Zappeion Hall revives benefactor's will

For close to 130 years since its completion in 1888, the elegant Zappeion Hall has stood at the center of Athens's turbulent history, through peace and war, development and depression. It has been an integral link with the Olympic Movement, from the 1850s and the first efforts to revive the games up to 2004, when Athens last hosted the Summer Games. Now, the organization that operates the building and its splendid grounds is working to revive the wishes of the great benefactor Evangelos Zappas, who had dreamed of reviving the Olympic Games and paid for the first modern Olympics in 1859, long before the first official games were staged in Athens in 1896, when the Zappeion Hall hosted the fencing event.

Last year, the new chairman of the Olympia and Bequests Committee's board, which administers the site, Giorgos Christou, announced an initiative aimed at placing the Zappeion...