GLOBAL HELLENISM

"THE BENEFACTORS' ATHENS"

A symbol, literally, of the heyday of the city and its new grandeur is the Athenian trilogy of Christian and Theophilus Hansen on Panepistimiou Street, or the buildings of the University of Athens, the Academy and the National Library. The University building was founded in 1839 by (King) Otto and began functioning even before its completion in 1843. Both well-to-do and not-so-well-to-do Greeks played a significant part in its construction through a pan-Hellenic collection that was taken up. King Otto himself donated the money for the propylaea. Ovrenovitch, the leader of Serbia, donated 25.000 Drs. while the Greek community of Galaziou donated 200 tons of timber. Important contributions were also made by the families of Ionidis, Dimitris Platygenis, Dimitris Bernardakis, Stergios Doubas and Ioannis Dombolis, etc. The Athens Academy was founded in 1859. It waw the work of Simonos Sinas, a well-known businessman and banker from Vienna who had never been to Greece. The work passed through many stages and was completed after Sina`s own death and that of his wife Iphigeneia in 1886. The actual founding of the institution of the Academy of Athens and its first inaugural convention occurred in 1926. The National Library was made possible due to the generous donation of the Vallianatos brothers Maris, Panaghis and Andreas in 1885. In 1902, construction work was completed and the Library began functioning as of 1903. The Metropolitan Temple of Evangelismos was erected with public collection funds and with generous donations initially by George Sinas and thereafter by Simonos Sinas as well as by King Otto and the Municipality of Athens. It was founded in 1842 and completed in 1862. The existence of the monumental Polytechnic building on Patission Street is due to the three benefactors from Metsovo: Nikolaos Stournaris, Michael Tositsas, his wife Eleni and Yiorgos Averof. The Polytechnic was named "Metsovios" in their honour. Construction was begun in 1861 and in 1870 it began operating. Lysandros Kaftantzoglou was the architect. The Archeological Museum was built near the Polytechnic on grounds donated by Eleni Tositsa. Dimitrios Bernardakis, from Petersburg, donated 200.000 Drs. Construction began in 1866 by the architect Panaghiotis Kalkos and was completed in 1889. The existence of the Zappeion mansion is owed to the Zappas cousins Evangelis and Constantine, northern Epirotes based in Romania. Construction began in 1874, nine years after Evangelos Zappas`s death due to the persistence of his cousin Constantine who was also the executor of his Will. An educational organization that played a particularly important role with respect to education in Greece was the Friends of Education Society. This society was fortunate enough to be the recipient of the generous donation of Apostolos Arsakis, a doctor and politician who was from Hotahova in northern Epirus who lived in Romania and never visited liberated Greece. With his funds the spectacular group of Arsakeio buildings on Panepistimiou Street were built by the architect Lysandros Kaftantzoglou. Following Eleni Tositsa`s donation, the Tositseio School was built. In 1900, the unified restructuring of the school occurred, excepting the Arsakeio. Another important moment for Athens came about with the founding of the first credit and finance institution: the National Bank, with the Epirote banker and national benefactor Yiorgos Stavrou as its architect.