At the entrance to the quiet and almost flat village in western Pelion, Ano Lechonia, 11 km southeast of Volos, stands an imposing but abandoned building whose story makes anyone who hears it shudder.
Indeed, the urban legend that surrounds it wants it to be haunted after the death of the children of the Kontos family, who, as the legend mentions, were poisoned by a dead lizard that fell into the jug containing their milk.
As for the history, the impressive neoclassical mansion was built in 1900 for the Russian ambassador Nikolas Kontos who lived there with his wife and their four children.
It is one of the most characteristic examples of neoclassicism, consisting of a basement and a semi-basement, first floor and attic. On the ground floor to the east and west of the entrance are a hall, kitchen and toilet, while outside the halls are large canopies for the summer months.
During World War II the mansion, like many other elite villas and mansions in Greece, was occupied by the Nazis who used it as a headquarters where Greek warriors were interrogated and tortured. In fact, there were many Greeks who were tortured and executed in the villa's basement.
The Kontos family owned a large fortune in Rome, Lausanne and Greece, while Nikolaos Kontos was one of the most powerful men in Central Greece and was widely known in the Farsala area, owning the Tsifliki of Vrysia and owning a house in Volos, the neoclassical Gambeta building, as well as in Athens.
The family drama, however, does not quite fit the urban legend surrounding their estate in the village. For example, three of their four children, Eleni, Kostas, and Katina, died of tuberculosis, not poisoning, as legend has it. More precisely, Katina died in Volos on April 9, 1896, at the age of 16, and her sister died the same year in Geneva, Switzerland, in the tuberculosis sanatorium at the age of 15.
The family leaked the story of the poisoning by the lizard due to the social exclusion caused by the mere hearing of tuberculosis at that time, while there are not a few people who also speak of the children being poisoned by the family maid so that other relatives could inherit the mansion.
In any case, the urban legend is reinforced by the funerary monument in the cemetery of Volos, which presents a table with a decanter and three chairs around it, each inscribed with one of the names of the children of the family who died at a young age.
However, the rumors of the mansion seem to continue, as several misfortunes befell the other families who lived in the mansion too.
Since 1985, following a decision by Melina Mercouri, the house has been designated as protected.
