Panayis Charokopos ΠΑΝΑΓΗΣ ΧΑΡΟΚΟΠΟΣ
Born 1835 in Kefalonia Died 1911 in Athens
Section 4, Number 561
It is not often that I have chosen to write
about someone simply because I was intrigued by his larger than life marble
monument, but this time I have. I was in Section Four of the cemetery, home to
many imposing graves like those of Heinrich Schliemann, and Christakis Zographos. All I knew about Panagis Charokopos was that, in spite of his surname
(which means ‘reveller’) he was presented as the beau ideal of a 19th
century Greek gentleman: richly attired, serious, confident - and looking as if,
given half a chance, he might just take a pace or two out of his marble doorway
and stride into the present.
It turns out he was one of that fascinating class of 19th century benefactors without whom Greece would have been a very poor nation indeed. A startling number of Hellenes acquired vast wealth by investing their talents in those areas still under Ottoman rule, got rich, and then returned home to spread their largesse and considerable influence inside the Greek state. Many of them made their fortunes in Egypt, or Constantinople. But Panagis Charokopos made his fortune in the former Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, part of today’s Romania. These men were Greece’s first venture capitalists. Certainly they were out to enrich themselves, but many used their acquired wealth to benefit the nation.
A look at his life offers a glimpse into one era of the Greek presence in Romania, the thorny issue of agrarian reform in Thessaly where he bought so much land, and his most lasting legacy, the Harokopio University of Athens (Χαροκόπειο Πανεπιστήμιο), which is still going strong today.
His Life
Panagis Charokopos was born in 1835 on the island of Kefalonia where his family tree can be traced back to the 16th century to Spiridon Mavrokefalios. Surnames in Greece have been fluid well into the 19th century and were often descriptive epithets. Spiridon’s meant ‘black haired’ and that one might have stuck if it were not for his heir Erasimos who was a bon vivant and gained the sobriquet ‘Charokopos’ (reveller or rake), the name which has been used by the family ever since. In Erasmos’ day, Kefalonia belonged to Venice so, perhaps he had a lot more reasons to celebrate life than Greeks on the mainland who were firmly under the Ottoman thumb.
Panagis hailed from a small village close to the imposing Venetian castle at Assos in western Kefalonia. It had been erected in order to ward off the Turkish raids and more or less managed to do the job until 1795 when the French took over. It was the turn of Britain in 1809. When Panagis was born, the island had been under British rule for 16 years and would remain so until it joined Greece in 1864.
The castle is now a picturesque ruin and a backdrop for the many tourist villas lining the narrow causeway leading to its ruins.
Panagis was the oldest of 5 children. (1) His father died young leaving Panagis head of the family. His school years were spent in Argostoli, the island’s administrative centre but, at the age of 20, he set out for Constantinople, then the most thriving commercial centre in the Balkans, to make his fortune. It was 1855 and there would have been plenty of other Greeks in the capital trying to thread the same needle. The kingdom of Greece may have been a beacon of hope for all Hellenes but it offered very few economic opportunities.
Charokopos in Moldavia and Wallachia
Whatever the reasons, Constantinople was a disappointment, so he went farther afield to the former principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia where he did succeed spectacularly both by leasing some of the vast farming estates that existed there and dealing primarily in wheat.
Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia became today’s Romania. When Charokopos acquired his estates, Wallachia and Moldavia were Ottoman.
Rich Owners, Chiftliks, and Landless Peasants:
Large estates in the Balkans and elsewhere had been operating for hundreds of years under a quasi feudal system in which the farm workers with no power and no rights were in virtual serfdom to the estate owners. When they conquered territory, the Ottomans did not alter the system; large estates or Chiftliks, to use their term, were easy to control and generated more revenue. But in Wallachia and Moldavia they did appoint surrogates - Princes or Hospodars - to make sure tax money was collected. Corruption was built into the process because the title went to the highest bidder. By the 1700s the Sultan allowed wealthy Greeks, the Phanariots residing in Constantinople, to vie for the position of Prince. In all, 31 Greek princes were created, from the less than 10 of the Phanariot families who could afford the bribe. During 100 years under the aegis of Greek princes, a substantial Greek presence and culture was established in the Danubian principalities. Bucharest and Jassy became far more sophisticated Hellenic centres than anything in old Greece. But underneath the surface, the landless peasant continued to toil in poverty. Nor did the situation change when Romania was declared a sovereign kingdom in 1877 under King Charles I. The status quo was just too appealing to the advantaged ruling class.
This was the system that enabled Panagis Charokopos to acquire so much wealth during the more than 40 years he lived in Romania. That is not to say that he would have considered himself an oppressor. In fact he was known as an agrarian reformer and benefactor in Romania, especially to the Greek community there. He had even advised the first Romanian king on Agrarian reform.
He might have never left Romania if Ottoman Thessaly had not joined the Greek kingdom in 1881.
Thessaly Joins Greece in 1881
In 1881 large estates made up 75 percent of the arable land on the Thessalian plains. 285,000 Hellenes resided in the territory, 40,000 Ottoman Turks, and 40,000 Ottoman Jews. Those of Greek origin were eligible for immediate citizenship; even non-Hellenic Thessalians were offered a path to citizenship. Unlike in the Peloponnese after 1830 where the Greek government had simply been able to expropriate Muslim land, in the case of Thessaly, there was a written agreement.
The Treaty of Constantinople ensured that Ottoman owners would not be forced off their land. Still many of them preferred to leave and sold or leased their estates at what can only be called fire sale prices to wealthy Greeks like Christakis Zographos (2) and Constantinos Zappas (3) and Panagis Charokopos who bought his Giannouli estate from an Ottoman bey. They became “squires” (άρχωνς) of some very large estates indeed. Some introduced modern farming techniques. For example Charokopos introduced the first threshing machine in the new territories.
While individual owners may have been kind to their tenants, any such initiatives were personal preferences, not legal requirements. The cash strapped Greek government realized that keeping the large estate system would ensure greater productivity, a prime economic objective at the time. So land distribution to sharecroppers, no matter what their ethnic origin, was put on the back burner. Share croppers had short term contracts and agreements with owners were binding on his entire family. Families faced eviction if quotas were not met or if family members did not meet their obligations. The squire chose what land a sharecropper would cultivate and sold them the seed. Shortfalls were paid for by the farmers. Even transporting the ‘share’ to the estate owners was an expense paid for by the farmer. It was a very unfair system.
Ironically, many Greek squires willed land to the nation after their deaths and, by the early 1900s, the Greek government itself had became the biggest land owner in Thessaly, hardly an incentive for them to encourage redistribution of the land to share croppers.
Charokopos comes Home to Stay
Charokopos returned to live permanently in Greece in 1899. He was in his mid sixties and had never married. His siblings, especially his brother Spiros, would be his family. The family mansion opposite the National Gardens became today’s Benaki museum in Kolonaki.
The Charokopos ‘Konaki’
In 1902, Panagis built a country house, or konaki, on his estate at Giannouli three kilometres outside of Larissa. The term konaki is a Turkish word used to refer to the house of an Ottoman estate owner. A typical konaki is a two storey rectangular stone or brick built building surrounded by the various outbuildings necessary to the running of the estate. A konaki would be built on high ground where possible so that the owner could survey his property and his workers in the comfort of a third storey tower room where he, literally, was, lord of all he surveyed.
An Ottoman konaki near Thessaloniki built about the same time as the Charokopos konaki
Panagis’ konaki was state of the art for the time. It was designed by Anastasios Metaxas, a celebrated Athenian architect who added some sophisticated details. Notice the panoramic view afforded by the tower’s windows.
Several members of the Charokopos family relaxing in front of their konaki. Panagis loved Thessaly and did his best to help the city of Larissa which has never forgotten him. (4)
Share croppers, also taking a break
Charokopos was forward thinking. He funded an agricultural school in Farsala and in 1910, gave 30,000 stremmata, a significant amount of his holdings, to his own sharecroppers. Many estate owners knew that change must come and, like Charokopos, helped fund schools for future farmers such as The Averoff Agricultural school in Larissa. But it would take unrest, three wars, and a population exchange before the land system that made him wealthy would fade into history.(5)
He may not have realized just how quickly his konaki would become a crumbling anachronism. Today it is a sad relic of a bygone era.
The konaki today
His Death
Panagis Charokopas died in 1911 at the age of 76, the same year he had been voted into parliament under the banner of liberal reformer Eleftherios Venizelos. His heirs were the children of his brother Spiros: Evan, Spiros, and Panagis.
His University
In 1906, Charokopos bought 25,000 stremmata (some 6 acres) of land in Kallithea, south of the Acropolis and built his «Χαροκοπείου Επαγγελματικής και Οικοκυρικής Σχολής». It began as a school dedicated to the scientific potential of Home Economics. It opened its doors in 1929 under the aegis of his heirs. Today the university is state run and dedicated, according to its website, to improving the quality of life and ‘embracing the vision of its founder’.
The Main Building on Campus
Disciplines include health science, technology and computer science, environment, and sustainable development. The Charokopos Foundation still exists and seeks to obtain private donations above and beyond what the state can provide to ensure the school can meet its progressive mandate. More than one third of the students today are postgraduate and PhD students.
Should Panagis Charokopos actually step out of his monument and take a stroll through its campus today, I think he would approve.
An Afterword
A good many of Greece’s benefactors are buried in the First Cemetery. We have written about many of them and admired their often elaborate monuments. The fact that they managed to thrive and become rich in an environment not of their own choosing is remarkable. Their contributions to the Greek nation by funding public buildings, hospitals, schools, and museums are so great that it is difficult to consider the downside of some of their enterprises.
Generally speaking, Greek land owners, leasers, and merchants in the Ottoman sphere did not dedicate themselves to improving the lot of the native peasant class although they did strive to assist their fellow Hellenes. This is as true in Egypt as it was in Romania. Of course, such an attitude was the norm for the times. But, in Thessaly, the new Greek land owners were in a different position vis a vis their toiling peasants. In this case, the majority were fellow Greeks.
And yet it took more than 40 years before real reform occurred. Panagis Charokopos seems to have navigated this situation rather better than some of his fellow landowners who fought to the bitter end to keep their large estates.
The Grave
His monument, created by sculptor Georgios Bonanos, was placed in the first cemetery by his brother Spiridon. It is well worth a closer look.
Section 4, Number 561
The Map
Section 4, Number 561
Footnotes
(1) Having siblings who could help advance the family fortunes was vital to success in Greek economic ventures during this era. Charokopos was fortunate to have his brother Spiridon and other family members to assist his rise.
(2) Zographos made his fortune as a banker to the Sultan in Constantinople. See: http://athensfirstcemeteryinenglish.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-zographos-mausoleum.html
(3). Constantinos Zappas was instrumental in the preparation and financing of the Olympic games in 1896.
(4) The konaki hosted luminaries like Eleftherios Venizelos. After his death, one of his heirs, something of a playboy, married a very young Melina Mercouri who also spent some time at the konaki. The Nazis used it as a headquarters during the German Occupation. It is now in private and not very caring hands.
(5) In 1898, Marios Antypas, a fellow Kefalonian had taken up the Thessalian farmers’ cause in his newspaper ‘Anastasis. ’ He was assassinated in 1907 most likely by irate landowners who were far more invested in the status quo. 1910 saw the protests at Kileler and general unrest throughout Thessaly. After the election of Venizelos as prime minister reform was in the air. Alexandros Papanastiou championed the farmers’ cause in parliament. (Charokopos himself had become a member of parliament under Venizelos in 1911). But it was the huge influx of refugees after 1922 that turned the tide. Between 1923 and 1932, more than 1500 chiftliks were confiscated and given to landless farmers.
Sources
Return of the Tsiflikades: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-48695-0_3
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/11/remembering-greeces-kileler-uprising/
https://ekefalonia.gr/i-oikogeneia-panagi-charokopou-sti-larisa/
