George Averoff

George  Averoff                                          ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΑΒΕΡΩΦ              

Born 1815 in Metsovo                                Died 1889 in Alexandria Egypt

His tomb is in the Plaza on the left as you enter the cemetery

George Averoff was a business magnate, philanthropist, and a major Greek benefactor, perhaps most well known for funding the restoration of the ancient stadium in Athens for the 1896 Olympics. His story reads like a mirror image of his fellow townsman, Michael Tositsas, - only one generation later. Although he resided and died in Egypt he is still regarded as one of Athens’ own. His tomb was erected at public expense in the First Cemetery in the early 1900s. In 1908, in a ceremony reminiscent of the transference of religious relics, his bones were transferred to Greece and were interred in Athens with full honours, a genuine civic saint.

His Life

Like many of Greece’s merchant benefactors, George Averoff was a Vlach. He was from Metsovo in Epirus, a town which had benefitted from Ottoman concessions during the Ottoman occupation. Many of its citizens had become wealthy as a result. Native intelligence and a finely honed network of family connections ensured the family’s continued prosperity.  In 1837, at the age of 22, it was George’s turn to head for Egypt to join his brother who worked for Nikolaos Stournara, Michael Tositsas’ trusted nephew. (1)

 The young Averoff had plenty of native ability He began his career working with his older brother, a cloth and cotton merchant. He went on from there to become the biggest and most successful merchant in Egypt, -dominating its domestic and foreign trade, with banking, real estate and interests in the Nile riverboat business all part of his portfolio. 

He was also the purveyor of luxury goods to Khedive Ismail, the viceroy of Egypt and son of the notorious Ibrahim Pasha of Navarino fame) who by 1873 had managed to maintain his family’s hold on this corner of Ottoman territory. (2) 

Like Tositsas, George Averoff used his vast wealth to enhance the life of Greeks both inside Greece and in Ottoman territory although he never returned to live in Greece.(3)   Among his many contributions, the most notable are the founding of the School of Agriculture in Larisa, the construction of the Evelpidon Military Academy in Athens, the donation to the Athens Conservatory, and the completion of the National Technical University of Athens.

 In 1910 the flagship of the Greek navy was named the Georgios Averoff, because its construction was made possible by his financial generosity.

Now a floating museum in Palio Phaleron

 He did not ignore the Greek community in Egypt either. In the 1880s and 90s, like Michael Tositsas before him, he had become the main representative of Egypt’s internal bourgeoisie and was president of the Greek community from 1885 to 1899. 

Neither Tositsas or Averoff forgot Metsovo, a fact that makes visiting this mountain village so interesting today.

Perhaps Averoff’s most famous donation was the refurbishment of the ancient Panathenaic stadium in Athens for the 1896 Olympics. 

When Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games, he had at first wanted them to take place in Paris. The Greek government had insufficient money to build a new stadium, but it was considered very important for the country’s prestige that these games be held in Greece. 

(4) Crown Prince, Constantine sent a delegation to Alexandria to ask Averoff for help and they did not come back empty handed. Averoff paid the entire cost of the stadium, clothing the ancient seats once again in white pendelic marble.

He also financed the Velodrome, the pier in Piraeus' bay for the swimming and the shooting range. 

Without him, the games in Athens would not have been possible.

 In gratitude for his generous donations and services, the Greek state declared him a major National Benefactor and commissioned a marble statue to be placed in front of the Panathenaic Stadium where it remains today.

                                                                                Wikipedia

  His Statue in Front of the Stadium is by Giorgios Vroutsos

His interment in Athens, Nine Years after His Death !

In a ceremony meant to impress, his remains were transferred from Alexandria to Athens. The tomb you see today was created by one of Athens’ best sculptors, Demitrios Filippotis and, when completed, it was turned over to the Averoff heirs.

The long view

The Philippotis version                                   His Photograph

 

On April 27^th, 1908, in a special ceremony organized by the Ministry of the Interior and attended by the royal family, the war ship Miaoulis brought Averoff’s flag draped casket to the port of Piraeus. A procession began at the port, stopped at Athens’ Metropolitan Church where a solemn service was held complete with a marching band and honour guard before his remains were brought and placed in his tomb in the First Cemetery.

Even the tomb of someone as illustrious as George Averoff could do with a brush up. Those weeds look downright incongruous, especially with that elaborate sarcophagus as a backdrop

                                       

                                                What are the cherubs reading?

His tomb is in the Plaza on the left as you enter.

This ceremony occurred during the time that Spiridon Mercouris (grandfather of Melina), was mayor. Apparently he headed the committee that chose the location of the tomb and its sculptor.  

Footnotes

(1) According to the author of Alexandria: City of Gifts he was invited by Michael Tositsas. See the entry on Michael Tositsas on this blog.

(2) Khedive Ismail was the grandson of Mehmet Ali who had proved so useful to Michael Tositsas a generation earlier aas well as the son of Ibrahim Pasha who had been the scourge of the Peloponnese in 1825. These facts proved no deterrent to the Greek merchant class in Egypt. The business of purveying to Moslem rulers was one that had made a number of Phanariot Greeks in Constantinople wealthy as well. Many Greeks managed to thrive in this manner during the Ottoman years. Although most Greeks of the diaspora applauded the new Greek state, many were content to stay in Ottoman territory themselves. Some thought life would be better for Greeks in the diaspora, that they should continue to live as Ottoman citizens under the aegis of an improved and modernized Ottoman state.

(3)His home town, Metsovo, didn’t became part of Greece until 1913.

(4) It was believed at the time that the Olympics of 1896 would not only solidify and enhance the new state’s connection with its ancient past, but would also be a showcase for Greece as a modern European nation. That last was pretty much the rational in 2004 as well, only this time the tax payers had to foot the bill.