antoniadis villa and its gardens

8/11/2019 Antoniadis Villa and Its Gardens

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Antoniadis Villa and its Gardens

The Villa of Antoniadis is a very famous and important site inAlexandria,and yet

is not frequented by many tourists. The Villa is listed as historical monument

number 1,250 in the governorate conservation registry. It lies near the Mahmoudia

Canal at the southern entrance of Alexandria, and is surrounded by some 48

hectares of greenery in several sections. They include the Antoniadis Garden, the

Flower Garden, the Zoological and Botanical Gardens and the Nouzaba (Nuzha)

Garden, which was a residential suburb inhabited by the likes of Callimachous

(310-240 BC), the head librarian of the ancient Library of Alexandria at that time.

In 640 AD, the Roman general Pompilius thwarted the King of Syria's attempt to

capture Alexandria, while in the same year the cavalry of the Arab conqueror Amr

Ibn el-As pitched camp before entering the city.
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Here, once the venue for military bands, diverse greenery originally planted during

the reign of the Khedive Ismail have grown to maturity. The Antoniadis Gardens

include beautiful statues and a tropical greenhouse. The Zoological Gardens were

opened in 1907 and cover 25 acres. But watch out. Among the many species of

birds are macaws, that swear like sailors, tutored by long-departed British soldiers.

This area, known as the Somuha district, was a magnet for wealthy Alexandrians.

It is named after a Baghdad-born Jewish architect named Joseph Somuha, who

moved to Egypt in the 1920s. His Somuha City, as it was originally called, was the

local equivalent ofCairo's Heliopolis, a modern suburb for the upper middle

classes. There was at one time a number of foreigners who also lived here.
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The Antoniadis Palace and its park are constructed as a miniature version of the

Palace of Versaille. The Villa and its garden date back to the 19th century, and is

mainly used to house a collection of statues sculpted in the Greek style and owned

by Sir John Antoniadis. It consists of a basement level of 434 square meters, a

ground floor of 1,085 square meters, a second floor of 860 meters and a roof area

of 480 square meters, for a total area of 2,859 square meters. The ground and

second floors include 15 rooms each. There are several archeological remains,

including a tomb and a cistern.

he tomb on the grounds, because of its setting in such a paradise-like setting and

because of the Agathodaimon (god snake) that decorated its kline chamber, is

popularly known as the "Tomb of Adam and Eve." It's entrance is down a deep

staircase of forty-four steps that ends in a landing opening onto the court at thesouth end. It is believed to date from the first century BC. The principle rooms

consist of an open air court, a vestibule and an alcove with a funerary bed, on a

single axis. The tomb is conspicuously well planned and well crafted but, more

importantly, it is a remarkably individualistic achievement.


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Here, the kline is reduced from a functional couch to a facade treated in low relief.

During Sir John Antoniadis lifetime, it was a gathering place for the social elite,

and was the scene of much gaiety and many parties. However, Antonis Antoniadis,

the son of Sir John Antoniadis, later donated the family mansion, grounds and

gardens to the Alexandria Town Council.

Afterwards, it was used as a guest house to host visiting dignitaries to Egypt,

including the King of Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Shah of Iran and Mohamed Reza

Pahlavi, who was married to the Egyptian Princess Fawzia, the sister of King


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Farouk. The Villa also hosted the signing ceremony of the 1936 agreement

between Egypt and Briton, which gave Egypt some limited independence, and it

held the first meeting of the Egyptian Olympia committee

After the 1952 revolution, part of the original garden of the Villa itself was used to

enlarge the Nouzaha and zoological gardens. There was a general decline in the

condition of the Villa after about 1970, but the gardens remain in fairly good

condition. In 2004, General Abdel Salam El Mahgoub, the governor ofAlexandria,

donated the Villa Antoniadis and its gardens to the New Library of Alexandria,

Bibliotheca Alexandria, including its furniture and other items. As part of this

arrangement, the Villa is to be restored, and its content will be exhibited as part of

the the Sir John Antoniadis collection.
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Today, theBibliotheca Alexandrina is playing a major role in revitalizing the city

ofAlexandria. With a clearly developed strategy for the future and a

comprehensive vision of the twenty-first century institution, it is much more than a

library. It is involved in a wide range of activities to carry out its mission of being

an international center of knowledge and the promoter of dialogue and

understanding between peoples and cultures. Additionally, it seeks to actively

participate in the urban and economic sustained development of the city of

Alexandria.

In this spirit, the Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center (Alex-Med) was

created in April 2003 as a part ofBibliotheca Alexandrina to shape the visionofAlexandria's future. Alex-Med is a specialized center focused on researching,

documenting and disseminating the city's heritage. Working closely with Euro-

Mediterranean institutions, it also seeks to encourage dialogue and mutual
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understanding to reinforce the Mediterranean's role as a meeting point of today's

civilization.

It also acts as a forum for cultural preservation, interaction and exchange and an

agent for promoting economic development and sustainability. Hence, Alex-Med

participates in projects to preserve and manage the heritage of the city and honors

the past to invest in the future by rehabilitating the Villa Antoniadis and its

gardens, as well as many other buildings.

The aim of this renovation project is to preserve and manage a unique heritage site

so that it can be a source of enrichment and pleasure to future generations. The

Villa Antoniadis will host someBibliotheca Alexandrina events, but will also

become a center for scholarship onAlexandria and the Mediterranean, a meeting

point for cultural interaction, and a space for exchange and dialogue It will

therefore become a Med Research Center as well as a guest house for visitors and

researchers. It will also contain a museum with exhibition space, along with

thematic gardens, a horticulture center and even an outdoor theater. It will also
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have an art center, meeting rooms and workshop facilities. The estimated budget

for renovation will be about 2,500,000.00 USD for renovating the Villa, about

1,000,000 USD for renovation of the garden, and about 500,000 USD for furniture

and equipment.

Antoniadis garden is just 300-400m from Sidi Gaber Train Station and just 10

minutes from Nouzaha Airport.

antoniadis villa and its gardens

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