Its fascinating story Rex unfolds back in time in interwar Athens and in the reception of a New York building on Panepistimi Street. The Rex is connected to the development of the metropolitan identity of Athens as few buildings of the pre-war era and this year, which will stop its operation for a while in order to be restored, will concern us with its route through time. Associated in recent years with the National Theaterthe Rex has been a mine of memory for Athens since the 1930s, when it began to be built to architect designs Vasilis Kassandra and Leonida Boni, of the successful duo who had already designed the Army Stock Fund Building (MMTS). However, the New York style, in contrast to the style of French rationalism in MMTS, was at the behest of the owners Sikiaridis brothers. There was a vision.
Elisavet Sikiaridis, a descendant of the Sikiaridis family that built the Rex (also known as Sikiarideio Megaro), tells us a journey from Constantinople, Cappadocia and Beirut to Athens in 1925. She is an architect and currently manages from Berlin, where he resides, an international master’s degree in landscape management and resilience, design and development. “It’s very demanding,” he notes, but he always finds time to talk about family history, which he studies. The connection by paired marriages (on the same day) of the Ambazoglou (from Constantinople) and Sikiaridis (from Cappadocia and then from Beirut) families strengthened the trade networks in the Eastern Mediterranean, giving birth to new roads and ideas. From the creation and trading of textiles, the Ambazoglou and Sikiaridis families had developed as a branch now a strong capital.
“They must have come to Athens in the mid or late 20s and it was a family decision,” says Elisavet Sikiaridis. The Ambazoglus had established themselves in the city, coming from Cappadocia, and had acquired a fortune by trading cloth. In Pera they had established the large shopping arcade Cercle d’Orient. They had studied at the Robertio School and the grandmother at the American College. The Sikiarides had ended up in Beirut, coming from Cappadocia (where they were associated with the flourishing trading posts adorned with impressive frescoes and flanked by temples of special architecture). An intermediate station was Adana. Simeon Sikiaridis was an importer of fabrics from England, Belgium and Italy. Besides trade, however, there were other interests. Anastasia Sikiaridis had founded the Greek school of Beirut.
“They had traveled to New York and there they decided that they wanted to build a modern building, an American mansion, in Athens,” says Ms. Sikiaridis.
“In Athens, they showed great foresight, as they bought many plots of land on Piraeus Street in order to build their factories and residences,” says Elisavet Sikiaridis. They gradually sold many plots, but kept a large one where Hellenic Eriurgia was founded. They also had their houses there. “Until the ’70s, there was always an uncle living there.” Today, the entire grid of those buildings houses the Academy of Fine Arts.
“The Sikiaridis brothers had traveled to New York and there they decided that they wanted to build a modern building, an American mansion, in Athens,” Elizabeth Sikiaridis tells us. “They were determined. They commissioned the plans to the architects with the directive for a building of this specification.” The luxurious and modern Rex had caused a sensation among the Athenians. The cinema on the ground floor opened on 23 January 1937 with a musical film featuring the Polish singer and actor Jan Kiepura (1902-1966), who had a career in the US. The Sikiaridis brothers collaborated from the start with Spyros Skouras, the later president of 20th Century Fox, to introduce the films. Marika Kotopoulis also had her own stage at Rex. The legendary, too, Sinéac was linked to the memories of thousands of children.
The trend for ultra-modern art deco mansions was international and Athens had gained its pride. Later, in the 1980s, the Rex became public. He knew periods of decline, but the power of his name never waned. With the National Theater it continues in time.
