Monument of Philhellenes in the Church of Transfiguration in Nafplio
16.03.2021
The first memorial site dedicated to the Philhellenes who fell in the struggle for liberation of Greece from the Ottoman captivity was established in the city of Nafplio in the Catholic Church of Transfiguration.
The monument is located inside the entrance portal of the temple. Its structure surrounds the entrance and refers to an ancient Greek temple. It is made of four pillars and a triangular top, made of pine wood painted black. On the top, there is an inscription written with white letters, in French: A LA MEMOIRE DES PHILHELLENES MORTS POUR L'INDEPENDANCE, and on the pillars - the names of 280 fallen Philhellenes. Among them there are names of Poles who were killed during the Battle of Peta (Koulschelewski, Lasky, Mirziewski, Mlodowski, Dielsiewski, Dobronowski) and on the islands of Euboea and Poros (Pronokowski and Odworski).
The monument was constructed in 1841 and its founder was the French officer and Philhellen August Hilarion Touret, who fought in various places on the Greek side, survived the war and died in Athens in 1857. In his memory, the monument is called the "Arch of Touret". The designer of the monument was the Bavarian sculptor Christian Seigel.
The history of the Catholic Church in Nafplio dates back to the medieval times when it was a nuns' Catholic monastery. When Nafplio was under Turkish rule, the widow of Aga Pasha - Fatme, built a mosque on the site of the destroyed church, in memory of her deceased husband. After Greece regained independence, Otto, the first king of the Hellenes, in 1839 decided to hand over the temple building to the Catholics of Nafplio. In 1840, the church was renovated, and King Otto gave it the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Metamorphosi tou Sotiros), in memory of the transformation of Greece after the liberation from the Turkish yoke.
In the temple area there is an underground crypt with a depth of 3 meters, which has been preserved since the times of the Venetian monastery. In 1839, the remains of the Philhellenes who fought for the freedom of Greece were buried there.
The Catholic Church of Nafplio continues to serve Catholics in the Peloponnese and tourists visiting the region. Poles constitute a large group of the faithful, and their chaplain is the Polish parish priest, Fr. Ryszard Karapuda.
Sources: www.nafplio.chrytusowcy.pl https://argolikivivliothiki.gr
