"When we decided to start the Revolution, we didn't think about how many of us there were, nor that we didn't have chariots, nor that the Turks were besieging the castles and cities, nor did any wise person say to us 'where are you going to fight with a wheat wagon'" Theodoros Kolokotronis
The great figures of the War itself include the well-known combatants: Theodōros Kolokotrōnēs, the brigand hero of the Peloponnese, Geōrgios Karaiskakēs and Odysseus Androutsos, commanders of forces in Roumeli (continental Greece), and Iōannēs Makrygiannēs, whose Memoirs of the War are considered among the classics of Modern Greek literature. However, there were many men (and some women) who fought in the war, coming from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds. What they had in common was that they wanted to rebel and they had loyal brothers in arms and a renowned tradition in irregular warfare.
In fact the Greeks had no organized army and no experience of war, aside of guerilla warfare, and many were frightened to raise against the Ottoman rule. Kolokotronis was the one who, with his powerful rhetorical skill, and taking advantage of the fervor for liberation, succeeded in assembling the first body of armed men in the first days of April 1821.
This exhibition offers a glimpse into the palimpsest of people who took it upon themselves to fight for freedom in 1821. You will find the well-known and the less-known personalities who shaped the Greek War of Independence, in a list ordered by number of associated Cultural Heritage Objects- letters, paintings, personal items, memoirs etc- which you can explore to find out more about their lives.
Although revolutionary Greece in romantic iconography is depicted as a woman, Liberty, Victory or Glory, history has not recorded with the same pen the participation of women in the armed struggle. Besides the famous Lascarina Boubulina and Manto Mavrogenos who led a body of Myconians, having given all her property to the Struggle and having stirred up public feeling in Europe by maintaining a fervent correspondence with Philhellenic associations, there were hundreds of other nameless women who fought on land, in next to their relatives.
The heroic attitude of the women of Messolonghi is reflected in the work "Free Besiegers" by Dionysios Solomonos. It is also recorded by the Philhellenic eyewitness, Fabre Auguste in his book "The story of the siege of Messolonghi". There are of course hundreds - if not thousands - of other Greek women, anonymous and named, who distinguished themselves for their bravery and self-sacrifice, such as Leno Botsari, who committed suicide by falling into the river to avoid falling into the hands of the Turks.
Alongside the chieftains and captains on the battlefield, their wives, mothers-in-law and mothers often fight. or their mothers. In addition to Moscho Tzavela, there is Despo Tzavela, Asimo Goura, Despina Kanari, Eleni Kitsou, Angelina Nikitaina wife of Nikitaras, up to the mother of Theodore Kolokotronis, the captain Zambeta Kolokotronis. Joining the revolution was for everyone, individually and collectively, a life and death issue. "Liberty or death" applied to each and every one of them. There was no middle ground.
In the following exhibition you will find the men who played a role in the Revolution and the few women that are recorded in historical documentation. Through their own objects and letters, portraits, sketches and references to them, one can discover more about their life and work, the important moments of the Struggle, but also their everyday life.
