Popular Bank

18 Pesmazoglou St, 1911-13

Architect
Anastasios Metaxas (1862-1937)



The Popular Bank of Greece building belongs among the most significant works by Anastasios Metaxas, the distinguished architect and restorer of the Panathenian Stadium, who had studied at the Technical University of Dresden.
The building consists of a basement, ground floor and two upper floors. It is built of stone masonry with mixed structural elements and floors of reinforced concrete.
The façade is an impressive example of academic eclecticism with a visible German influence and Jugendstil decorative motifs. On the central projecting section, the entrance is emphasised with a Doric porch; the floors are unified by double Ionic pillars and the total is crowned with a pediment.
The main transactions hall has been treated grandly with an Ionian peristyle bearing colonnaded balconies. In the centre of the ceiling there is a decorated skylight. In 1958-59, when the Popular Bank building was joined together with that of the Ionian Bank, Kostas Kapsambelis, the architect of the merge, and his associates made many changes to the interior of both buildings, but managed to retain their external form and the character of their main halls.

TRANSPORTATION