Κυριακή 7 Φεβρουαρίου 2016

In Greece it is the chapels that have villas!

Rich people in Greece have the habit of building villas on a public beach or in a forest or in an archaeological site and claim a wide area as their property. What is the trick? One buys a cheap chapel like one in the picture below:








One places it in his garden and dedicates it to a saint, preferably one, whose celebration is at a time of dead season. You go to the local church and claim you have built a chapel. They will see that the chapel gets electricity, water and whatever else needed. The villa then will be registered as the guesthouse for the pilgrims of the saint.
The law changes, but because mentalities do not so easily, there are variations to how it is exactly done and of course not everybody can do it, one has to belong to some cliques.
A stupid way, probably because the system was being changed but the priests could not wait, was the one some mayors chose. In order to give electricity to a chapel they invented a whole settlement. They said that the area where the chapel was, is inhabited and electricity should be provided. After some years inspectors appeared and couldn't find any villages. Maybe the chapel founder went bankrupt and could not build a "guesthouse" around it.

Source in Greek about why villas have chapels

Source about the one villaless chapel