Antonis Tritsis ΑΝΤΩΝΗΣ ΤΡΙΤΣΙΣ
Born 1937 Died 1992
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Behind every new plan for changing the face of Athens, there exists an older and similar plan already conceived and proposed by Antonis Tritsis. So many years have passed since his death in 1992, and yet his imaginative vision for urban spaces remain timely. He was such an irrepressible free spirit, such a force, that it almost seems shocking to see a grave with his name on it in the First Cemetery of Athens. As a person, Antonis Tritsis was charming, but also relentless and unyielding when promoting his vision for Athens and Greece and, unlike many politicians, he had no qualms about altering his party affiliation if he felt that such a move would better promote his visionary agenda.
His Life
Antonis Tritsis was born in Argostli, Cefalonia in 1937, the only child of the son of Savva and Nikis Tritsis. Apparently his upbringing was quite strict which might explain his discipline and prodigious work ethic as an adult. After the terrible earthquake of 1953 when almost the entire island was destroyed, the family moved to Athens. Antonis was 16 at the time. He entered the Athens Polytechnical University to study architecture. And here he was very lucky indeed. His teachers included painter Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Gikas (ΝίκοςΧατζηκυριάκος-Γκίκας), architect and theorist Demitris Pikionis, (Δημήτρης Πικιώνης) painter and poet Nikos Engonopoulos (Νικος Εγγονόπουλος) and civil engineer and archaeologist, Anastasios Orlandos (Αναστάσιος Ορλάνδος). It would be hard to find a more stellar list of mentors and guides.
As a student, Tritsis was an athlete of note with the Panathinaikos Club in Athens. He was first in Greece in the Decathlon and the long jump and distinguished himself in many Panhellenic games. After graduation he went abroad for post graduate studies on a Fulbright scholarship and studied Urban Planning at the illinois Institute of Technology.
Post graduate degree in hand, he was eager to explore America. However, he was on a shoestring budget and would often take night trains to avoid the cost of staying in hotels. His travels took him to Latin America as well, an experience that would cement his support to ordinary people to gain freedom from repressive regimes.
In 1963 he returned to Greece and to a meeting that would be important for his future. He was introduced to Andreas Papandreou who was heading a study on the Greek economy at the time. Papandreou invited him to participate.
Everyone’s life was thrown into confusion by the military dictatorship in 1967. Tritsis remained in Chicago for a time as an assistant professor at the Illinois Technological Institute. In Chicago, he met up with Andreas Papandreou and became a member of the Pan Hellenic Movement for Freedom (PAK), an anti-dictatorial organization which had been founded by Papandreou in Stockholm in 1968.
Upon his return to Greece in 1970 he was one of a group of PAK dissidents group who planted a bomb in the National Gardens at the very moment that Georgios Papadopoulos was Meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Many of those who participated in this incident were arrested but Antonis succeeded in escaping to Italy where, for a time, he had to go under the alias of ‘Γiannos’.
In 1973, he married American artist Susan Muhlhauser in Rome. She was five years younger than Antonis and was herself a Fulbright scholar who had studied drawing and photography at the Chicago Institute. After the marriage they then both spent a short time in Bolivia, she taking photographs and he working as a civil engineer. He become the father of her two girls and, having grown up in a strict household himself, was a strict father figure for them. Curfew was midnight. Tritsis believed in a regimen of correct diet, exercise, and no cigarettes. The marriage would not last and Susan would eventually reside in Germany but her daughters remain in Greece.
Susan was an excellent photographer; the above collection is of Messolonghi
In 1974, with the Junta gone, he returned to Greece and wanted to run for office as a representative of Cephalonia and Ithaki but the PASOK party ultimately chose another candidate. He returned to Athens and opened his own office, working privately as an architect, civil engineer, and planner. Even before his political career began, he had very specific ideas to improve cities like Athens and foresaw the possibilities of a metro system, and a new airport farther outside of the city centre. During this period, he also taught spacial planning (Χωροταξία) at the Panteion University.
Athens was Choking
At this time, cities in Greece were in need of an overhaul. Athens itself was still expanding rapidly and suffering all of the evils that attend that phenomenon: choking smog almost every day, chaotic transportation routes and systems that often left the main arteries of the city at a standstill, and rampant illegal building. An almost total lack of environmental planning was the hallmark of this period.
Minister of Urban Planning and the Environment
In 1981 he entered parliament for Cephalonia and Ithaki under the premiership of PASOK’s Andreas Papandreou. A man like Antonis Tritsis was just what Greece needed at the time as Minister of Urban Planning and Environment, a ministry he would hold until September 1984. He came upon the ministerial scene like a whirlwind, already bursting with revolutionary ideas that were sure to ruffle political feathers and create political storms. It did not take long for him to make his presence felt: The Nefos (the choking smog that inundated Athens almost daily) is a political issue! (Το νέφος είναι πολιτικό) Until then, smog was regarded more as a health issue – not the purview of the Urban Planning minister.
The dreaded Nefos was a regular visitor to Athens
He promoted an all out effort to “retrieve the Greek Environment” and he was tireless. Tritsis
and his team virtually camped out in the Ministry. Samina Digney (Σεμίνα Διγενή)
recounts her memories of that period: One
night, a little after midnight, he phoned me to tell me that he would be the
minister of Urban Planning and to offer me the job of joining him as his liaison
with the Press. Two days later, my life was thrown into chaos. We worked until
midnight, sometimes we were on the phone until three in the morning about one
thing or anothe, - or something that we must not forget the next day. (1) What
the press had to say about him and what they informed the press about their
work was very important to Tritsis. He was one of the first
politicians to make use of the media to inform the public. If you are an old Greek hand, you might
remember this slogan:
Do you have an unlicensed home? If you declare it you can save it.
He had no time for so called realists who could think of a million reasons to do nothing. His response to that mindset was: It is not feasible to be ‘realists’ – realism means submission to actualities.
Antonis Tritsis wanted cities to be human, and friendly with improvements that would also preserve their natural historical face. Among other things he suggested for Athens was the uniting of archaeological sites by pedestrian walkways, the tearing down of the Santaroza (Σανταρόζα) Law Court (see below), long an eyesore in the centre of the capital, more parks, more trees, and the removal of the seedy centres of entertainment that had caused Athens’ Plaka area not only to lose its lustre but to be rather unsafe.
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In 1983 he had a plan for solving the problem of the municipalities in Greece which numbered over 11,000. He wanted to reduce that number to a manageable 500. You can imagine the outraged responses of the thousands of municipalities which had hitherto had their own presidents and local political fiefdoms. It was an idea whose time had not yet come and would have to wait until long after his death. But it did happen in 2010 under the Kallikratis plan. Tritsis, as usual, had been both ahead of his time – and right!
In September of 1984 he stepped down from the ministry and his entire team gave him a rousing and affectionate farewell:
His team says goodbye
Minister of Education and Religious Affairs
1986 saw him heading another Ministry, that of Education and Religious Affairs, a post he would hold from April of that year until May 1988. The pairing of education and religion seems odd to me as a Canadian but it has been twinned since the Greek state was formed. Education was one thing but, when it came to religious matters, Tritsis would discover that Greeks, even PASOK members, could be very conservative indeed.
The Touch of Fate
Tritsis said that he had felt the hand of destiny in his appointment: I feel the touch of Fate because I worked at the ministry of Urban planning and now I have come to the Ministry of Education, two ministries which are the essence of Greece because Greece is our education, our language, our country, our landscape, and our monuments – exactly the object of these two ministries. (2)
Among other things, He agitated for more studies of ancient Greek in the schools. Hellenism and its place on the world stage were important to him. But it was the other half of his ministry that would cause his biggest headache. After a time as minister, he felt comfortable enough to raise the thorny issue of Church Property. The idea of taxing, nationalizing or controlling Church properties was not a new one, but it took a brave man to confront the issue head on. Even today it is a political hot potato.
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The church, ever ready to defend its historical rights, reacted with mass demonstrations and threatened excommunications – a weapon in their arsenal that has not always worked well, but in spite of that has often been brought to the front lines in any dispute. (3). The Church charged that Tritsis was unsuitable for his office. Even the American archbishop, Archbishop Jacobos, came to Kastri (Panpandreou’s home and political headquarters) and had meetings with the Prime Minister to which Tritsis was not invited.
A photo taken in the garden at Kastri with Georgos Kasimatis, the legal advisor of the prime minister, Georgios Papandreou, Archbishop of Greece Serapheim and Andreas Papandreou.
Papandreou ultimately gave in to the Church and Tritsis resigned. (4) Ten months later, when there was a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Papandreou, Tritsis abstained. As a result, he was expelled from PASOK.
He started his own party in 1989, the Greek Radical Movement, which did not do well. On the positive side, that was also when he met the famous actress and well known theatrical entrepreneur Mimi Denisi. (Μιμή Ντενίση).
In 1990 he decided to run for mayor of Athens as an independent.
The Race for City Hall
In June of that year he sent a letter to each of the party leaders about his decision, before any of them had chosen candidates of their own or initiated programs. PASOK and the left wing party ignored him but Konstantinos Mitsotakis the head of the New Democracy Party took notice, liked what he saw, and Tritsis ran with their support. His opponent was formidable: PASOK’s Melina Mercouri.
He Knows Athens
The slogan reads: Athens needs Tritsis as mayor! He knows Athens
During this race, all of the PASOK knives came out, questioning if he had really accomplished anything at all. He responded by defending his achievements and categorizing many government ministers, saying that too many of them simply did nothing at all to avoid any political damage.
He won with 50.12% of the vote to Melinas’ 45.93%. Unlike many of his former colleagues, Melina was gracious in defeat and wished him well. He took office in January of 1991.
Tritsis and Melina Mercouri
Tritsis’ enthusiasm and focus was now exclusively on Athens. He proposed an 11 km tram system which would eventually be extended to the suburbs, planting trees, and making Panipistimou Street for pedestrians only. It was a grand design for change and he entered into it with his usual verve. Life was good. He and Mimi Denisi were contemplating marriage and Athens was surely the perfect locale for many of his long held ideas on urban planning to bear fruit.
But it was not to be.
On Monday March 23rd he was taken to the emergency wing of an Athenian hospital with Ischemia. A short time later, he suffered a stroke and died on Tuesday April 7 1992 - at the age of 55.
The Funeral
I remember his funeral. I happened to be in central Athens and heading for the Plaka when a huge police cordon stopped my progress at the entrance to the square in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral at the moment that his coffin was being carried down the steps of the church and placed in the hearse which would take him at a slow pace to the First Cemetery. The crowd was enormous. I was astounded to see many men dressed in black behind the hearse carrying cushions upon which all the many medals and cups which he had won during his athletic career were on display and which would follow him to his grave. Unaware of this tradition, for one crazy moment, I wondered if they would all be buried with him. It was a strangely solemn procession, very human, and very sad. I have never forgotten it.
His Legacy
His statue in Argostoli
His bust in Athens
Antonis Tritsis has not been forgotten. In 2003, his bust by sculptor Kostas Argyris was placed in the Athens Cultural centre, Argostoli has erected his statue on a street named after him, and a 300 acre environmental park in an Athens suburb bears his name. But the accolade that would surely have pleased him the most is this:
!n October of 2020 Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented the Antonis Tritsis Development and Solidarity Programme, a flagship project with a comprehensive plan to enhance the regeneration of cities and regions in Greece. A budget of 2,5 billion euros has been allotted to help cities and regions to become levers of growth, producing 40,000 new jobs, and at the same time improving the quality of life for all citizens. (5)
What a vindication of his ‘unrealistic’ vision’ for Greece!
His Grave
Plaza, Number 82A
The Map
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Footnotes
(1) https://www.lifo.gr/articles/mediac_articles/294751/i-ert- sta-xronia-toy-pasok-ektos-istorias , «Η ΕΡΤ στα χρόνια του ΠΑΣΟΚ» άρθρο της Σεμίνας Διγενή.
(2) http://palio.antibaro.gr/dialogos/tritshs_paideia.htm Η ανάκτηση της Ελληνικής Παιδείας / Ομιλία –του ΑΝΤΩΝΗ ΤΡΙΤΣΗ /Υπουργού Εθνικής Παιδείας και Θρησκευμάτων/ Στην Συνάντηση με την Ελληνική Εκπαιδευτική Ηγεσία /Παλαιό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών/8/71987. Καταρτίζεται ένα συνολικό πρόγραμμα για την αντιμετώπιση του νέφους της Αθήνας σε όλους τους τομείς: βιομηχανία, καύσιμα, αυτοκίνητα, κεντρικές θερμάνσεις. Τότε άρχισε να εφαρμόζεται για πρώτη φορά το σχέδιο έκτακτων μέτρων στις ημέρες αιχμής καθώς και ο μεγάλος και ο μικρός Δακτύλιος στο κέντρο της Αθήνας.
(3) for an interesting discussion on the history of the Greek Church’s use of excommunication, see: http://churchesingreece.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-is-for-anathema.html
(4) Ο Νίκος Σουρής γράφει στο βιβλίο του, «Ο Αντώνης Τρίτσης των συντρόφων του», για την περίοδο έντασης στο Υπουργείο Παιδείας όταν συζητήθηκε η επαναφορά των αρχαίων στο γυμνάσιο: «Ξεκινά ένας αληθινός Γολγοθάς που θα οδηγήσει στην σταύρωση του Α. Τρίτση κι όλα θα ηρεμήσουν με την αποκαθήλωσή του… Προφανώς δε θα σημαίνει την …ανάσταση της Παιδείας!» https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/24/archive/o-antwnis-tritsis-twn-syntrofwn-toy/
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