As visitors flock to Alexandria to enjoy its famed beaches all through the summer, Watani reminds its readers that there is more to Alexandria than beaches
WATANI International
26 July 2009
John Antoniadis, a native of Greece, came to Egypt in 1860 to work in the potato trade which he later abandoned to become a wealthy cotton dealer. An extremely cultured man, he had a deep knowledge of the Greek and Egyptian cultures and chose the historical district of Elyosis to build his palatial Alexandrian villa. He commissioned the French architect Paul Richard to build it.
The Villa is today listed as a historical monument with Alexandria governorate conservation registry. It lies at the southern entrance of Alexandria, near the Mahmoudiya Canal which carries Nile water to the Alexandria region, and is surrounded by some 48 hectares of greenery that include the Antoniadis Garden, the Flower Garden, the Zoological and Botanical Gardens and the Nuzha Garden.
Elegance par excellence
During the lifetime of John Antoniadis, the Villa was a gathering place for the social elite, the scene of gaiety and elegant partying. He once invited Khedive Ismail to attend one of his famous evening parties, and built a large dance hall in the palace gardens especially for that party. However, the Khedive was unable to attend and Prince Tawfiq—later Khedive Tawfiq—was delegated to attend. One can imagine the host’s disappointment.
John Antoniadis lived there until his death in 1895, when the palace and its gardens passed to his son, Antonis, who in turn, and according to his father’s will, gave it to the municipality of Alexandria. The transfer of ownership took place in 1918.
Afterwards, the Villa was used as a guest house to host visiting dignitaries to Egypt, including the Kings of Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Shah of Iran and Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, who married the Egyptian Princess Fawziya, the sister of King Farouq. They honeymooned there.
The Villa hosted the signing ceremony of the 1936 agreement between Egypt and Britain, which gave Egypt some limited independence, and it held the first meeting of the Egyptian Olympic committee. In 1946, the first preparatory meeting to establish the Arab League was held there, attended by King Farouq and several Arab rulers—Egypt was chosen as the headquarters of the new Arab League.
The building was called a villa until 1921 when Reza Shah Pahalavi stayed there, after which it officially became a palace. In 1930 its then owners, the Alexandria municipality, renovated the building and added a new wing to accommodate the king and queen of Belgium and their entourage; the invitation cost the municipality the sum of EGP1200.
Aphrodite and Nelson
The Antoniadis Palace and its park are constructed as a miniature version of the Palace of Versaille. It consists of a basement level, a ground floor of 1085 square metres, a second floor, and a roof area. The ground and second floors include 15 rooms each. There are several archeological remains, including a tomb and a cistern.
The garden was dotted with alabaster statues of the Greek gods, including Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, and of famous figures such as Admiral Horatio Nelson.
John Antoniadis’s generosity was extended to the municipality on the foundation of the Greco-Roman Museum, when he offered the museum a valuable collection of his own antiquities, including an alabaster bust of Alexander the Great.
Refurbished
After the 1952 revolution, part of the original garden of the Villa itself was used to enlarge the Nuzha and zoological gardens. There was a general decline in the condition of the Villa after about 1970, but the gardens remain in fairly good condition.
The Antoniadis palace and gardens were passed between the Alexandria municipality and the Ministry of Agriculture until the beginning of 2004 when the then governor of Alexandria General Abdel-Salam al-Mahgoub donated the building and gardens to the newly established Library of Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, including the furniture and other items. As part of this arrangement, the Villa is to be restored, and its content exhibited as part of the John Antoniadis collection.
It is planned that the Antoniadis Palace will host some Bibliotheca Alexandrina events, but will also become a centre for scholarship on Alexandria and the Mediterranean, a meeting point for cultural interaction, and a space for exchange and dialogue. It will therefore become a Mediterranean Research Centre as well as a guest house for visitors and researchers. It will also contain a museum with exhibition space, along with thematic gardens, a horticulture centre and even an outdoor theatre. It will have an art centre, meeting rooms and workshop facilities. The renovation, supervised by Mohamed Awad, costs some USD2,500,000 for the building, USD1,000,000 for the garden, and USD500,000 for furniture and equipment, and is expected to be completed next year.