Team: Turkish Rule and Recent Times
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Team: Turkish Rule and Recent times 7 3 51 8 2 9 6 5 4 Find the sight on the map and fill in the text at its description square takes its name from the first governor of the modern Greek state, 1 the figure that above all others is synonymous with the history of the city. His statue, the work of the sculptor Michael Tobros, was placed in the square in 1932 and is carved from marble. He is shown standing, dressed in formal attire, leaning lightly on the trunk of a tree. Let’s now review his biography: Born in in 1776, he was the son of a noble family. He studied in Italy, but was finally won over by politics and diplomacy. For many years he was at the forefront of European diplomacy, chiefly as the Russian Minister of Exterior, during which time he was able to give timely assistance to the Greek struggle for independence. In April 1827, the 3rd National Congress elected him as governor of the country for a period of 7 years, and he landed in Nafplio, the then capitol, on 8th January 1828. He governed the newly constituted Greek state for 3 years and 8 months, until 27th September 1831, when he was murdered outside the church of . His career as governor was bright, and it is not by chance that he is considered one of the greatest politicians in Greek History. The renovated building, which today houses the , has a long and 2 interesting history. It is a two-floor neo-classical building, with a symmetrical façade. It was built in 1857 to house Nauplio’s High School, which was founded in 1833, during the time of King . Nafplio High School was only the second building in Greece that had been specifically built to house a public middle school: the first being in in Syros. The school building had some imperfections: it was dark and did not have good ventilation. There was also no playground, but there was a garden to the front of the building, where pupils could sit during their breaks. The building was abandoned in1935, when the High School moved to the newly built building located opposite in Amalias Avenue. Since then, the building has undergone several changes in usage, until 1992, when it was renovated. The “ ”, the Square of the Three Admirals, is dedicated to the 3 memory of the admirals: of , of and of , who fought the Turko-Egyptian fleet in the sea battle of on the 8th October 1827. The square was constructed in the time of the governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, by the civil engineer Stamatis Voulgaris, and includes many interesting buildings and monuments. In the middle of the square is the funeral monument containing the remains of , one of the leaders of the Greek revolution. There are many splendid neo-classical buildings in the square. In the western section of the square, one can see the statue of the first King of Greece: , the second son of Ludwig I of Bavaria. The young king arrived in Nafplio on 25th January 1833, and remained in the city for a short while until 1834. It was from the fortress that the liberation of the city from the Turks 4 began, after a long siege. On the night of , a unit of Greek rebels, led by , launched a surprise attack and seized the fortress . was the first to set foot inside the fort from the bastion of Achilles. The fortress was also used as a prison. Inn 1833 during the time of king Otto regency, one of the leaders of the revolution was imprisoned here, charged for high treason. The bastion was converted into a prison for serious criminals in around 1840 and it remained in operation until 1926. Today the fort can be accessed either by road or by the famous steps which are located on the western side to the east of the Grimani bastion. These steps are traditionally supposed to number , although originally there was one more which was destroyed by . Climbing the steps from Potamianou Street, from Aghios Spiridon Square, we reach the Catholic 5 church, which has become known as ‘ ’. The age-old history of this church probably began during the time of the Frankish occupation, when the church must have been used as a convent for Franciscan nuns. Shortly before the outbreak of the Greek revolution, when Nafplio was still under Turkish control, the widow of the Aga-Pasha, Fatme, restored the church, in memory of her husband. Indeed, even today, the church still maintains the appearance of a mosque, as much on the exterior, with its heavy proportions as on the inside where there are niches for the Koran. In 1839, King Otto gave the church to the Catholic Church, to provide for Greek Catholics and for the foreign Philhellenes, who helped Greece in her struggle for liberation; and also for the Bavarian soldiers who belonged to his escort. It was Otto’s decision that the church be dedicated to the transfiguration of the savior, to commemorate the metamorphosis of Greece after its liberation from the Turkish rule. At the square one can see old houses from the 18th and 19th 6 centuries, while on Kapodistriou Street there are two Turkish fountains, which bear inscriptions in . The inscriprion on the fountain opposite the church of Aghios Spiridonas tells us that the Turk, Aga Machmout, had beautiful fountain built in 1734 to 1735 for horses to drink from. A little further to the side, opposite the entrance to the church, one can see the traces of what was once a Turkish . The center of the square is decorated with the bronze bust of the great Greek author and academic , one of the noblest figures of Greek literature, born in Naflplio in 1907 and lived here for the first years of his life. His family home is at number 20 in the street that now bears his name. He is one of the most representative of the so-called ‘generation of the thirties’, which creatively renewed Greek literature. He wrote short stories, fictions, theatrical works and essays. Works that refer to his birthplace are the novel: ‘ ’ , his collections of short stories ‘ Of Love and Death’, and ‘April’, as well as his theatrical work ‘Night in the Mediterranean’. Although he only lived in Nafplio to the age of 9, the city, with its urban environment and rich history, had a major effect on the inspiration of this great Greek author. square was once the site of the Venetian bastion of Santa Teresa, which 7 was later renamed the bastion of Moschos, and was demolished in 1866. The monument to the Philhellenes, in order words the friends of Greece, which dominates the centre of the square, was competed in 1903, in memory of the French Philhellenes who fought and died for the liberation of Greece from during the Greek revolution. The monument, is in the form of the memorial stone made of grey marble, and is in the shape of an , a form highly popular at the time. It was designed in Paris, but constructed in Greece in the marble works of Ioannis Chaldoupis. The , which is located in the south –west sector of Syntagma square, 8 holds a special place in Greek history, as it was here that the parliament of the rebellious Greeks met. It dates from 1730, the time of the second Turkish occupation of the city, and was originally build as . It has a characteristic Ottoman architecture, with heavy proportions and bulky dome. According to local tradition it was built by a rich Turkish Aga in order to redeem his soul from a heinous crime that had committed: the Aga had killed two young Venetians who had come to Nafplio to find the treasure that their father had hidden when the city was occupied by the Venetians. The Aga found the treasure following the map that was in the possession of the two men, but he killed them in order to keep the loot for himself. Later, filled the remorse for his hideous crime, it is said that he used the gold he had stolen to build it. After the liberation of the city from the Turkish yoke it was remodeled by the architect Vallianos and housed the Greek Parliament, from the autumn of 1825 to the spring of 1826. As with many of the most important buildings in the city, with the passing of time it has been used for a variety of purposes. In 1831 it housed the Greek School for a short time, while the ground floor was used as a prison. During the time of Kapodistrias and Otto, from 1828 to 1834, it was here that public dances were held. In 1834, during the regency period, the trial of the chiefs of the Greek revolution heroes and , was held here. Today it has been restored in an exemplary fashion by the Greek Ministry of Culture and is used as a conference center, which, apart from conferences, plays host to many other cultural events. dates from around the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 9 19thcentury, in other words, towards the end of the second Turkish occupation. It was built to house a Turkish school, known in Turkish as Medrese. It is a heavy and dark stone building, with arched arcades and an internal courtyard. One can make out at least two stages of building. The central part of the building, with its three arcades and tiles, belong to the first phase , while the upper level of the towers and almost all the rear of the building, which have been built of unhewn stone tiles, belong to the second phase.