An orphanage on a little-known Turkish island is set to be converted into a five-star luxury hotel.Prinkipo Greek Orphanage housed children between 1903 and 1964 before being shut down by Turkish authorities.It is located on the island of Prinkipo – one of the Princes’ islands – and is known as one of the biggest wooden buildings in Europe.The building serves as a reminder of the Greek presence in Turkey and was originally built to become a hotel named Prinkipo Palace in the late 1800s, though it never was used as such.Now the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox church has signed an agreement allowing the building to be transformed into a hotel. Officials agreed for Greek and Turkish investment companies to redevelop and restore the historic structure on June 15, according to the Greek Reporter. Prinkipo Greek Orphanage is located on the little-known Turkish island of Prinkipo It was built back in the late 1800s and used as an orphanage between 1903 and 1964The condition of the orphanage has been declining since it closed and parts of the wooden building have collapsed over the years. It was decided in 2010 by the European Court of Human Rights that the Ecumenical Patriarchate had ownership over the building.However, restoration proved to be too expensive and the new agreement means it could be redeveloped into a five-star resort. The building was designed by French-Ottoman architect Alexandre Vallaury and was originally supposed to feature a casino inside the hotel. However, the plans were scrapped after permission for the casino was denied, according to The Religious News Network. It was then purchased by Eleni Zarifi who gave the structure to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox church to be used as an orphanage for children from Constantinople’s Greek community. The condition of the orphanage has been declining since it closed and parts of the wooden building have collapsed over the yearsPatriarch Bartholomew previously reflected on the attempts to secure funding to restore the site and turn it into a centre for interfaith dialogue and environmental studies. He told The Religious News Network how ‘all these efforts failed’. The Patriarch admitted the decision to allow the building to be transformed into a hotel was difficult but inevitable before it deteriorated so much it ‘became one with the earth’.But the agreement between Turkish and Greek developers has been described as ‘highly symbolic’ by the Patriarch and could serve as a symbol of friendship between the two countries.