Greece’s Old Balconies are Becoming Death Traps

An invisible danger keeps pedestrians on alert in Greece’s major cities. Like Gauls fearing the sky will fall on their heads, they scan buildings to avoid being struck by falling plaster, marble, or even entire balconies. Walking through the city has become a survival mission.

Yesterday, a 59-year-old man in Patras was killed when marble pieces detached from a balcony and fell on him. In early May, two balconies collapsed in Heraklion, Crete. One crashed onto a market stall, and by sheer luck no one was hurt; the other seriously injured a tourist. In late February, a balcony fell from a listed building in Piraeus, and in Tavros, the municipality cordoned off access to a building as a balcony was hanging precariously over pedestrians’ heads—just like an incident two years ago at a hotel on Syngrou Avenue. In 2024, at least six other collapses were recorded—at least those that were reported. In early 2023, during a storm in Athens, a balcony ledge fell on the city’s busiest commercial street, Ermou, fortunately without injuries.

Not a single year has passed in the last decade without similar incidents—clear evidence that something is wrong with the construction, structural integrity, or maintenance, particularly of older