The Municipality of Athens issued an announcement regarding the fountain of Syntagma Square and its cleaning and maintenance work. As he mentions, the responsibility belongs to the Ministry of Culture, as it has been declared a monument.

“The Municipality of Athens and in particular the Directorate of Electricity already in April addressed to Directorate of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments of Ministry of Culture and informed her that he intends to proceed with the cleaning and maintenance of the fountain in Syntagma.

The municipal agency asked for instructions about the fountain, which is declared a monument, and after the first letter went unanswered, it was finally informed in May that the responsibility of cleaning the said fountain rests with the Ministry. Subsequently, in June, the Ministerial Directorate notified the Municipality that a maintenance study was required to be drawn up to resolve the issue“, he initially states and continues:

“After from 2 months of inactivity last August, the Municipality of Athens addressed again to the Directorate of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments to receive the answer that the preparation of the study “is in progress”. The Municipality came back with a new correspondence in mid-November, asking to know if there are indeed developments, only to be informed by the Directorate of the Ministry of Culture that the preparation of the study is still ongoing, but ‘due to commitments’ there is a delay. In fact, the officials expressed the hope that the study will be drawn up by the end of December.

Therefore, the announcement of the Ministry of Culture, in which it states that it considers the Municipality of Athens to be solely responsible for the maintenance of the fountain of the Constitution, causes us to wonder. And this, because, as we mentioned above, the services of the same Ministry asked us by electronic mail on May 1, 2024 not to proceed with any action, until they notify us, given that the fountain is declared ex officio as a monument and is therefore subject to their competences».

“Maybe, before making announcements, they should find each other so that they are not exposed?” concludes the municipality of Athens in its announcement.