Year of construction: Unknown

A few words about the construction: Right next to the Melina Merkouri Foundation, in the building at the junction of Polygotou and Dioskouros Streets (owned by the Ministry of Culture, preserved and under restoration),  the great Elytis Archive will be housed, following the initiative of Ms. Ioulita Iliopoulou, who currently owns it. A space for the promotion and study of the work of the Nobelist Greek poet is being created, dedicated to his personality and poetry. The exhibition space, in addition to the Elytis Archive, will include photographs and other visual material, texts and audio documents that will showcase his life and diverse work, while visitors will also be able to see his office with his personal belongings restored.

A few words about the Poet: Odysseas Elytis (1911 - 1996) -pen name of Odysseas Alepoudelis- is one of the most important Greek poets of the post-war period. He was awarded the State Poetry Prize in 1960 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979. He appeared in 1935 with poems in the magazine Ta Nea Grammata (New Writings) -the main promoter of new poetry- influenced by elements of surrealism (in the same year Andreas Empeirikos' Blast Furnace was also published, with which surrealism appeared in Greece). The collection Orientations (1940) and The Sun the First (1943) are characterized by light, the Aegean Sea, the joy of life. In 1959 Axion Esti (It Is Worthy) was published, a high point in Greek literature. Elytis manages to combine the individual and collective experience of the Greeks, approaching history and tradition mainly through the timelessness of the Greek language. He formed a personal poetic idiom and is considered one of the innovators of Greek poetry.