Philellinon Square
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This square was once the site of the Venetian bastion of Santa Teresa, which was later renamed the bastion of Moschos, and was demolished in 1866. Themonument to the Philhellenes, in other words the friends of Greece, which dominates the centre of the square, was competed in 1903, inmemory of the French Philhellenes who fought and died for theliberation of Greece from the Turkish yoke during the Greekrevolution. |
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| The monument, is in the form of a memorial stone made of grey marble, and is in the shape of an obelisk, a form highly popular at the time. It was designed in Paris, but constructed in Greece in the marble works of Ioannis Chaldoupis. On one side of the raised base of the obelisk there is a relief in white marble depicting the personalised forms of Greece and France, in the forms of Athena and Liberty respectively. On the eastern side of the base there is an inscription in memory of the great French Philhellenes: Field Marshall Meson, General Fabvier and Admiral Derigny, and all the French sailors and soldiers who fought for Greek indePentence.
More recently, a bust was placed on the North West side of the square in the likeness of Mando Mavrogenous, a heroine of the Greek revoloution, who lived in Nauplion from 1824 to 1831. |
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On the North East side of the square, in King Otto's Street, there is an important two-storey neo-classical building from the 19th century, which belonged to the Iatrou family, who were well known benefactors to the city. The town hall was housed here from 1972 until its recent move to Trion Navarchon Square. The exact location of the Philellinon Square can be found in Section Map. |
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