Among their portraits mostly dressed in the traditional costumes of her era of fighters Revolution of 1821who brought to their belts a series of weapons and manuals, stands out the portrait of a man dressed in European, with a grocery store, tie and tie on the long nose. His face was oval, the look of the dark and penetrating, exuding intelligence and political sharpness, and his mustache thin and well -groomed. This is the portrait of Alexandros Mavrokordatouof a scholar that reached the rebellious Greece in 1821, cutting ideas of European Enlightenment and knowledge of the formation of a modern liberal state.
Alexander Mavrokordatos was born on February 3, 1791, in her Arnaukii Constantinoplea suburb where many holiday homes had many families of Fanariots. Members of the Mavrokordian family, who was originally from Chios, offered their services to the High Gate for many years, either as dragumans or as rulers of Wallachia and Moldova. On the part of his mother, he was related to the Byzantine Karatza family, whose members also held high offices in the Ottoman administration. Alexander learned his first letters from a host and then studied at the Patriarchal Academy in Xirokrini (Kourutses) in Constantinople.
In 1819, he settled in Pisa, a city where several Greeks and lovers of Greek culture lived.
When his uncle, John Karatsas, was appointed by the ruler of Wallachia in 1812, the 29 -year -old Mavrokordatos chose to accompany him to Bucharest, a worker on his side as his secretary. Soon, he showed his skills in politics, rising to the post of great post. In 1818, however, he was forced to follow him in exile, when he abandoned the ruler of the ruler, fearing his life. In 1819, Mavrokordatos settled in Pisa, a city in which many Greeks and lovers of Greek culture lived, such as the British poet Last year Seley. In Pisa, he met with important personalities of community Hellenism, with the main Ignatius Metropolitan of Hungary, George Sekeris and Athanasios Tsakalov, who introduced him to him in the Friendly company.
With the explosion of the Revolution, in March 1821, he gathered some philhellenes, leased a ship and sailed about revolutionary Greece. Almost immediately he moved the threads for the political organization of the rebels, constituting it “Assembly of Western Greece Greece“
After the founding of the Greek state, Mavrokordatos took over high office.
During the Revolution, Mavrokordatos represented the view that in the Paligenia of the Greek Nation, both the leaders, the chieftains and the armed and the politicians, the experts of international diplomacy, who understood political theories and expectations of the time, were essential. their. The latter would be the ones who would clearly convey the message of the Greek Revolution to Europeans, in the hope that they would respond positively to the struggle of the Greeks for freedom.
After the founding of the Greek state, Mavrokordatos took over high office. He became Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador of Greece to Munich, London and Paris, starring in the main political events of the Otto reign. He died in August 1865, leaving an important footprint in Greece’s modern history.
Column: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poumenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
