The building
The building housing the Philarmonic Society of Lefkada (F.E.L) is the old Kontari mansion which came into the possession of F.E.L. by the donation of Maria Aigialeidou. The opening of the building with the new owner being the Philarmonic Society of Lefkada took place on the 11th of December 1999 and was attended by Spiros Margelis, prefect at the time, the F.E.L. board (president at the time was Aggelos Vlahos) and the representative of Maria Aigialeidou, Spiridon H. Karvounis.
The building is situated in the old town of Lefkada, an officially marked historic site (FEK 103/Β/10-03-1982).
The restoration of the building integrated the architectural elements of its initial form as well as those of the old town of Lefkada.
The materials used during the restoration of the main structure were stone for the ground floor and wood for the two storeys above. Reinforced concrete was also used for the inner spaces of the building including the floor of the second storey which was completely surfaced making the new materials invisible, on the external as well as on the internal surfaces.
These materials were suitably applied so as not to deform the facades of the building and achieve at the same time all necessary static capacity. What’s more the flooring between the storeys (apart from the ground floor ceiling) is wooden and so is the roof.
The building follows the morphology and, up to a certain point, the technology of the construction models of the traditional historic site: the carved isodomic stone construction for the ground floor, the wood construction for the storeys, the architectural elements on the facades such as the wood pilasters, the wood frames on the doors and the storeys, the traditional wood frames on the ground floor are some of those elements.
The building consists of three storeys. Each storey covers a 222,27 square-meter surface and is built on a 410,65 square-meter plot. The covered surface is 222,27 square meters and the total allowable building area is 661,81 square meters.
The ground floor houses the Philarmonic Society Museum and the theater, which has a seating capacity of 170.
The first floor houses the office of the board and the wardrobe of the band, whereas on the second floor you will find the office of the conductor, the classrooms and the room where the instruments are kept.
