hotels for their long-term lease. The private individuals who prevail in the tenders will undertake the obligation to renovate the hotels to operate them as hotels and for employing students from state schools of tourism education of the Ministry of Tourism that will be located relatively close to it.
Xenia hotels This section lists the tourist establishments according to the administrative region to which they belong:
Attica Region Xenia Poros (1964), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Spetses (1960), Architect F. Vokos
Central Macedonia Region Xenia Edessa (1963), Architect I. Rizos Xenia Paliouri (1962), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Platamon (1960), Architect F. Vokos Xenia Serres (1960), Architect K. Stamatis Xenia Ouranoupoli (1959), Architect P. Sakellariou
Western Macedonia Region Xenia Florina (1958), Architect G. Nikoletopoulos Xenia Kastoria (1952), Architect Ch. Sfaellos Xenia Kozani (1963), Architect K. Levidis
Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Region Xenia Xanthi (1964), Architect G. Nikoletopoulos Xenia Drama (1961), Architect K. Stamatis Xenia Samothrace (1954), Architect K. Spanos Xenia Thasos (1955), Architect Ch. Sfaellos
Epirus Region Xenia Igoumenitsa (1959), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Arta (1958), Architect D. Zivas Xenia Ioannina (1958), Architect F. Vokos
Western Greece Region Xenia Nafpaktos (1980), Architect P. Manouilidis Xenia Olympia (I) (1963), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Olympia (II) (1966), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Missolonghi (1953), Architect I. Triantafyllidis
Thessaly Region Xenia Kalabaka (1960), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Larissa (1959), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Skopelos (1961), Architect F. Vokos Xenia Skiathos (1963), Architect G. Nikoletopoulos Xenia Portaria (1957), Architect K. Kitsikis Xenia Tsagkarada (1955), Architect Ch. Sfaellos Central Greece Region Xenia Ypati (1956), Architect Ch. Sfaellos Xenia Karpenisi (1959), Architect F. Vokos Xenia Delphi (1953), Architect D. Pikionis Xenia Skyros (1955), Architect G. Doxiadi
Peloponnese Region Xenia Nafplio (1958), Architect I. Triantafyllidis Xenia Sparta (1958), Architect X. Mpougatsos Xenia Vytina (1965), Architect K. Mpitsios
North Aegean Region Xenia Samos (1958), Architect K. Stamatis Xenia Chios (1958), Architect K. Stamatis Xenia Mytilene (1961), Architect I. Antoniadis
South Aegean Region Xenia Mykonos (I) (1962), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Mykonos (II) (1953), Architect P. Vasiliadi Xenia Andros (1958), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Paros (1955), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Kos (1959), Architect F. Vokos Xenia Patmos (1960), Architect M. Dalla Xenia Kythnos (1970), Architect E. Tsiller Xenia Sifnos (1961), Architect A. Papageorgiou
Ionian Islands Region Xenia Corfu (1955), Architect Ch. Sfaellos Xenia Argostoli (1955), Architect Ch. Sfaellos Xenia Zakynthos (1955), Architects: E. Voureka; P. Vasiliadi; P. Sakellario Xenia Cephalonia (1955), Architect Ch. Sfaellos Xenia Lefkada (1978), Architect A. Michalakis
Crete Region Xenia Karterou (1963), Architect A. Konstantinidis Xenia Heraklion (1961), Architect G. Nikoletopoulos Xenia Chania (1961), Architects: I. Tzompanaki; S. Kountouri Xenia Rethymno (1961), Architect Aik. Dialisma
Bibliography
Donat, John: "Architecture of the Xenia Hotels" in World architecture, Volume 3, 1966. Page 145ff
References