10-Story Hotel Ordered to Shrink to 8 Stories

It's one thing for a city to reject plans for a tall hotel near a world-famous site. It's another to do so after the hotel has been built. That's now the case in Athens, Greece, where a 10-story hotel near the Acropolis has been ordered to remove its top two floors, reports the National Herald. Locals united in a fierce campaign against the hotel because its height obstructed their view of the historic site. Now the nation's Central Archaeological Council has agreed with them and ordered the hotel to reduce its height. The decision actually marks a reversal by the council, which approved the construction plans for the COCO-MAT Hotel Athens in the first place.

"It was a very brave decision," says Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, per the Guardian. “The Acropolis is our heart and our soul, an essential part of our cultural heritage. It's very important that everyone can enjoy it.” The outcome is seen as a big victory against developers, especially paired with a ruling from Greece's highest court last week that future hotels in the area must be no higher than 68 feet. The hotel near the Acropolis, in the city's Makriyianni district, is a shade over 100 feet tall, at least for now. No word yet on when the de-struction will take place, or whether the government will help pay for it. (More Acropolis stories.)