Evaggelistria Cemetery

What I can see

While being the oldest surviving cemetery of the city, a cultural monument and a historical portrait of the city itself, it simultaneously embraces its modern day history. Marble statues, crosses, kneeling women, embossed flowers and human figures, angels and other decorative motifs from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century compose an outdoor gallery in which we witness the evolution of this art. Important examples among these are: a) the tomb of Abbot (1876), where time is represented as a man lying on a couch with three women standing as Fates, b) the Ioannis Prassakakis tomb (1884) with a standing woman holding the hand of a seated man, c) the bust of Grigorios Papadopoulos (1873), d) the sculpture of Tassos Papanastasiou (1960) and e) the tombs of Stefanos Doungas, Charalampos Karamichalis, Nikos Mouschountis, Parisis.

What I can't see

By decision of the Ottoman administration, citizens of a different religion should be buried in a regulated way for public and sanitary reasons. Thus the cemetery based on the initiative of the Charitable Brotherhood was created. Initially, the Bulgarian cemetery was located right next to it, but it was dissolved after 1912, and the space joined the Evaggelistria. It is a protected monument because of its historical and sculptural value. However, the artistic value of a sculpture is not necessarily linked to the social contribution and the personality of the deceased. It is more closely tied to the ability of the artist, the financial status and taste of the family. In the ossuary many mortal remains are kept of the people who were executed by the Nazis, from the Civil War period, the tobacco worker rebels of May 1936 and those who had been fatally tortured by the junta of 1967.

Info

• Address: Elenis Zografou & Ag, Dimitriou St.

Bibliography