The Grande Bretagne is not simply a luxury hotel in Athens surely the most luxurious establishment in Greece - it is an institution in itself. Ever since it opened its doors to receive the first visitor in 1874, the Grande Bretagne has been a point of reference in the social, political and economic life of Athens and, by extension, of the whole of Greece. Over the 126 years of the hotel' s existence one also observes the evolution of a basically agricultural society -just half a century after the country's liberation from the Ottoman rule and the creation of a tiny, impoverished country- through the gradual stages of development leading to a modern State and the creation of an important middle class with a European character