{"id":7112,"date":"2026-05-24T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7112"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:27:00","slug":"a-little-piece-of-switzerland-in-plaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7112","title":{"rendered":"A “little piece” of Switzerland in Plaka"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the presence of the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation, Ignatius Cassis, the inauguration<\/b> of the new Swiss House of Culture<\/b>, Research and Diplomacy in Plaka took place last Friday. <\/b><\/p>\n

The Swiss Embassy will move into the four-storey building on 2 June and will be co-located with the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece <\/b>(ESAG) and the Flux Laboratory arts and culture centre. <\/b>The multi-purpose venue has a terrace with a privileged view of the Sacred Rock of Akropolis.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"elbetiko-spiti.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

As a “little piece of Switzerland<\/b>” in Greece, the Swiss house was described by Mr. Cassis, stressing that it reflected a typical Swiss balance of dialogue and diplomacy.<\/b><\/p>\n

He then spoke about Greek-Swiss relations, arguing that these were not only diplomatic ties but “deeply historical”<\/b>links that began with a remarkable<\/b> Greek: Joannis Kapodistrias. <\/b><\/p>\n

“A national hero for Greece and a very important figure for Switzerland,”<\/b> he added, explaining the role the first governor of the Greek state had in recognizing Switzerland’s neutrality,<\/b>a policy that goes back more than 210 years.<\/p>\n

“Our relations today are strong and dynamic<\/b>,” he added, noting that few countries have such a “unbreakable bond” between them. <\/p>\n

Commenting on some aspects of bilateral relations, he saidSwitzerland is the fifth largest investor in Greece,<\/b>which he said is now one of the most popular destinations for his compatriots: last year 800,000 Swiss tourists visited our country.<\/b><\/p>\n

In addition, in a geopolitical reference, the Swiss Foreign Minister referred to the Eastern Mediterranean,<\/b>calling it a crossroads of history, culture and geopolitical influences. <\/b><\/p>\n

“Its stability concerns the whole of Europe and not just the region,” he noted, and in this context he also referred to Greek-Swiss cooperation on immigration.<\/b> Earlier in the day, Mr. Kassis had separate meetings with the Ministers of National Defence and Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias<\/b> and Giorgos Gerapetritis<\/b> respectively.<\/p>\n

“Vision”<\/h2>\n

The Greek government was represented by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for Hellenes Abroad, Giannis Loverdos<\/b>, who cut the ribbon at the newly built Swiss house together with Mr. Kassis. <\/p>\n

\"loberdos-elbetos-presbhs.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

After his speech, Mr. Loverdos said the event was not just the inauguration of a building “but a vision<\/b>“, underlining the historical ties of friendship and close cooperation between Greece and Switzerland.<\/b><\/p>\n

For his part, outgoing Swiss Ambassador Stefan Esterman, who is expected to leave in the summer, said his service in Greece had “transformed” him as a person.<\/b> And referring to his compatriots living in the country, as well as to Greeks who maintain relations with Switzerland, he noted:“I constantly felt that I had many ambassadors here.”<\/b><\/p>\n

A large number of people from the diplomatic and cultural scene of Athens attended the inauguration, including the French Ambassador to Greece, Laurence Oer.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the presence of the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation, Ignatius Cassis, the inauguration took place last Friday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}