Authorities sealed off a portion of a central Athens hotel facing the Acropolis, in line with a Council of State (CoS) decision stipulating that anything built above 24 meters at the structure is illegal.

An Athens first-instance court granted the hotel's owners a temporary injunction, which consequently delayed the decision of the highest administrative court.

That decision was later overturned by an appellate-level administrative court, allowing the ministry’s inspectors to padlock the two top floors of the Coco-Mat Athens BC boutique hotel in execution of a ministry decree issued last August.

The owners maintained that they had been granted all necessary licenses by relevant authorities based on the design and dimensions that were eventually erected. However, following a lawsuit by local residents, subsequent court decisions deemed that building codes, specifically the maximum height for the structure in the specific district of municipal Athens, had been violated.

The lawsuit by residents pointed to the fact that the hotel in question is visibly higher than adjacent structures and impedes views, looking from south to north, of the ancient Acropolis archaeological site, which sits atop an iconic Athenian hill. A tender is now pending to select an expert consultant tasked with preparing a study for the demolition of the hotel's top floors.