Acropole Hotel

Acropole Hotel
General information
AddressZubeir Pascha Street
Town or cityKhartoum
CountrySudan
Website
acropolekhartoum.com

The Acropole is the oldest hotel in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, since it was still established during the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.

After Sudanese independence in 1956 the Greek-owned hotel weathered several regime changes and developed into a popular entry point and base for visiting journalists, humanitarians, diplomats, archaeologists and other researchers as well as overland travellers.The family-run business was in service without interruption until it was forced by the 2023 Sudan conflict to close its doors.

It is widely considered as one of the best hotels in Africa and enjoys a reputation as a legendary landmark of hospitality.

History

During the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium

A photo from 1943 picturing the staff of the Great Britain Club on the wall of the Acropole's management office.

The Acropole was founded in 1952 by Panagiotis ("Panaghis") Pagoulatos from the village of Valsamata on the Ionian island of Cephalonia,[citation needed] who had left Greece during WWII, and his wife Flora, who was from the community of the Greeks in Egypt, specifically from Alexandria.[1] Since there was a sizeable community of Greeks in Sudan at the time as well, the couple settled in the Anglo-Egyptian colony. The Washington Post writes:

"During the day, he was employed by the British government. After hours, he worked as a private accountant, soon amassing enough capital to open a night club just opposite the governor's palace".

When the British Governor-General Sir Alexander Knox Helm had the "Great Britain Bar" closed because of the noise, the couple took over a liquor dealership, opened a wine store, a confectionery shop, and then the Acropole,[2] which at first had just ten rooms, but soon expanded.[3] US-American author Robert D. Kaplan has called it

"a monument to the inventive cunning and shrewdness of the Greek trading community in Africa."[4]

Since Sudanese Independence

Historical sticker on a vintage suitcase.

When Sudan obtained sovereignty from its colonial masters on 1 January 1956, the Greek settlers in the country were issued Sudanese nationality certificates and generally continued to thrive in the first few years of independence.[5] Their numbers had increased by then to around 6,000[6] or even 7,000.[7] However, as political and economic turmoils grew, the number of Greeks in Sudan diminished by 1965 to 4,000.[6]

Gallery of historical images in the hotel restaurant (2015) with the photo of a now nearly extinct northern white rhinoceros in the centre.

This trend also affected the business of the Pagoulatos family: In 1967, the closed their confectionery shop, when it was damaged in an anti-government protest.[8] In the same year, Panagiotis Pagoulatos died and his three sons Athanasios ("Thanasis"), George, and Gerasimos (better known as "Makis" or "Mike", who was born in the Acropole)[9] took over the business:

“With their mother’s guidance and their hard work, they managed to turn the hotel into an actual treasure of the city’s cultural and touristic life.”[10]

Geldof's letter: "Love + Thanks"[11]

Unlike many other Greek-Sudanese enterprises, the Acropole was spared from the policies of nationalisation following the 1969 coup d'état, since it was housed in a rented building. It suffered from the worsening economic crisis, but profited from the pro-Western swing after the failed 1971 coup d'état by parts of the Sudanese Communist Party.[6]

In 1983 again, the Acropole lost part of its business, when dictator Gaafar Nimeiry introduced the draconic "September Laws" under the label of Sharia and had all beverages dumped into the Blue Nile. Until then, the Acropole had been the distributor of Amstel beer in the country.[8] According to Robert D. Kaplan, the Pagoulatos-family was planning to give up the business and to leave Sudan following that loss.[12]

A framed collage poster signed by dozens of humanitarians with Geldof's letter in the management office.

Shortly afterwards, however, the 50-room hotel experienced an unprecedented influx of customers because of the devastating 1984/85 famines in Darfur and Ethiopia. It became the base for many international non-governmental organisations, since it was the only hotel with reliable telephone, telex and fax lines.[3] Kaplan even reasons that the whole relief effort may well have collapsed without the skills of the Pagoulatos-family to maneuvre through Sudan's kaffkaesque bureaucracy. Senior Associated Press correspondent Mort Rosenbloom nicknamed the Acropole the "Emergency Palace".[12] US-journalist Edward Girardet compared it to Rick's Café Américain in the movie Casablanca.[3] Others likened it to legendary hotels like the Pasaje in Havana during the Spanish-American War, the Florida in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War and the Scribe in Paris after the Liberation of France,[13] or attributed "a Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe" to it.[14] One of the most prominent clients at that time was Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa.[15] A framed letter from the Irish pop-star-turned-Band Aid founder Bob Geldof on the wall of the hotel office gives evidence of his appreciation for the support by the Pagoulatos family and their staff.[8]

The Art Deco style entrance hall of the "totally unassuming" building[3] that used to house the Acropole until 1988, photographed in 2018

On 15 May 1988, the Acropole was shocked by tragedy, when a terrorist commando of the Abu Nidal group bombed the restaurant, killing a British couple with their two children, another Briton, and two Sudanese workers,[16][8] leaving 21 people injured.[17][18] Thanasis Pagoulatos lost part of his hearing in the blast.[19][20]

Nevertheless, the three "zen-like" Pagoulatos brothers and their wives[20] managed to restore the hotel in a building just opposite the ruins of the old one.[10] It has remained since then one of the most popular places for Western visitors, particularly journalists, archaeologists, humanitarians and other NGO workers. For this reason, the Acropole appears frequently in travel books.[21][22][23] A 1995 piece in the Washington Post praised the 41-room establishment as

"a rare oasis of efficient telecommunications and the friendliest atmosphere between Cairo and Nairobi."[2]

Paper-set

When Nazi-notorious filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl's helicopter crashed in the Nuba mountains in early 2000 at the age of 97, the Pagoulatos brothers found her a Sudan Airways captain and plane to rescue her and the crew, and had an ambulance waiting at the airport.[20]

The Honorary Consulate of Greece at the Acropole

An added attraction is the OHM electronics shop next door, which is owned by the brother of Sheikh Musa Hilal, previously the leader of Darfur's notorious Janjaweed militia. Several journalists and members of human rights organizations managed to interview Hilal in that shop.[24]

After the embassy of the Hellenic Republic was closed in September 2015,[25] Greece's new diplomatic representative as Honorary Consul became Gerasimos Pagoulatos, with the Honorary Consulate based at the Acropole Hotel.[26]

Exterior view of the Acropole in 2015

At the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture, George Pagoulatos was featured in the presentation of Sir David Chipperfield's design for a museum at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Naga along with portrays of other people who are related to the archeological project, photographed by German photographer Heinrich Voelkel of the Berlin-based Ostkreuz photo agency. The caption of the image read:

“I have been getting up at 5:30 a.m. for the last 50 years. My wife looks after me very well, she is my right hand, my left hand – an inspiration to me. We both grew up in Sudan. She is of Italian origin and I belong to the Greek minority. We have been happily married for 43 years. Some of the archeologists have come to our hotel for over 20 years. Having solved various problems together, we have developed strong bonds that go well beyond business relationships. We are like a family."[27]

In June 2022, George Pagoulatos, who directed "Acropole affairs with the courtesy and aplomb of the captain of a luxury liner",[3] died at the age of 76 years.[28][29] The Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the leading daily newspapers in Germany, hailed him in an obituary as

"the best ambassador of Sudan"[30]

Thanasis (left) and George in 2016.

When an armed conflict between rival factions of the military government of Sudan began on 15 April 2023, the Acropole was at the epicentre of heavy fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the control over the political centre of Sudan in downtown Khartoum. The then 79-year-old Thanasis Pagoulatos and his sister-in-law Eleonora ("Nora"), the widow of George, were holed up in the hotel building with four guests and three staff with no electricity or running water,[9] and food stocks running low after five days.[31][32] RSF fighters ransacked the hotel, robbing guests and staff,[33] who were only able to leave after ten days through streets littered with dead bodies.[9][34]

Thanasis and Nora were finally evacuated by the French Armed Forces to Djibouti from where they went on to Athens. Thus, the Acropole closed its doors for the first time in 71 years.[31] While some press reports called it the end of an era,[35] Thanasis in a Reuters interview expressed firm hope for a return.[9] One of the few items he managed to take with him was a handwritten note by Mother Teresa.[15]

References

  1. ^ ΔEΛHΓIΩPΓHΣ, ΣΤ. (August 3, 2012). "Μια Ακρόπολη στην καρδιά του Σουδάν". Espresso (in Greek). Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b Jonathan, C. R (May 15, 1995). "Bed, Breakfast – And More – In Sudan". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e Girardet, Edward (July 8, 1985). "From Khartoum to Cape Town/An African Journey: Meet the Pagoulatoses and their hotel, the place to stay in Khartoum". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  4. ^ Kaplan, Robert D. (26 January 2021). The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian. Random House Publishing Group. pp. 136–137. ISBN 9780525512325. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  5. ^ Kramer, Robert; Lobban, Richard; Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Sudan (4th ed.). Lanham / Toronto / Plymouth (UK): The Scarecrow Press. pp. 191–192. ISBN 978-0-8108-6180-0.
  6. ^ a b c Chaldeos, Antonis (2017). The Greek community in Sudan (19th-21st cen.). Athens. pp. viii, 105, 127, 144, 196. ISBN 978-618-82334-5-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Makris, Gerasimos (November 2007). "A PRISONER OF THE MAHDI – NICOLAS P. FROM SAMOS" (PDF). Sudan Studies – Official Newsletter of the SUDAN STUDIES SOCIETY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 36: 13–27.
  8. ^ a b c d Shahine, Alaa (November 7, 2008). "Greek hotel a part of Khartoum modern history". Reuters. Khartoum, Sudan. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c d Tagaris, Karolina (2023-04-28). "War forces Greek family to shut storied Khartoum hotel". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  10. ^ a b Areti, Kotseli (July 21, 2012). "Greek "Acropole Hotel" in the Heart of Sudan". Greek Reporter World. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  11. ^ Scroggins, Deborah (2011). Emma's War. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
  12. ^ a b Kaplan, Robert David (2008). Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea. New York City: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 185–187. ISBN 9781400034529. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  13. ^ Capelli, Vanni (7 May 2023). "Sudanese ghosts: Far-flung crises are never as distant as they seem". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  14. ^ Baumann, Nick (May 2014). "This American refused to become an FBI informant. Then the government made his family's life hell". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  15. ^ a b Stevis-Gridneff, Matina (2023-06-16). "He Ran Sudan's Most Storied Hotel. Then He Had to Leave Everything Behind". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  16. ^ Craig Harris, Lillian (July 2012). "THE ACROPOLE HOTEL, KHARTOUM" (PDF). Sudan Studies. 46: 23–36.
  17. ^ Bidwell, Robin Leonard (1998). Dictionary of Modern Arab History: An A to Z of Over 2,000 Entries from 1798 to the Present Day. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-7103-0505-3.
  18. ^ Terrorist Group Profiles. DIANE Publishing. 1 August 1989. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-56806-864-0.
  19. ^ Hay, Sophie (2014-02-28). "Sudan. The Acropole Hotel, Khartoum". pompei79. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  20. ^ a b c Rubin, Elizabeth (2006). "Hotel Acropole Khartoum: A smile and a tea". Bidoun. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  21. ^ Theroux, Paul (2004). Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 56. ISBN 9780618446872. Acropole Hotel khartoum.
  22. ^ Luciani, Silvia (2013). A Journey through Sudan. Blue Grange. p. 33. ISBN 9781291585513.
  23. ^ Robbins, Mike (2014). Even The Dead Are Coming: A Memoir of Sudan. New York: Broad Books.
  24. ^ "Hotel Acropole Khartoum: A smile and a tea". Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-06-02. Bidoun online magazine
  25. ^ "Serious Endeavours to Reopen Greece Embassy in Khartoum". Sudan Vision. 28 February 2016. Archived from the original on 20 February 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  26. ^ "Soudan". Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  27. ^ "Naga Museum in Sudan | David Chipperfield". MODERNi. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  28. ^ Alberizzi, Massimo A. (2022-07-02). "George Pagulatos, il greco icona di Khartoum per i giornalisti, proprietario e manager dell'affascinante Hotel Acropole ci ha lasciato". Africa Express: notizie dal continente dimenticato (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  29. ^ Gold, Henry (2022-07-07). "George Pagoulatos: An Appreciation". TDA Global Cycling. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  30. ^ Dörries, Bernd. "Hotelier George Pagoulatos aus Khartum: Ein filmreifes Leben". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  31. ^ a b Malagardis, Maria (1 May 2023). "Guerre au Soudan : à Khartoum, l'hôtel Acropole ferme ses portes pour la première fois depuis 1952". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  32. ^ Burke, Jason (2023-04-27). "Sudan conflict: renewed clashes raise fears ceasefire will not be extended". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  33. ^ al-Karib, Hala (2023-05-03). "How years of impunity gave Sudan's generals licence to destroy my country". The New Humanitarian. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  34. ^ Lemos, Rennan (2023-11-10). "Where do angels live? In hell. My escape from the war in Sudan". Medium. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  35. ^ Lindijer, Koert (2023-04-29). "Het beste hotel van Afrika, het Acropole in Khartoem, is verwoest". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2023-06-09.

External links

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