Antoniadis, The garden and the palace

Antoniadis

the garden and the palace

the rear side of Antoniadis palace

In today's deteriorated Alexandria,neither the municipality nor the residents create gardens, but in the the ghost of the elegant city gardens were almost everywhere either created by the municipality or by people around their houses.

A neglected garden with an old deteriorated abandoned palace, some of its windows had been already taken off, a strange orange color paints the windows,a color different than those usually used to paint windows in the city and it is obvious that it wasn't the original window color as indicating an old photo for an anonymous photographer

An old photo of the front side of Antoniadis palace

The gardens had been originally created in the Ptolemiec era and of course they were larger than they are nowadays,their old name was "Eleusis" which meant "paradise"

Here's a part of Neroutsos map for ancient Alexandria -published in his book in 1888- showing the site of Eleusis.

Neroutsos map

*Tassos Demetrios Neroutsos (1826-1882) a Greek physician who was interested in ancient ALexandria , He granted his monumental collection to the country.

This map was published in his book "Ancient Alexandria,archeological and topographic study"  "Alexandrie  L’acncienne ,étude archéologique et topographique"

He was honored by naming a street near the greacoroman museum after his name,the street name was changed sometime to another name!!!!!

leaving a small writing on the sign saying "formerly, Neroutsos"

During 19th century the gardens were owned by the Greek "Pasteret" who bought them from Mohamed Ali Pacha in 1820 in the time of digging the canal "Mahmodeyya" and the development of its surroundings.

Khedive Ismail enlarged the gardens area until it reached the now "Smouha Club" 

In 1860 sir John Anthoniadis bought the garden and the palace.

Here I'm photographing the garden surrounding the  palace,that one that the visitor pays an additional ticket to visit after passing already by the first garden.

Sir John Antoniadis collected marble statues of greek gods ,as well as statues of voyager explorers ,this part of the garden is now called "the famous people garden"

Christofer Colombus marble statue from the "famous 
people garden" in Antoniadis gardens

Antoniadis passed away in 1895,leaving a will to his son Antony to donate the palace and the garden to the municipality of the city to be a gift to the Alexandrians.

Antony executed his father's will in 1918.

Alexandria municipality received the palace and garden and used it as an official guesthouse for bigwigs and important events, for instance the palace received the signature of the  Anglo-Egyptian treaty 1936,Honeymoon of the Egyptian princess Fawzia Fouad and Shah of Iran Mohamed Reda Bahlawi (Mohamed Reza Pahlavi)1939, exiled king Zog I of Albanians, the preparatory meeting for League of Arab states 1946.

*Some of the marble statues had been transferred form the garden such as "godesses of four seasons" four statues,while a large number of marble statues are still there.

A marble statue in Antoniadis garden

Pillars with capitals

A pillar capital, Antoniadis garden

Plant pots with small sculptures

sculptures on a plant pot, Antoniadis garden

The deteriorated royal greenhouse: Made of iron and glass, A large elegant greenhouse stands there with empty plant basins and half broken glass coat

The royal greenhouse, Antoniadis garden

A horse stable: deteriorated as well

Horse stable, Antoniadis garden

A few years ago, old gardeners were working there in the morning,now they are no longer there.

The condition of the garden became the same all year long, : neglected trees and deteriorated buildings.

- In September 2005,the Alexandrian and Mediterranean research center "Alexmed" announced officially in its first newsletter that the palace became a part of Bibliotheca Alexandrina buildings, and the center was searching for funds to renovate and restore the palace to be the seat of the Alexmed.

-In July 2006, Alexander S. Onasis public benefit foundation announced officially signing a collaboration protocol with the library of Alexandria on the 2nd of April of the same year, the protocol was signed by both the Onassis foundation president and the director of the library in presence of the city governor at the time Abdel Salam El Mahgoub.

According to the protocol the Onassis foundation would have spent at least 250 000 USD on the renovation of the palace.

** I couldn't get exact information about when the renovation started and when and why it stopped leaving the lush villa in such a bad condition.

 Antoniadis villa after the renovation work was stopped

A small advice for visitors: don't go to the  park in the spring,the winter and fall with their falling leaves and clouds put a mask on the bad condition of the park.

Another small advice for photography lovers: It's better not to go in the summer, the clear blue sky gives a monotonous monocolor back ground. Choose another season.

Naelah

*I participated with some of the photos above in the exhibition "Tracks in the city" 2015 a product of a wokshop with a group of volunteer photographers and researchers under the direction of the famous Alexandrian writer Alaa Khaled. The exhibition was one of the "Days of Alexandrian heritage 2015" events.