Mouria, a kafeneio that has been standing at the corner of Kallidromiou and Charilaou Trikoupi in Exarchia since 1915, w...

Mouria, a kafeneio that has been standing at the corner of Kallidromiou and Charilaou Trikoupi in Exarchia since 1915, will shut its doors permanently on November 1, 2026. A farewell gathering is planned for the evening of October 31, starting after 6 p.m. The café's final message to its regulars was simple: "The deposition. For all the times you held us and we held you. A hug." The closure came down to a court decision. Owner Christos Vanas, who first walked through those doors in 1982 as an employee before eventually becoming the seventh person to run the place, lost his lease and could not find new premises. When the property owner moved to convert the space into a pharmacy earlier this year, a wave of protests and a public petition followed. By July, it seemed the space would remain a kafeneio. It did not save Mouria. The café takes its name from a mulberry tree, a mouria, that once stood on that spot. The original neoclassical building was torn down in the late 1950s and replaced with an apartment block, but the café survived on the ground floor. Its green glass front, marble tables, mosaic floor, iron staircase, and a sculpture known as "Icarus" or "the Angel" stayed intact through all of it. Over the decades, Mouria hosted book launches, theatrical performances, and political debates. Kallidromiou's famous street market settled nearby in 1949, and the café became part of the neighborhood's fabric. An attempt to have it officially listed as a modern monument went nowhere. #Athens #Exarchia #Greece