A well-known residence in Athens’ historic Plaka district, famously featured in the 1965 comedy And the Wife Shall Revere Her Husband (Η γυνή να φοβήται τον άνδρα), is set to be fully restored and transformed into a venue for Greek-language film screenings, according tovima.com.
The “Kokovikos House,” named after the fictional couple in Giorgos Tzavellas’ bittersweet classic starring Giorgos Konstantinou and Maro Kontou, will undergo renovations funded with €1.7 million from national and EU resources managed by the Attica regional government.
Located at 32 Tripodon Street, beneath the Acropolis, the three-and-a-half-storey building dates to around 1800, during the final years of Ottoman rule in Athens. Research shows its first owner was Haci Halil Efendi, an Ottoman Şeyhülislam (senior religious leader). Summoned to Constantinople to issue a decree permitting the slaughter of non-combatant Greeks during the 1821 uprising, he refused the order, was exiled, and died soon after. The house later sheltered an Ottoman garrison during the siege of Athens.
Architecturally, the residence reflects the “Athenian style” of the late Ottoman and early post-independence era, preceding the Neoclassical movement that came to dominate Greek urban design.
The film that immortalized the house was a major success upon release, selling nearly 300,000 tickets and ranking 13th among 95 domestic productions that year. Yet its enduring fame came later, as repeated television broadcasts cemented its place in Greek pop culture, making both the comedy and the Plaka residence beloved symbols of Greece’s cinematic “golden age.”
Source: tovima.com
