North Aegean Stories
Molyvos and Lesvos from the Ottoman Conquest (1462-1912) to the Greek state -
Space and people
This article has been researched and written by Dr. Maria Mandamadiotou, a collaborator and contributor at the Aegean Stories Vault.
People who are slaves to the clock, time and the machine, prisoners of life of a kind, […] should once come to places like Molyvos, where it’s as if time stops and life goes on at a very slow pace.
Michael Goutos, Speech at the Club of Molyvos, 23.10.1959
A. ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN THE OTTOMAN ERA (1462-1912)
The traditional architecture of Molyvos, with stone and timber as the dominant building materials, has been preserved almost intact through time, in large part due to the fact that the village was declared a protected settlement in 1965 [3].
The cobbled, winding alleys are framed by stone-built houses, which on the harbour side almost touch the sea even as they also “climb” the hillsides all the way to the castle. The imposing mansions of Argyris Efthaliotis, Giannakos, and Komninakis Krallis (which since 1964 has housed an annex of the Athens School of Fine Arts), the colourful houses on the “Yolostos” (sunny) coastal road, the Town Hall, former residence of a rich Ottoman potentate, the Municipal Library and the offices of the Young Maidens and Ladies’ Association of Mithymna “Agapi” (founded in 1922), the parish churches of Taxiarchis (built in 1795), Agios Panteleimon (1844) and Agia Kyriaki (c. 1850), the single minaret that survives in the centre of the market, the Turkish bathhouse, and the stone Ottoman fountains, all testify to the way of life and the economic development of a bygone era. Simple yet imposing in space are the buildings of the olive presses and soap-making shops, which pop up from the mid-19th century on the outskirts of the town, near the port. In the small plain on the edges of the settlement there are olive groves and agricultural structures (damia), while to the north, not far from the town, we find a few orchards and vineyards, the countryside, and the hot springs at Eftalou. From there, when weather conditions permitted, communication with the mainland of Anatolia on the opposing shore, about 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) away [4], was for centuries more frequent and easier than with the capital city of Lesvos, Mytilene (which lies 60 km away).
During the era when Lesvos was ruled by the Genoese Gattilusio family (1355-1462), the port of Molyvos assumed great commercial importance, given its proximity to the shores of Asia Minor and the Hellespont, whence it linked up with the markets of Thrace, Constantinople, and the Black Sea. Thus, by building fortifications and respectfully managing the island’s Roman population, the Gattilusio managed to secure their dominance in the area until the mid-15th century. It was also they who encouraged the systematic cultivation of the olive tree across the entire island, thus turning the economy towards olive oil [5]. In September 1462, when the Ottomans captured the town of Mytilene after a short siege, Molyvos and the other major settlement centres of the island, such as the ports and the fortified positions of Sigri and Agioi Theodoroi, also surrendered.
Immediately after the Ottoman conquest, the island, lost a large part of its Christian population [6]. Contemporary Byzantine chroniclers, testify to the forced resettlement of a significant number of Christians, mainly from the city of Mytilene to the depopulated and ruined Constantinople. This policy surely also expressed the Ottomans’ effort to dismantle the commercial urban strata associated with the Genoese administration. At the same time, the Ottomans attempted to keep the agricultural economy of Lesvos closed, cutting it off from the Mediterranean trade routes, in order to dissuade a possible occupation of the island by Western Christian forces.
We know very little about conditions in Molyvos, but also on the island in general for the first centuries of Ottoman rule. Until the 17th century, life must have unfolded in slow rhythms in unfavourable economic conditions. In this context, the Greek Orthodox element remained in the majority on the island. After a short period of adaptation, the Romaioi were integrated into the Ottoman system, adapting to the new political and social conditions. They themselves were landowners, while from the second half of the 18th century they became commercially active, with links mainly to Constantinople and Russia [7]. That said, the presence of Muslims on Lesvos was also significant, with a percentage that likely reached but did not exceed 20% of the total population [8]. However, unlike what we see in most other Aegean islands, where Muslims appear to be settled only in the capital, in Lesvos they resided in almost the entire geographical area of the island, much as in Crete.
In administrative terms, during the period of Ottoman rule (1462-1912), the island of Lesvos constituted a sancak (an administrative region) of the Ottoman Empire and was initially divided into three provinces (kaza/kazades in the Greek plural), Mytilene (Midilli), Kalloni (Kalonya) and Molyvos (Molova). From 1534, when the Beylerbelik of the Islands (Cezayir beylerbelik) was created under the Lesvos-born admiral (Kapudan-Pasa) Hayreddin Barbarossa, the island became part of a maritime Ottoman realm. This realm remained a fluid area which saw constant administrative change [9]. In this early Ottoman period, Western powers attempted, without success, to regain power in the eastern Aegean islands. In 1544, a papal fleet landed on the Lesvos and set Molyvos on fire, devastating the settlement. Disturbances also occurred during the Cretan War (1645-1669), when Turkish ships anchored in the port of Molyvos and Janissaries engaged in raids on the surrounding villages.
Lesvos remained under Ottoman rule for four and a half centuries (until 1912), and this lengthy political and administrative reality determined its social relations, economy and cultural characteristics, for the Ottoman period and beyond. The Ottoman governor of the island was initially entrusted not only with administrative but also with economic, fiscal and commercial responsibilities. In particular, in the context of the iltizam tax system, the leasing of the island’s tax revenues and the exercise of export monopoly over olive oil, which was and still is the island’s main agricultural product, remained, until 1837, exclusive rights of the Ottoman governor [10].
At the economic level, the variety of agricultural and pastoral products of the island secured, to a significant extent, the livelihood of households, while at the same time defining the nature of internal markets and trade routes. A more systematic involvement with olive trees and the olive oil industry takes place from the 17th century onwards in the fertile eastern and central part of the island, where the greatest concentration of population was observed since antiquity. This area is, to this day, covered with continuous olive groves from the sea to higher elevations, with pine trees taking over where the olive tree stops. Apart from olive oil, the products of central and eastern Lesvos included cereals, pulses, vegetables, grapes, wine, figs, as well as silk, sesame, resin, wax and salt. The orientation of the eastern part of the island towards Asia Minor made communication with it, at least until 1922, easier and more frequent, the islanders deriving clear benefit from such contact and trade. In contrast, in the western part of the island, resources have always been scarce and most inhabitants poor, as barren, volcanic lands and inaccessible coasts facing the open Aegean Sea mark the landscape. The economy here was built on livestock, as well as acorns for tanning and grey lava stone for agricultural structures, pasture enclosures and terraces (setia or pezoules).
Molyvos was for centuries the second most important settlement and economic centre of the island after the capital city, Mytilene. The location of the settlement at the northern end of Lesvos near the Dardanelles, i.e. at a point closer to Constantinople, the systematic cultivation of olives in the small but fertile plain of Molyvos and the existence of a port, which served as a commercial and transit centre for northern Lesvos, underline its strategic and economic importance. From the port of Molyvos, olive oil and acorns were shipped to the area of the Gulf of Adrammytion, Constantinople, Smyrna and other markets of the Ottoman Empire and Europe. As the scholar of Lesvos and local teacher Stavrakis Anagnostis noted in 1850, “on account of its harbour and its littoral position, as well as because of its fortress and its small market, Molyvos seems to rank second after Mytilene” [11].
Until the middle of the 19th century, there was also a significant production of grapes and wine in the area of Molyvos. Of this wine S. Anagnostis wrote that it was “fragrant and sweet” [12]. However, the restructuring of agricultural production in Lesvos, which saw a more systematic investment in olive trees and olive oil, gradually reduced the production of wine and other basic products, as well as cereals. Of the people of Molyvos, the Muslims were mainly engaged in animal husbandry, fishing and shipping. In 1863, the scholar Georgios Aristides noted that “the Turks of Molyvos in particular thrive at sea, owning 60 two-masted caiques” [13]. A consular report of 1858 in fact informs us that in Molyvos there was a shipyard for the construction of sailing ships. The shipyards of Mytilene, Molyvos and Plomari launched 20 small ships of 10-20 tons annually. These vessels were intended to transport goods and people to and from the Asia Minor coast [14].
The denizens of Molyvos benefited in a variety of ways from communication with the shores to their east and north, which functioned as a release valve alleviating economic and demographic pressures, afflicting the island. The area between Lesvos and Asia Minor, the so-called “Mytilenean littoral”, was for centuries and until 1922 a bridge of communication and varied exchange. In this area and in the wider area of the Gulf of Adrammytion, people worked, fished, migrated seasonally or permanently, developed commercial and business activities, and exchanged a variety of economic and cultural goods. As G. Aristides wrote in 1863, the “most developed of the Lesvians” were the people of Mytilene, the Plomarites, and the Molyviotes and generally those who lived on the coast and engaged in the olive oil trade, which they exported in large quantities “everywhere in Turkey and even to Europe”. Aristides added that those from Molyvos, Petra and Ypsilometopo who are forced to emigrate “due to the lack of resources on the land”, work “as merchants and grocers in the country around Adrammytion, where they accumulated valuable property and built by no means small estates” [15]. In the same tone, George Valletas states that in the 19th century “Adrammyti, Karagats, Freneli, Bihrami, the whole area of Akcai, all the villages on the opposite side of Troad are settlements and colonies of the most enterprising Mithymnians” [16].
As the administrative and economic centre of the homonymous Kaza, Molyvos was the seat of a deputy governor (kaimakam), who was appointed by the Ottoman governor of the island (the Mutasarif). It was also home to the kaza governor (müdür) and to an Islamic jurist (kadi). Molyvos also housed the Council of the kaza (the Majlishi), a body with diverse powers, charged with administering justice according to the Qur’an, collecting customs and agricultural taxes, and regulating local affairs [17]. A British consular report of 1854-1858 notes that each kaza also had “a mehkeme (court) in which the titles of property and wills were registered”. Responsible for the mehkeme was the kadi of each kaza, who tried the civil cases of Muslims in the first instance, according to the Qur’an [18].
Moreover, the elder councils (demogeronties) of the Christian communities, which had been set up by the Ottoman fiscal system since the 17th century and which operated in parallel with the corresponding Muslim councils, were responsible for the distribution of the tax burden to each household (hane), as well as for its collection. This role of the elder councils created economic and social power relations at the local level. According to records in the Codex of St. Panteleimon in Molyvos, dating to the mid-17th century, the Molyvos demogerontia determined the amount of taxes to be paid by the Christian communities/villages in the kaza of Molyvos, and on numerous occasions it assumed the tax debts of the economically weaker villages [19].
Through such processes, a local elite of Christian prelates emerged by the end of the 18th century. This group were landlords and often identified their interests with those of the Ottoman administration and the local Muslim elite. As early as the beginning of the 18th century, with the gradual implementation of the Capitulations, which mark the entry of the Ottoman economy into the global capitalist system, conditions for the islanders became more favourable. The geographical position of Lesvos, almost in the centre of the eastern Aegean and very close to the Asia Minor coast and the mouth the Dardanelles, favoured economic activity, as it made the island the crossing point of the trade routes between the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
A new era of prosperity for Lesvos is marked by the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), when olive oil from Lesvos found a market mainly in the oil-wharves of Constantinople, while a commercial axis emerged, extending from Alexandria to Smyrna, Mytilene, Constantinople, and Southern Russia. To these changes one should add the impact of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) on the economy of Lesvos. This diplomatic agreement enabled Orthodox merchants and sailors to acquire Russian citizenship and rights, thus facilitating the accumulation of capital. In this fashion, the economic situation of the Christian landowning prelates improved at the local level and their prestige was bolstered. In addition to the above, the maintenance even after the Ottoman conquest of some form of landholding rights (moulkia/mülk) in Lesvos’ countryside [20], as well as the illegal oil trade contributed to the emergence and strengthening of the power of the notables in local society. Thus, during this period the Christian notables (prokritoi) of Molyvos saw their position strengthened by way of trade and shipping, spreading their commercial activities to the opposite shores of Asia Minor, Smyrna and Constantinople.
Apart from the prokritoi, another important power-node on the island was the Orthodox Church. This is evident in the existence of two bishoprics on Lesvos, Mytilene and Mithymna, as well as strong monastic institutions. During the Ottoman period, churches, mainly the parish churches, but also the monasteries, acquired a large amount of landed property (the so-called despotic land) through donations. This land they rented on condition that rent was paid either in kind (agricultural products) or in coin. In this manner the Church and the monastic foundations became important economic agents. In the town of Molyvos, at the beginning of the 20th century, there were three parish churches, Agios Panteleimon, Agia Kyriaki and Taxiarchis, as well as two mosques. Several entries in the Codex of St. Panteleimon in Molyvos record that the holding, purchase and sale of real estate as well as the lending of money from the church treasury to private individuals were common [21].
From an ecclesiastical point of view, Molyvos, until about the middle of the 16th century, was the seat of the island’s second metropolitan see, the Metropolis of Mithymna. Molyvos continued to be under this Metropolis’ jurisdiction even afterward its seat was transferred to Kalloni (Achyronas), where it remains to this day [22]. This move from Molyvos to Kalloni, during the years of Saint Ignatius Agallianos, was probably the result of saint’s activity in the area which resulted in the foundation of the two important monasteries of Limon and Myrsiniotissa in the vicinity of Kalloni [23]. The Metropolis’ move symbolically downgraded Molyvos in its rapport to Kalloni, whose independence from Molyvos was now effectively asserted. Furthermore, Kaloni’s claim on the fertile plain by the homonymous Gulf raised a third node of insular power between Mithymna and Mytilene, which since antiquity had been contesting these very territories [24].
In the mid-19th century, the Ottoman reforms of Tanzimat (1839-1876) emerged as an important turning point in the history of Lesvos, pushing the island’s economy and society into a process of development and bourgeois-driven modernization. In particular, in 1837 the iltizam system was abolished, thus separating administrative office from the power of taxation and the tax-collecting arbitrariness with which it had been associated in the past. What is more, from 1858 on Christians were given the right to own property. Economic development and the rise of a commercial, Christian bourgeoisie throughout the island, one that controlled the local economy, and appropriated much of land on Lesvos while participating in local administration, brought about significant changes in society and in the power relations at the local level. As G. Aristides noted in 1863 “after 1840 many estates were bought from the Turks and now the oppressions and arbitrary acts against the Christians ceased or decreased” [25].
In Molyvos, the emerging Christian landholding and merchant class prospered and marked its social position in the area by building sumptious, neoclassical houses outside the medieval core of the town and along the road leading to the port. Also at the harbour, by the “lower” market, lies the place where the oil trade was carried out, mainly by Christians, who were also the owners of most of the oil mills and soap factories. In contrast, the “upper” market, in the centre of the settlement, is mainly controlled by Muslims. Thus, the public space of Molyvos reflects not only economic relations, but also social, religious and ethnic differences.
It is in the context of the enthusiasm that local erudites expressed for the Tanzimat’s reforms as changes favourable to Christians, that we must situate the translation into Greek of the decree Hatt-i Humayun (Hatt-i Humayun, 1856) by the Molyvos born jurist and politician Zafeirakis Ypandremenos (1831-1896) [26]. It is no coincidence that Ypandremenos became an Aegean Sea deputy in the first Ottoman Parliament in 1877, and subsequently assumed other high positions in Ottoman public administration, maintaining strong connections with the Sublime Porte. Ypandremenos was also a close friend of the governor of Lesvos, Namik Kemal (1879-1884), a well-known intellectual and key representative of the New Ottomans, a movement that sought a form of western modernisation for the Empire in the era of the Tanzimat reforms [27]. Ypandremenos belonged to a portion of the Greek Orthodox in the Empire, who actively supported Helleno-Ottomanism, the prospect that is that Greeks might pursue the development of their particular homeland within the Ottoman political framework. Helleno-Ottomanism persisted for as long as expectations of political reform were maintained by the Ottoman regime [28].
It should be noted that both Ypandremenos and Namik Kemal were protagonists in the so-called Leimonian affair, a controversy on the legal and eventually forceful claim on the part of the elder councils of the ecclesiastical province of Kalloni-Mithymna of the resources of the Leimonos monastery, with an eye to their utilization for educational purposes [29].
Both of Ypandremenos and Namik Kemal supported the demands of the communities and came to clash with Metropolitan Nikiforos Glykas of Mithymna and Patriarch Ioachim III of Constantinople. The latter even imposed the penalty of excommunication on Ypandremenos, on 11 December 1882, for his stance in the Leimonian affair. As for Kemal, who, during his tenure on the island, sought to implement reforms which affected established interests of the local elites, he lost his administrative office in 1884, following coordinated complaints by Christian and Muslim notables to the Sublime Porte by way of the patriarchate. This affair demonstrates that, until the end of the 19th century, conflicts and upheavals in Lesvos were mainly linked to rivalries between diverse power brokers. The character of those conflicts was economic and social rather than an ethno-religious and ideological. At the same time, the Leimonian affair is linked to the emancipation of the middle social strata and their attempt to challenge ecclesiastical authority, a challenge that stems from the bourgeois transformation of local society.
It is a fact that the significant development that took place in Lesvos in the second half of the 19th century was accompanied by social inequality and an asymmetrical distribution of wealth. However, the lower socio-economic strata, the peasants and workers, did not seem to raise notable political claims until the summer of 1908, when the Young Turks assumed political power in the Empire [30]. Until then their voice is only indirectly traceable in the local press. Thus, a report from Molyvos, published in the Smyrna newspaper Amalthea in March 1871, outlines the miserable condition of the weaker strata of the Molyvos region and their exploitation mainly by the Christian landowners-merchants. As the author of the article writes: “How can we pay our taxes? The only solution is to borrow from the merchant; but the merchant does not lend – he pre-purchases [the crop]. So, we’re left with no choice but to sell our fields” [31]. As suggested by the article in Amaltheia, farmers often found themselves in a difficult situation and were forced to borrow from wealthy merchants, often against the future olive harvest (selemi), all in order to survive. Usury was, as is known, widespread in pre-capitalist societies, but interest-bearing loans were unpalatable to Muslims, as they were contrary to Qur’anic injunctions. The prohibition of interest-bearing lending to Muslims pushed trade in money into the hands of Christians. We know that in Molyvos, a branch of the Agricultural Bank did not operate until quite late, in the early 20th century (1903). In the rest of the island too, until the end of the 19th century, the financial sector had not developed to support agriculture, trade and industry. Thus, moneylenders and proto-bankers in both urban and rural areas were able to operate unchecked, profiteering at the expense of poor peasants, both Christians and Muslims.
The technological revolution that marked the world economy in the period 1875-1914 would accelerate economic growth, which in the mid-19th century was already the result of the internal Ottoman reforms of Tanzimat. The role played by the introduction of steam in transport and in the processing of oil was decisive, marking the definitive passage of Lesvos over the threshold of capitalism and bringing about an unprecedented accumulation of wealth and power on the island. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Molyvos was one of the most developed port towns of Lesvos. However, the town of Mytilene and Plomari progressed faster down the path of urbanisation and market development during this period. According to the data available on the revenue from taxes on trade for the year 1911, 58.7% came from Mytilene, 24.8% from Plomari and 16.3% from Molyvos. Also, of the 403,205 grosia collected from the whole island in the same year, 236,905 grosia came from the town of Mytilene, 100,316 grosia from Plomari and 65,984 grosia from Molyvos [32].
And yet, an anonymous correspondent of the Istanbul Tachydromos newspaper, in 1903, paints a picture of the economic malaise for Molyvos, noting signs of withering and decline in its commercial traffic [33]. As he characteristically notes, in the port “dormancy and decline reigns”, while the “late Krallis and Kyriakou, who through their entrepreneurial spirit […] had raised Molyvos to an enviable commercial and economic position” have disappeared, without any successors. He is, however, of the opinion that there is hope for the economic and commercial recovery and regeneration of the area, to the degree that there are still some elements capable of acting beneficially. At the same time, he points out that in terms of “social education, the community of our compatriots in Molyvos” and indeed the “premier rank of citizens” may be considered “advanced”. As he notes, “the latter are genial, well-spoken, talkative and courteous towards foreigners”, and he mentions that the “highly skilled and well-educated” lawyer Dimitrios Savas and three “excellent” doctors were active in Molyvos, Socrates Fotiadis, who also had a pharmacy in the market, Aristides Kepetzis and the “eminent gynaecologist” Dimitrios Ypandremenos, son of Zafeirakis Ypandremenos.
At the level of attitudes and contrary to what has been argued to date by Greek and Turkish historiography [34], the march towards modernization and the emancipation of the Greek element of Lesvos were not associated with support for the megali idea and for an irredentist ideology, similar to the one that prevailed in the Kingdom of Greece in the mid-19th century. A Helleno-Ottomanist attitude had a place in Lesvos at least until the autumn of 1908, that is, as long as expectations that the Ottoman regime might deliver change remained alive. However, Helleno-Ottomanism would eventually come into conflict, even if only furtively, with Young Turk nationalism. The sense of superiority fostered among the Greek Orthodox by the acquisition of power and control of over the economy kindled national rivalry with the Turks and unsettled the traditional hierarchical relationship between conquerors and conquered. For their part, the Young Turks, who assumed political power in the period from 1908-1912, showed that they were not prepared to tolerate the presence of an economically prosperous Christian bourgeoisie, which claimed a share in political power. Thus, the dynamics of polarization that reinforced the two mutually fuelled nationalisms, Greek and neo-Turkish, prevailed during the last four years of Ottoman rule in Lesbos (1908-1912).
However, despite problems caused by the hostile policy of the Young Turks, until the eve of the capture of Mytilene by the Greek fleet in November of 1912, the Greek Orthodox of Lesvos, including those in Molyvos, did not seek radically to overthrow of the Ottoman regime and to integrate themselves into the Greek state [35]. On the contrary, as the sources of the period show, especially the local press, which first appears in early 1909, they continued to associate the economic and social prosperity of the island with the survival of the Ottoman Empire, provided, of course, that the political situation changed and new political leaders emerged who would implement equality between Christians and Muslims. It is in this context that the candidacy and election of the lawyer Dimitrios Savvas in the parliamentary elections in the spring of 1912 can be interpreted. Hailing from Molyvos, Savvas won the parliamentary seat of Lesvos, without even being the favourite in the elections or the one chosen by the Greek Orthodox elite of the island. He won because the Christian and Muslim electors of the kaza of Molyvos believed in him and offered him their votes [36].
Β. POPULATION DATA: DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES
One of the main characteristics of the demography of Molyvos, but also of the wider area of the kaza of Molyvos, was the strong presence of the Muslim community, especially in the late centuries of Ottoman rule. As evidenced in official Ottoman censuses and as local erudites attest, Molyvos was the area where Christians came into the closest contact with the Muslim-Turkish element, especially in the late Ottoman period. The demographic development of Molyvos was therefore quite different from that of the island’s capital. In Mytilene Muslims were predominant in the early years of the conquest. In the centuries that followed, however, their population declined significantly [37]. In Molyvos, on the other hand, in the period 1548-1581, archival sources indicate that there were a total of 476 dwellings/households. The non-military part of the Muslim population at the time numbered only 25 dwellings, of which 36% corresponded to new converts. However, a significant presence of Muslims is attested from the first half of the 17th century, when the Metropolitan of Mithymna, Gabriel Soumaroupas, estimated that there were about 220 Christian dwellings in Molyvos, while the Muslims were “twice as numerous, formidable and with a great masjidion (mosque)” [38]. In 1708-1709 the percentage of Muslims in Molyvos was about 45%. The English traveller Richard Poccoke, in 1739, noted that the castle of Molyvos was inhabited by Turks, was flourishing and guarded by military forces. In the years that followed, until 1912, Ottoman censuses and the testimonies of local scholars show that about half of the population of the settlement was Muslim [39].
Based on the Ottoman census of 1830-1842, which captured males with tax obligations (that is “men” 13 years of age and older), we may calculate that the population of the town of Molyvos rose to 2,322 people and was divided into seven neighborhoods (mahalades), three Christian and four Muslim [40]. In particular, 599 Christians and 562 Muslim men were recorded in the census. The emergence of separate neighborhoods for Christians and Muslims reflects the religious and ethnic divisions in the area. The Christians of Molyvos resided in the districts of Agia Kyriaki (Aya Kiryazi), Taxiarchis (Taksiyar) and Agios Panteleimon (Aya Pandelimon), while the Muslims resided in the districts of Hasan Reis, Pars-zade, Şükufe and Muhyiddin. Of the Christian men, 244 resided in the district of Agia Kyriaki, 147 in the district of Taxiarch and 208 in the district of Agios Panteleimon. In the same census, 145 Muslim men were recorded in the district of Hasan Reis, 217 in the district of Pars-zade, 121 in Şükufe and 79 in Muhyiddin. The Muslim quarters developed around the castle, near the administrative building (today’s community offices) and at the entrance to the settlement, while the Christian quarters formed a semicircle by the castle, continued along the road leading to the port and spread out in the area around the harbour. From an architectural point of view, the Ottoman conquest did not alter the medieval character of Molyvos. The housing of the Ottoman period, usually two-storey with a top floor made out of timber (the so-called sahnisi), coexisted with the earlier medieval, stone structures, constituting a harmonious whole.
The study of the districts of Molyvos on the basis of the economic and social hierarchy within the two communities is not easy, as the data we have are fragmentary. However, spacious and rich Turkish residences can be found near the administrative centre, as well as near the plain, where the affluent agas maintained their properties. In contrast, the Muslim quarters around the castle seem to have been inhabited mainly by the middle and lower economic classes. Also, according to the Ottoman census of 1830-1842, we know that in the Christian quarters of Molyvos, the number of highly taxed men was 17 (11 lived in the quarter of Agia Kyriaki and 6 in the quarter of St. Panteleimon). The “middle” economic level taxpaying men were 137 and of these 60 resided in the district of Agia Kyriaki, 30 in the district of Taxiarchis and 47 in the district of Agios Panteleimon. Taxpayers of “low” level contributions were 190 and of these 67 resided in the Agia Kyriaki district, 52 in the Taxiarchi district and 71 in the Agios Panteleimon district. In other words, out of a total of 344 taxpaying Christians, the percentage of high-paying taxpayers, i.e. the economic elite, rose to 4.9%, while middle-status taxpayers accounted for 40%, while low-income and low paying taxpayers made up 55.1% of the population.
Data cited by Evridiki Sifnaiou concerning land ownership and the land tax (vergi) paid by Christians in 1911 paints an image of the social stratification of Molyvos in the last years of Ottoman rule. In Molyvos then, small-holding farmers, i.e. those who paid property tax from 0 to 100 grosia, amounted to 61.1% of the tax-paying base, while landowners with moderate incomes, who paid tax from 101 to 500 grosia, made up 30%. Finally, large landowners who paid tax from 501 to 2,000 grosia constituted 8.9% of the tax-base. It is evident that low and middle incomes, and therefore small and medium-sized land parcels, represented a majority of Molyvos’ landholdings. However, the percentage of those who owned medium and large land holdings was by no means small. The peculiar inheritance practice that used to be in force in Lesvos, according to which the first-born daughter inherited the entire paternal property, seems to have contributed to the preservation of large holdings [41]. On the contrary, in Mytilene and Plomari, areas that were more strongly affected by capitalist development in the last quarter of the 19th century, large and medium-sized estates were concentrated in far fewer families. Specifically, large estate owners in Mytilene represented but 1.3% of all landholders. In Plomari that number was even smaller (0.14%). In both towns small landowners were the majority with percentages of 91.5 and 97.03 respectively [42].
In terms of the confessional divide, the kaza of Molyvos was home to the largest percentage of the island’s Muslims. It is indicative that while in 1548 the percentage of Muslims in Molyvos and in villages belonging to the kaza of Molyvos was but 2%, this number rose to 4.5% in 1581 only to climb to 27% by 1708/09. In that same period there was a commensurate steady decrease in the percentage of the Christian population. In the first official Ottoman census, that of 1830-1842, Muslims constituted 27.5% of the population in the kaza of Molyvos, while the corresponding percentage in the kaza of Mytilene was 18.5% and in the kaza of Kalloni merely 9.3%. In 1890, out of a total population of 13,712 Muslims living on the island, 33.3% were found in the kaza of Mytilene, 3.9% in the kaza of Plomari and 62.9% in the kaza of Molyvos. A large percentage of the Muslim population in the kaza of Molyvos was located in the villages of Tsoukalochori, Filia, Anemotia and Fterounda. Three settlements, (A)chil(le)iopigada, Klapados and Sigri, were inhabited exclusively by Muslims, seven settlements only by Christians (Stypsis, Lafiona, Skoutaros, Vatousa, Rema, Tzithra, Telonia), while the rest of the settlements of the kaza had a mixed population.
The increased percentage of Muslim population in northern and western Lesvos was the result of population movements mainly from Asia Minor and other regions. It also resulted from the Islamization of part of the local population, especially in the poor villages of western Lesvos. During the first centuries of the Ottoman conquest and until the 17th century, we sometimes note the conversion of entire villages, as in the case of Klapados. Here the aim is to avoid the head tax, which was particularly onerous given the prevailing household indebtedness. In other words, it can be argued that in Lesvos, as in other areas of the Ottoman Empire, Islamisation was mainly economically and socially motivated and was not the result of coercion or outright violence. In this context, and especially in the western part of Lesvos, viewing the Ottoman element as the stereotypical “other” and alien to anything Greek often does not facilitate an understanding of social relations of the period.
Another key feature of the demography of the small town of Molyvos and the homonymous kaza is the slow rate of population growth, in contrast to the rapid increase observed, particularly in the 19th century, in Mytilene. Indicatively, Molyvos, in the middle of the 16th century, had about 2,200 inhabitants (476 dwellings), compared to 3,500 in the town of Mytilene. Between 1521 and 1900 Molyvos did not even double in size, while during the same period the population of Mytilene quadrupled, rising from 3,500 to 16,500 inhabitants. As D. Karydis and M. Kiel point out, the slow population growth rates in Molyvos are due to the limited economic potential of the area, but also to the fact that the Muslim population, which in the last years of Ottoman rule had a much slower growth rate than the Christian population, was in the majority there. The apparent slowdown in the growth rate of the Muslim population is linked to its inability to enter the path of bourgeois formation and capitalist development which the economy and society of Lesvos entered in the 19th century. In the case of Lesvos, although Muslims were politically dominant, most of were part of the local “proletariat” and their fortunes were identical to those of Christian farmers and herders.
In general, it can be argued that Molyvos, in the Ottoman era but also later, shows points of affinity with the settlements in the north and western part of the island as well as Kalloni, with less of a connection to Mytiline [43]. The differences between these two parts, which may mainly be attributed to geography and environmental factors such as the geological structure of the island and their respective distance from the shores of Asia Minor, determined the different rates of development on the island, the economy, social relations, demography, relations between conquerors and conquered, the mentality of the inhabitants. Even natural phenomena do not always seem to have affected the whole island in the same manner. The great earthquake of 1867, for example, struck the central and eastern part of the island, while the earthquake of 1889 was devastating only for western Lesvos. Most of the sources and historiographical studies available to date relate mainly to the capital of the island, Mytilene, and the more fertile central and eastern part of the island. In this respect, a more systematic study of the Kaza of Molyvos may shed light on hitherto unknown aspects of the Ottoman and post-Ottoman history of Lesvos and make visible any differentiations that exist within the island of Lesvos itself, thus contributing to the emergence of historical approaches linked to spatial history and the concept of insularity [44].
In this context, it is useful to consider and study further the dense network of social, economic and cultural relations that emerged among Molyvos and the settlements that belonged to the homonymous kaza [45]. The kaza of Molyvos was maintained throughout the period of Ottoman rule, even though the original administrative division of the island into three kazades (Mytilene, Kalloni and Molyvos), saw much change [46].
Furthermore, there were changes in the number of settlements included in it. Whereas in 1548 it included the town of Molyvos and seventeen other villages, by 1840 it had expanded its territory to include twenty-eight villages. The difference in the number of settlements can be explained by the emergence of some new villages, but also by the changes observed in the division and boundaries of the kaza. Specifically, in the middle of the 19th century, the kaza of Molyvos was comprised of those villages located near the town of Molyvos and on the slopes of Mt. Lepetymnos (968 m), namely Petra, Petritziki (modern Petri), Chiliopigada (or Achilleopigada), Lafiona (or Lathiona), Klapados, Vafeios, Argenos, Sikamia, Halikas (modern Lepetymnos), Kapi, Gelia, Stypsi and Ypsilometopo. Also, the head villages of the western, barren part of the island, Vatousa, Filia, Tsoukalochori (or Skalochori), Anemotia, Chydira, Agra, Mesotopos, Fterounda, Skoutaros (Kitado), Telonia (modern Antissa), Sigri and Eresos, as well as the settlements of Tzithra and Rema. In 1909, by which time the island was divided into the Mytilene, Molyvos and Plomari kazas, the topography and the number of settlements belonging to the kaza of Molyvos changed again. Thus, the kaza of Molyvos consisted of the nahiyedes (demoi/nahiye) of Molyvos with 20 villages and Kalloni with 9 villages, while the kaza of Mytilene included the nahiye of Mytilene with 30 villages, of Agiasos with 8 villages, of Gera with 6 villages and Mantamados also with 6 villages, while the kaza of Plomari contained the nahiyedes of Plamari with 16 villages and Polihnitos or Vassilikos with 8 villages.
All manner of economic, social and cultural ties developed between the kaza settlements and the town of Molyvos, due to the difficult communication with the capital, Mytilene, and the absence of an integrated road network on the island until the very last decades of the 19th century. The construction of a road network on Lesvos began in 1883, on the initiative of the then Ottoman governor Namik Kemal, and was completed at the end of the 19th century. Until then, transport on the island, as on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, was mainly by sea with small boats, as it was faster and easier than land transport. Thus, Mytilene, although it was the seat of most of the administrative and military authorities, was not the economic centre of the whole island, as the export of products, especially oil, was done directly from the production sites. This fact left room for other provincial centres and ports to emerge, such as Petra and Perama in Gera, but mainly the seats of the kazades, such as Molyvos, Kalloni and later Plomari, which all developed commercially and economically.
C. EDUCATION
When it comes to the realm of education the Codex of the church of Agios Panteleimon furnishes some of the earliest, though vague, information about educational activity in Lesvos. What is more, this information refers to a woman. Specifically, the record of 3 June 1667 mentions a debt owed by the Christian community of Molyvos to “Dikineta the female teacher” [47].
What we know for certain is that the first centres of letters on Lesvos were the monasteries of the ecclesiastical province/metropolis of Mithymna. This see included towns, villages and settlements, which during the Ottoman period were administratively under the jurisdiction of the kazades of Kalloni and Molyvos. It should be noted that the metropolis of Mithymna already appears as an organised ecclesiastical region in early Christian times whence few changes mark its territorial extent. Having since the 16th century Kalloni as its seat, it includes to this day towns, villages and smaller settlements located in the north-eastern and north-western part of the island, namely in the areas where the towns of Agia Paraskevi, Mantamados and Molyvos are located and to the west and south the towns of Petra, Andissa and Vatousa. Near Kalloni then, St. Ignatios Agallianos founded the Leimonos monastery in the third decade of the 16th century, and only a few years later there is already evidence for the operation of a school therein, probably dedicated to the education of the monks.
From the beginning of the 19th century, however, the kaza of Molyvos became the epicentre of intensified educational activity on the island. During this period schools were established in most of the villages of the kaza, with important teachers coming to the island from the circle of Veniamin of Lesvos’ disciples at the Academy of Kydoniai on the facing Asian shores. And so, while a strong conservative climate, hostile to the ideas of the Enlightenment and to Veniamin himself prevailed in the capital of the island, imposed on the political, social and intellectual life of the island by Mytilene’s leading groups, the notables (proktitoi) and the Church, conditions in the kaza of Molyvos were, it seems, quite different. Thus, in the first decades of the 19th century, a circle of local scholars-teachers emerged in the northern part of the island who contributed decisively to the dissemination of modern ideas through education.
Thanks to Benjamin’s efforts and the assistance of Panaretos, the metropolitan bishop of Mithymna (1801-1817), with whom Veniamin was on friendly terms, schools were established, staffed by forward looking teachers who had apprenticed under him, were familiar with his work and followed his teaching methods. Specifically, Benjamin sent his students Ignatius Sardellis and Nikitas Heraklidis to the school of Achyrona (today’s Kalloni). Ioannis Mytilineos and Iakovos Palaiologos, later Metropolitan of Mithymna came to Molyvos, while Anastasios Pambo and Gregory Skopelitis taught at the school of Mantamados, where the important teacher and scholar Stavrakis Anagnostis studied and then eventually taught. Veniamin also sent Theophanis Grimanis to Mytilene, as well as Philotheos Raissopoulos from Andros and Philotheos Skyrios to Plomari [48].
Thus, through all these teachers and scholars, who studied in the school of Kydoniai under Veniamin and then, in the period 1812-1821, under Theophilos Kairis, new ideas filtered slowly, first to the kaza of Molyvos and thence to the entire Island of Lesvos [49]. As noted by G. Aristides, Veniamin would often come from Kydoniai and visit Metropolitan Panaretos in Kalloni and on these occasions the archpriest’s palace was in an instance transformed into a school. The wise Veniamin, in the midst of a dense crowd of notables and always in the presence of the metropolitan, explained in scientific terms the meteorological and natural phenomena, recalling their origin in the thought of the ancient Greeks and did not fail to castigate the evils of his time. He thus contributed to the eradication of superstitions and superstitions, to the strengthening of zeal for letters and love for the homeland [50].
Metropolitan Iakovos of Mithymna continued the work of Veniamin and Panaretos from 1831 to 1842. A native of Petri (a settlement near Molyvos), Iakovos was a student of Veniamin at the Academy of Kydoniai, had taught, as we have seen, at the school of Molyvos and in his capacity as leader of the Church “succeeded within a decade in getting all the towns and almost all the small villages of his province to have schools” [51]. Stavrakis Anagnostis dedicates his poems to the “euphonious and muse-nourished” hierarch, Metropolitan Iakovos of Mithymna, who, as he notes, is “her very own Greek offspring.” For Stavrakis, Iakovos’ enthronement in April 1832, marked the coming of a “golden age”, when a “new era will dawn” and “the fog of sin will be removed” from his province [52].
In that same time, education was a primary concern of the Christian community of Molyvos, while the education of the Muslims was also particularly developed. Some early evidence of teaching students in the narthex or by the psalter in the churches of Taxiarchis and Agios Panteleimon dates from the late 18th century. However, the first school was founded, as noted, in 1805, with Ioannis Mytilineos and Iakovos Palaiologos as teachers. The operation of the school must have been temporarily interrupted by upheaval caused at the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, but it reopened in 1824-1827 with Iakovos Palaiologos as teacher again. Then, in 1828, we encounter Nikitas Iraklidis, who was also a graduate of the Academy of Kydoniai and later developed a multifaceted activity “as an archpriestly commissioner, community elder, supervisor of schools and self-taught doctor” [53]. By 1840, we know that there were two schools (allelodidaktika) in Molyvos, one for boys and one for girls. Here elder students assumed the role of teachers next to their instructor (monitorial instruction model) [54]. Important teachers in the second half of the 19th century were Konstantinos Patselis or Yakinthos, who was a pupil of Stavrakis Anagnostis, Anastasios Eleftheriadis and Konstantinos Michaelides – who had graduated from the Gymnasion of Syra and was the father of Argyris Efthaliotis – as well as Michael Iatridis [55].
The financing of schools in the kaza of Molyvos was always an important concern, which became more acute after the great frost of 1850 severely damaged the island’s olive trees causing severe economic strain. In fact, the need to find new resources for the needs of the schools was the main cause of the intense conflict that broke out between the communities of the kaza of Molyvos and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople. This dispute, which lasted for about twenty years (from 1866 to the end of the 1880s), came to be known as the Leimonian affair, as the communities claimed part of the revenues of the Leimonos monastery to cover the needs of education. The Leimonian affair also involved prominent members of the Molyvos community, such as the jurist and politician Zafeirakis Ypandremenos (1831-1896), who strongly supported the communities’ demands [56].
In Molyvos, in the middle of the 19th century, there was lacklustre school attendance, difficulties in the maintenance of school buildings, while Greek schools ceased to operate for a time. As the teacher Konstantinos Michaelides wrote in the Smyrna newspaper Amaltheia on 2 August 1857, the severe frost of 1850 drained “every source of prosperity and social well-being and brought about the abolition of the Greek School of Molyvos, which had suffered more than every other place”. He himself, unable to bear seeing his homeland “in terms of ancestral prosperity on a par with the more formal cities of Lesbos, yet in terms of education, much diminished”, decided to found and run a mixed private school and a boarding school in order to prepare young people “for commercial life” and for “higher education”. At this school, which operated from 1857 to 1866 (the year of Michaelides’ death) and where his son Argyris Efthaliotis was a pupil, priority was given to practical lessons, the teaching of French and, above all, the double-entry bookkeeping necessary for a career in the commercial sector [57]. In other words, it was a school that in terms of curriculum fully met the requirements of the time, providing elementary vocational training to students who did not intend to continue their studies in high school. Argyris Efthaliotis, in his 1949 short story “First Love”, wrote about this school: “We are eight or ten decent boys, determined to learn what the infinitive is and to bring culture to the village. And fifteen girls, who would come two hours a day and sit by the old teacher’s side for two hours, and they would embroider with grace, making you love grammar whether you wanted to or not.”
At the same time, however, the allelodidaktikon and the girl’s school were operating with the financial support of the community. In fact, the Molyvos girl’s school, together with the one in Mytilene, were the first two girls’ schools to operate on the island. After the death of Michaelides and the closure of his school, a Greek school was reopened in Molyvos with the financial support of the community [58].
Zafeirakis Ypandremenos in his account in the newspaper Amalthea of Smyrna, on 18 July 1873, describes in warm words the examinations of the schools of Molyvos, while he does not fail to emphasize that almost all the students responded with honours despite the fact that the majority of them are “half-naked, shoeless and sickly children” whose only adornment is an awareness of their great descent from the ancient Greeks.
For the spiritual development of the Greek Orthodox community, on the initiative of Michaelides himself and in cooperation with the physics and mathematics instructor Michael Savvas and the doctor Socrates Fotiadis, the “Brotherhood of the Muses” of Mithymna was founded on 26 July 1859, one of the first associations/brotherhoods on Lesvos (the association Proodos/progress had been founded in 1852 in Mytilene). The main concern of the brotherhood was the purchase of books for the establishment of a Public Library and Reading Room for the spiritual cultivation of the Christian community and the return of the Muses in modern Mithymna [59]. The obligation of the registered members, apart from their financial contribution, was to hold regular public readings of books, mainly by ancient Greek authors, and to organize lectures and discussions on topics related to the ancient Greek past of their particular homeland and on their descent from glorious ancestors, the ancient Greeks [60].
The initiatives of the “Brotherhood of the Muses of Mithymna” suggest that archaeolatry, which in Western modernity operated as a mechanism for the imaginary constitution of the nation, in the case of Lesvos contributed to the formation of an ethnic identity, not linked to the irredentist visions expressed at the same period by the Greek state [61]. In other words, in the mid-19th century, the people of Molyvos believed that education was the means by which the Greek Christian community could attain prosperity, much as in its past. In this context, it is worth mentioning Stavrakis Anagnostis, who, in 1850, in chronicling the course of Lesvos through the centuries, stands on two major “moments”: Antiquity, when the island experienced exceptional development and produced important personalities, such as Alkaios and Sappho, and in his own era, the era of the Tanzimat reforms, when, according to existing indications, his homeland was to shine again [62].
The Christians of Molyvos ensured that by way of donations, mostly from among its affluent members, the goals of the “Brotherhood” were pursued and the needs of the schools covered. According to the statuses of the “Bortherhood of the Muses” the capital for these activities would be handed off for management to persons with landed property or to trustworthy guarantors who would use the collected interest to purchase equipment for physics experiments and for other activities that would benefit the youth of Molyvos. The “Book of Contributions for the Schools of Molyvos”, which contains the names of the donors and the amounts they contributed from 1860 to 1906, is preserved in the archives of the Molyvos primary school. Also, from the inspector Neilos Sakellariou, who in 1913 compiled on behalf of the Greek state a report on the educational situation in Lesvos, we learn that “There are few villages where the schools have their own endowment and so much of it that it is sufficient for their present maintenance”. Among these villages he mentions Molyvos, Filia, Sykamia, Vatousa, Telonia, Pterounta, Lisvori, Polyhnitos, Papados and Skopelos. “The other schools”, he notes, “are maintained either by the Church’s contribution or by the collection of the municipal tax, which the municipal authorities imposed on the citizens under the tacit approval of the Turkish Government” [63].
In 1909, the erudite Archmandrite Stavros Taksis wrote that a Greek school and two “preliminary schools for boys and girls” were operating in Molyvos. He informs us that there was a Muslim school (boys’ primary school), a secondary school (rushdie) and that a girls’ school had recently been established [64]. It should be noted that Molyvos, together with Mytilene and Skopelos in Gera, were the areas in Lesvos where Muslim secondary schools operated. What is more, a Muslim seminary (medreses) operated in Molyvos, as in Mytilene and at Perama in Gera [65].
Statistics obtained from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggest that in the school year 1911-1912, the boys’ school of the Christian community in Molyvos had 85 pupils and two teachers, while the girls’ school had 77 pupils and two teachers [66]. The ratio of the student population in relation to the population of the community is one of the highest observed on the island, with one student for every 7.6 inhabitants. Also noteworthy is the high percentage of girls attending school for the time. Moreover, the enrolment rates in the town’s Muslim schools were similarly high.
D. MOLYVOS AFTER 1912
The 8th of November 1912, when the Greek fleet occupied the city of Mytilene, is undoubtedly a major turning point in the history of Lesvos. From the very first day, the Greek Orthodox celebrate, while the local press expresses enthusiasm for the newly found political freedom, the Greek element’s liberation from the nationalist policy of the Young Turks, and the union with Greece. However, in northern and western Lesvos, where the presence of a Muslim population was significant, Ottoman rule would last another month. The Turkish army withdrew from the capital and deployed to the hill of Klapados, in the region of Kalloni, where on 8 December, together with local Muslims, it would fight its last battle against the Greek army [67].
During the month that elapsed between the arrival of the Greek fleet on the island and the battle of Klapados, violent events between Christians and Muslims took place in the villages of northern and western Lesvos, which became known as “the fear” (fovia) [68]. In the archives of the Library of Molyvos there is a manuscript resolution for the abolition of Ottoman rule, which was signed on 3 January 1913 by the mayor K. Kepetzis, the Christian elders D. Savvas, A. Krallis, D. Mallidis, N. Fotias, I. Emmanuel and A. Matzouranis, the Mufti of Molyvos Nouch Efendis and the six-member Muslim council of elders [69].
The abolition of Ottoman rule and especially the events that followed in the following decades, such as the First World War, the global economic crisis of 1929 and the Asia Minor disaster, were to have a significant impact on the economy and society of the island. Lesvos suffered perhaps the most severe economic blow of all the islands of the northeastern Aegean and its role as an important trade and industrial centre was be diminished, as its close communication with the Asia Minor coast and its connection to the powerful markets of the Ottoman Empire was permanently interrupted. Thus, from being a dynamic, transit trade station to and from the Asia Minor coast, the island gradually turned into a border province of the Greek state and was driven into economic decline.
The port cities of the island, including Molyvos, have since shown obvious signs of decline and economic collapse. There is also evidence of decline in the realm of culture as the local newspaper Mithymna ends its run in this time [70].
In April 1922, the Ladies’ and Maidens’ Association “Agapi” was founded, with the aim of supporting the soldiers of the Asia Minor War and their families, but also to help the needy families of Molyvos in general.
After the Asia Minor “Catastrophe” of 1922 and the arrival of a large number of refugees on the island, the composition of the settlement’s population changed radically. Molyvos lost half of its people, i.e. its Muslim inhabitants, and in their place it received a large number of Asia Minor refugees, mainly from the opposite region of Adramyttion. During the first round of ethnic violence, in 1914, 50 refugees settled in Molyvos [71]. After 1922, another 1435 were to join them, though the majority will move to other regions by 1928 [72].
The economic resources of the locals were certainly not sufficient to cover the needs of the large wave of refugees in the first days after the Catastrophe. However, as food shortages and poverty were pressing problems that had to be addressed somehow, in November 1922, the Molyvos sub-directorate deemed it necessary to set up a local committee to deal with the refugee needs. The refugees settled in the properties of the Muslims and thus, at least at the level of urban planning, no changes were caused to the settlement. The new residents temporarily boosted fishing, crafts and trade, but were unable to prevent the economic hardship and demographic decline that impacted the settlement during the inter-war period.
And yet, even during this difficult period, the inhabitants of Molyvos did not stop caring for education. It is indicative that in 1923, the “Association of the Youth of Mithymna” was operating, which undertook to organise fund-raising for the construction of a new school for boys, while its main concern was to support the educational needs of the place in general. In 1927, another association was founded under the name “Argyris Efthaliotis”, with the aim of reviving the cultural tradition of the place. The honorary president of the association was Metropolitan Dionysios of Mithymna, the president was Dimitrios Savvas, while among its founding members were N. Michaelides, N. Fotias, I. Krallis, K. Kepetzis and N. Kazazis.
During this transitional period, Ioannis K. Krallis, descendant of a noted merchant family of Molyvos in the 19th century [73] and “one of the noblest figures of the new Mithymna” according to George Vallettas [74], undertook the project of electrification of the settlement, trying to reverse the image of decline and regression that his homeland presented in his days. Having returned from years of army service in both the Balkans (during the First World War) and Smyrna, Ioannis actively participated in all the cultural and educational initiatives of his time, as well as the committees for the settlement and support of the newly arrived refugees. His case, I think, outlines very well the difficulty of the bourgeoisie to adapt to the new historical context and at the same time the dead ends of Lesvos’ economy. Stratis Myrivilis’ novel, The Teacher with the Golden Eyes (1932), whose plot unfolds in Molyvos, captures the melancholy climate and problems of the interwar period. As a veteran of the Balkan front in the First World War and ensuing the Asia Minor Campaign, had keen insight into this reality; as did Ioannis Krallis of Molyvos, his second cousin.
During the Occupation and the Civil War, hunger and poverty affected the population of Molyvos, just as in most of Greece. The German invasion of the island took place on 4 May 1941 from two points, the port of Petra and Mytilene. Thereafter, the Germans settled mainly in the town of Mytilene, while small garrisons were placed at strategic harbour points on the island, including Molyvos. The presence of the Germans in Molyvos was not intense, but we know that resistance activity was developed by the inhabitants. According to an oral testimony, in the autumn of 1941, some residents of Molyvos, with the help of the merchant George Sakalis, brought 5,000 ounces of wheat from a village around Thessaloniki to distribute it to those in need [75].
The protagonists of the project were eventually captured by the Germans and imprisoned, while later several of them took part in the Resistance through the ranks of the National Liberation Front (EAM). We also know that among the 42 people executed in Lesvos by the Germans were Antonis Liamis and Vassilis Koniaris from Molyvos. Both were executed in July 1942 in the Tsamakia area of Mytilene, having tried to escape to the Middle East.
It should be noted here in passing that in the post-civil war period the presence of the left and the centre parties in Molyvos, as in the whole island of Lesvos, was intense. With regard to the electoral behaviour of Molyvos, we can mention that in the parliamentary elections of 1956, the ruling right-wing party (ERE) garnered 33% of the votes in Molyvos, while the united opposition, the Democratic Union (an electoral coalition of centre and left-wing parties) garnered 65%. The corresponding figures for the prefecture of Lesvos (including Lemnos and Agios Efstratios) were 36% and 62.5%. In the next elections in 1958, the EDA, saw a big rise, receiving 33% in Molyvos, while in the whole prefecture its tally rose to 42.1% of the votes. Most voters in Molyvos voted 36% for the Liberal Party, while the percentage of the ERE reached 30.5%. In the 1963 elections, when the political climate shifted towards the Centre Union, Molyvos granted 43.3% to the Centre Union, 29.4% to ERE and 25.6% to EDA. In the prefecture of Lesvos, the percentages were 36.2% for the Centre Union, 31% for EDA and 28.9% for ERE [76].
Molyvos would remain without a water supply and sewerage network until the 1950s, with sewage being channelled through the old Turkish sewers and collected in rudimentary cesspools on the outskirts of the settlement. The poverty and the difficulties during the years of the Occupation and the Civil War will lead the population to mass emigration and the place to abandonment, as happened in almost the entire Greek rural area. From the 1950s onwards, the people of Molyvos, seeking better living conditions, will emigrate in great numbers to the urban centres of Greece and abroad, to Athens, America, Canada, Germany and Australia. Thus, the settlement from 1,943 inhabitants in 1951, shows a significant population decrease in the following decades, with the 1971 census reaching 1,414, the 1981 census 1,250 and the last census of 2021 1,335 [77].
In order to halt poverty and population shrinkage, a plan for the “social development” (Social Tourism) of Molyvos was promoted in the late 1950s by the Mytilene lawyer and sociologist Michalis Goutos, in collaboration with the then mayor Themistocles Krallis, the Mytilene prosecutor of the Court of Appeal G. Trambos, the doctor Ignatios Tsakyrakis and some others. “The people of Molyvos,” Goutos said, “are poor, very poor, most of them fishermen on the Turkish coast, but they have a rare dignity and a touching sense of hospitality. The olive tree, because of drought or the pest disease, rarely bears fruit. And so, for years now poverty has been a permanent condition.” [78]
The aim of his visionary plan for Molyvos was not so much economic development through tourism, but rather the social development of the place by bringing the local population into contact with cultivated people from all over the world while, above all, seeking the preservation of the traditional colour and character of the settlement. The tranquillity of the natural landscape and the hospitality of ordinary fishermen and villagers would offer “a form of rest to spiritual people, far from the mechanised society and the tyranny of time and the clock”, Goutos argued. He believed that this could be achieved by showcasing the unparalleled picturesqueness of the place and the exquisite quality of the ordinary people of Molyvos. This vision was largely realized thanks to his own efforts, but also to the willing cooperation of the inhabitants. In the decades that followed, Molyvos gained international renown and famous figures, mainly from the realm of letters and art visited and even resided in it. Goutos’ partners in this endeavour were well-known artists and remarkable ordinary people, with whom he was associated by close friendship: the Kalligeris family from Skamia, the nephew of Efthaliotis, philologist and critic Kimon Michaelides, the doctors Zenon Eleftheriadis and Nikos Sereslis, also a doctor from Petra, Eustratia Krallis, wife of the mayor Themistocles Krallis, Militsa Kanaharou and many others.
The accession of Greece in the European Economic Community (EEC) linked Molyvos and the island in general to different international networks. This time, increased tourism and European Agricultural and regional development funds and subsidies came to change local conditions, contributing to a new kind of affluence. This new flow of resources and people ushered Molyvos and Lesvos in the era of services and global connections. In this context, summer study programmes are held in the summer by the Canadian post-secondary institutions, Simon Fraser University and UQAM/Université Québec au Montreal. At the same time, a variety of cultural events are organised by local institutions and associations. The Ariοn International Guitar Festival of Molyvos and the Molyvos Classical Music Festival are now established and well-regarded institutions, with robust international participation and recognition well beyond the shores of the island.
[1] On the importance of archaeolatry and on the ideological climate in Lesvos in the mid-19th century, see. Maria Mandamadiotou, «Η Λέσβος από τον όψιμο Διαφωτισμό στον Ελληνοθωμανισμό (1821-1850): Προσλήψεις της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης στο έργο του Σταυράκη Αναγνώστη», Τα Ιστορικά journal vol. 76, 2023, pp. 37-62 and here, in the section on education. For the medieval name Molyvos or Molyvos two views have been proposed. According to the prevailing one, the name derives from the dark basaltic rocks, which the inhabitants mistook for lead, while in another view it is derived from a corruption of the name Mont or Mole d’olives (mountain or harbour of olives) of the Gaelic period. Cf. Stavrakis Anagnostis, Η Λεσβιάς ωδή ή ιστορικόν εγκώμιον της νήσου Λέσβου, Εισαγωγή: Γιώργος Βαλέτας, φωτομηχανική ανατύπωση της έκδοσης του 1850, Mytilene, 2000, p. 191.
[2] Argyris Efthaliotis (1849-1923), christened Kleanthis Michailidis, was born in Molyvos but left at a young age and lived his whole life far from his hometown. With his philological pseudonym Efthaliotis he wished to be known in the world “as a true child of Efthalou”, the coastal, retreat some four kilometers from Molyvos.
[3] For the network of settlements in Lesvos, the surviving sources are few and mainly date from the 17th century onwards. However, all the sources converge on the conclusion that the settlement grid of the island has been preserved almost unchanged from the Ottoman period until today, as have the main population concentrations and the names of the settlements. See: βλ. Chr. Chatzilias, Οι πετράδες της Λέσβου. Κοινωνικά δίκτυα, τεχνικές και τοπική ιστορία, 1850-1950, Athens, 2020. For the industrial building of the same era, see Nikos Sifounakis, Βιομηχανικά κτίρια στη Λέσβο. Ελαιοτριβεία–σαπωνοποιεία, 19ος και αρχές του 20ού αιώνα, Athens, 1994.
[4] The beauty of the landscape of Eftalou inspired the Asia Minor writer Elias Venezis, who chose to live there some years after 1922. See. Elias Venezis, Εφταλού. Ιστορίες του Αιγαίου, Athens, 1972.
[5] According to tradition, in 1450, when the castle of Molyvos was besieged by the Turks, Orietta Doria, wife of the Gattilusio ruler of Lesvos, Dorino I, put on armour and encouraged the besiegers, who eventually repelled the Turks.
[6] The population of the island from the time of the occupation to the time of the abolition of Ottoman rule ranged from 20,000 to 126,000 inhabitants. See. Panagiotis Michaelaris, «Νεώτεροι χρόνοι», στο Λέσβος. Από τη Σαπφώ στον Ελύτη (λεύκωμα), edited by D. Talianis, Mytilene, 1995, p. 25.
[7] Although the exact terms of the property regime in Lesvos are not known, it is likely that the successive transfers of the right to possession and use of real estate contributed, around the middle of the 17th century, to the transformation of long-term use into ownership. In the mid-19th century, the “Land Law” (1858) brought these properties into full ownership. See. N. P. Eleftheriadis, Μελέται μουσουλμανικού δικαίου, οθωμανικής νομοθεσίας και δικαίων των εν Τουρκία χριστιανών, vol. 1, Mytilene, 1912
[8] In the Ottoman census of 1830, Muslims constituted 19% of the total population of the island, while in the Ottoman census of 1906-1907 this percentage decreased, reaching 13.7% and on the eve of the Balkan Wars 13.1%. Cf. Metin Ünver, “Midilli Adasi’nin Nufusu (1830-1842),” Guney-Dogu Avrupa Arastirmalari Dergisi [The Journal of South-Eastern European Studies], vol. 33, 2018-2019, pp. 53-54; Kemal Karpat, Ottoman Population, 1830-1914. Demographic and Social Characteristics, London, 1985, p. 162; and É. Kolodny and R. Darques, ‘Turks, Grecs et réfugiés dans l’île de Lesbos au XXe siècle’, p. Méditerranée, vol. 103, 2004, p. 65. On the demography of Lesvos in the 19th century, see also Spyros Karavas, ‘Lesvos in the 19th century. Demographic observations’, in S. C. T[axis], Συνοπτική ιστορία της Λέσβου, φωτομηχανική ανατύπωση της έκδοσης του 1874, Mytilene, 1996, pp. iii-xxv.
[9] Lesvos, together with the coastal zone and the islands of Rhodes and Evia, were included in the Bailerbeylik of the Islands. After 1566, Chios would be annexed to it and in 1579 the duchy of Naxos, which included the largest islands of the Cyclades, would be annexed to it.
[10] The tax system of the iltizam, which was originally in force, provided for the auctioning of taxes for a certain period of time. The highest bidder, who was the Ottoman governor of the island (the Nazir), after paying the amount, would then see to the collection of the taxes. From 1779, the tax system on Lesvos was modified and the Naziris retained the privilege of renting the taxes for life (malikâne). Cf. P. Michaelaris, «Νεώτεροι χρόνοι…», op. cit., p. 27.
[11] S. Anagnostis, Λεσβιάς ωδή, op. cit., p.191.
[12] S. Anagnostis, Λεσβιάς ωδή, op. cit., p. 49.
[13] Georgios Aristides, Τετραλογία Πανηγυρική, photocopied reprint of the first edition of 1863, Mytilene, 1999, p. 159.
[14] Evridiki Sifnaiou, Λέσβος. Οικονομική και κοινωνική ιστορία (1840-1912), Athens, 1995, p. 103.
[15] G. Aristides, Τετραλογία Πανηγυρική, ibid., pp. 159-160.
[16] G. Valetas, «Η εκπαιδευτική και πνευματική Μήθυμνα», ibid., p. 209.
[17] The operation of the Council of Molyvos must have been similar to that of the Great Council (Metzlisi) of Mytilene. As G. Aristides notes, the Great Council consisted of 12 members, the Ottoman governor, the cadi, the mufti, the metropolitan, four representatives of the Muslim population and four of the Christian population. See G. Aristides, Τετραλογία Πανηγυρική, ibid., p. 154
[18] E. Sifnaiou, Λέσβος. Οικονομική και κοινωνική ιστορία, op. cit., p. 64.
[19] The Codex of Saint Panteleimon of Mithymna includes records covering the period 1653-1813. The transcription and a first commentary of the Codex were made by Stavros Nikokyris. See. Stavros Nikokyris, Ο ανέκδοτος Κώδικας του Αγίου Παντελεήμονος της Μητρόπολης Μηθύμνης, diploma thesis, University of Thessaloniki, Department of Pastoral and Social Theology, 2019.
[20] Although the exact terms of the property regime in Lesvos are not known, it is likely that the successive transfers of the right to possession and use of real estate contributed, around the middle of the 17th century, to the transformation of long-term use into ownership. In the mid-19th century, the ‘Land Law’ (1858) brought these properties into full ownership. See. N. P. Eleftheriadis, Studies in Muslim Law, Ottoman Law and the Rights of Christians in Turkey
[21] I. Kleomvrotos, Mytilena Sacra, vol. A, 1970, pp. 195-215 and Codex of St. Panteleimon of Methymni.
[22] The transfer of the seat of the diocese from Molyvos to Kalloni, during the years of Saint Ignatius Agallianos, is probably due to the saint’s activity in the area of Kalloni and the foundation of two important monasteries there, that of Limon and Myrsiniotissa.
[23] Stavros Karydonis, Τα εν Καλλονή της Λέσβου ιερά σταυροπηγιακά μοναστήρια του Αγίου Ιγνατίου, Αρχιεπισκόπου Μηθύμνης, Municipality of Kaloni, 1997.
[24] D. Kontis, Λεσβιακό πολύπτυχο, Athens, 1973, p. 16.
[25] G. Aristides, Τετραλογία πανηγυρική, op. cit., p. 159.
[26] Zafeirakes Hypanedremenos, Μετάφρασις του Υψηλού Αυτοκρατορικού Χάτι-Χουμαγιουνίου, αφορώντος τους χριστιανούς και τους λοιπούς υπηκόους της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας, Samos, 1856.
[27] Ottomanism in the 19th century was mainly aimed at creating a common Ottoman identity in the Empire, through the recognition of political and legal equality to all its subjects. See for example Alp Eren Topal, “Ottomanism in History and Historiography: fortunes of a Concept”, in Johanna Chovanec & Olof Heilo (eds.), Narrated Empires: perceptions of Late Habsburg and Ottoman Multinationalism, London, 2021, pp. 77-98.
[28] The perspective of Helleno-Ottomanism as the Greek version of the ideology of Ottomanism (Osmanlilik) led to the formation of local, ethnic identities that combined Greek cultural characteristics with political loyalty to the Ottoman state. See. Alexis Alexandris, «Οι Έλληνες στην υπηρεσία της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας», Δελτίον της Ελληνικής και Εθνολογικής Εταιρείας, vol. 2, 1980, pp. 365-404 and Elli Skopetea, Το «πρότυπο Βασίλειο» και η Μεγάλη Ιδέα. Όψεις του εθνικού προβλήματος στην Ελλάδα (1830 1880), Athens, 1988, p. 309 et seq. Maria Mandamadiotou, The Greek Orthodox Community of Mytilene: Betweenthe Ottoman Empire and the Greek State, Oxford-Berne, 2013, pp. 35 ff. and M. Mandadiotou, “Lesvos from late Enlightenment to Greco-Ottomanism…”, op. cit.
[29] On the Limonian issue, see. K. Michaelides, «Λεσβιακά. Λειμωνιάς Σχολή (τα ιστορικά της)», Tachydromos, issue. 2698, 1 January 1935; Christos Paraskevaidis, «Τα Λειμωνιακά και ο Νικηφόρος Γλυκάς», Ποιμήν, vol. 4, 1936, pp. 16-21; Pantelis Argyris, «Το Λειμωνιακόν Ζήτημα (διαστάσεις και χρονικό της διαμάχης)», Λεσβιακά, vol. 12, 1989, pp. 24-55; Ioannis Moutzouris, «Τα Λειμωνιακά 1866-1886», Κληρονομία, vol. 22, 1990, pp. 125-185; Dimitrios I. Hadjilias, Το Ελληνικό Σχολείο της Μονής Λειμώνος Λέσβου και η Λειμωνιάτις επαρχιακή σχολή, Mytilene, 2012; Apostolos Spanos, Λειμωνιακό ζήτημα. Ιστορική προσέγγιση και έκδοση εγγράφων από το Αρχείο Νικηφόρου Γλυκά, Athens, 2013.
[30] E. Sifnaiou, Λέσβος. Οικονομική και κοινωνική ιστορία, op. cit., p. 327 and M. Mandamadiotou, The Greek Orthodox community of Mytilene…, op. cit., p. 65 et seq
[31] Ffs. Amalthea, 6 March 1871.
[32] See. (1) See also The General Administration of the Aegean Islands. Various studies. A. Lesvos, 1913 in E. Sifnaiou, Lesvos. Economic and social history, op. cit., pp. 247 and 334-335.
[33] Stratis Anagnostou, “A 1903 tour of north/northwestern Lesvos and the city of Mytilene”, Lesbiaka, vol. 26, 2020, pp. 30-32.
[34] Both Metin Ünver and Pantelis Argyris linked the urban development of the Greek Orthodox of Lesvos in the mid-19th century with the assimilation of nationalism and the irredentist visions of the Greek state. See. Metin Ünver, Midilli Adası’nın Sosyo-Ekonomik Yapısı (1876-1914), PhD thesis, Istanbul, İstanbul Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, 2012 and Pantelis Argyris, “Lesvos. From the conquest (1462) to the modern era”, in Lesvos the Aeolian “, Athens, 1995, p. 53.
[35] For the way in which the society of Lesvos responded to the policy of the Young Turks after 1908, see. M. Mandamadiotou, The Greek Orthodox Community of Mytilene…, op. cit., pp. 65 ff.
[36] On the 1912 elections in Lesvos, see. Maria Mandamadiotou, «Οι βουλευτικές εκλογές του 1912 στη Λέσβο μέσα από τα δημοσιεύματα του τοπικού Τύπου: Εννοιολογήσεις της “πατρίδας” και του “έθνους” σε μια μεταβατική περίοδο» in the collective volume Μαθητείες στην ιστορία. 10 κείμενα για τον Σπύρο Καράβα, edited by Eleni Kyramargiou, Athens, 2022, pp. 121-152.
[37] See. D. N. Karidis and M. Kiel, Μυτιλήνης αστυγραφία και Λέσβου χωρογραφία (15ος-19ος αι.), Athens, 2000, pp. 47 and 74-75.
[38] Ioannis Fountoulis, Η «περιγραφή της Λέσβου» του Μητροπολίτου Μηθύμνης Γαβριήλ Σουμαρούπα (1618-24/2/1621), Mytilene, 1993, p. 30.
[39] According to S. Taxis, in 1909 Molyvos had 450 Christian and 430 Muslim houses. See. Oikonomos S. Taxis, Συνοπτική ιστορία και τοπογραφία της Λέσβου, φωτομηχανική ανατύπωση της έκδοσης του 1909 [Κάιρο], Mytilene, 1995, p. 129.
[40] According to this census, men aged 13 years and older had a tax liability. See. M. Ünver, “Midilli Adasi’nin Nufusu (1830-1842)”, op. cit. p. 43-77
[41] Panagiotis Michaelaris, «Προσπάθειες περιστολής της πολυτέλειας στο νησί της Λέσβου (18ος-19ος αι.)», Μεσαιωνικά και Νέα Ελληνικά, Academy of Athens, vol. 11, 2014, pp. 221-238 and Christos Stavrakoglou and Panagiotis Michaelaris, Ρυθμιστικές αποφάσεις τωνμητροπολιτών Μηθύμνης κατά τον ΙΘ΄ αιώνα, Mytilini, 2021.
[42] See. E. Sifnaiou, Λέσβος. Οικονομική και κοινωνική ιστορία, op. cit., p. 108-109.
[43] Even today, Molyvos is part of the Municipality of West Lesvos, which has its seat in Kalloni. For the “lagoon” of Kalloni, which divides the island of Lesvos almost in two and where the great thinker of antiquity, Aristotle, arrived about two thousand years ago in order to explore the science of biology and the mysteries of the natural world, see. Armand Marie Leroi, Η λιμνοθάλασσα. Πώς ο Αριστοτέλης επινόησε την επιστήμη, Foreword by Stasinos Stavrianeas, Translation by Emilia-Alexandra Kritikou and Emily Kritikou, Athens, 2018.
[44] The concept of micro-insularity is linked to the quest for contrasts that may exist between the individual regions of each island. For the case of Chios, see for example Maria Mandamadiotou, «Aspects de l’insularité aux XIXe et XXe siècles: La démographie des Amadès, agglomération de faible importance au nord de l’île de Chios», π. Petits Essais-Μικρά Δοκίμια, τ. 3, 2023, σ. 120-141.
[45] The publication of the Vatousa archives (1733-1912) contributes to the understanding of the dense links that existed between the settlements of northern and western Lesvos. On this see. Χρήστος Σταυράκογλου, Τα αρχεία της Βατούσας Λέσβου (1733-1912), Mytilene, 2012.
[46] The subdivision of Lesvos into three kazas, Mytilene, Kalloni and Molyvos, dating at least from the 16th century, seems to have been maintained until the late 1860s, when the kazade of Kalloni was abolished and replaced by the kaza of Plomari (1879). Between 1887 and 1893 the kazas of Sigri was established but was subsequently abolished between 1899 and 1903. Also, in 1868, Moschonisia (Cunda), located in the Adramytian Gulf, opposite Kydoniai, was added as a kaza to the Lesvos Sancak, but it was permanently detached from the Lesbos Sancak and reattached to the Karasi Sancak, which belonged to the vilayet of Bursa, in the spring of 1912, for electoral reasons.
[47] See Σ. Νικοκύρης, Ο ανέκδοτος Κώδικας του Αγίου Παντελεήμονος…, p. 159.
[48] See. S. Anagnostis, Λεσβιάς ωδή, ibid., pp. 66 and 168; G. Valetas, Η Λεσβιακή Αναγέννηση, 1800-1841, reprinted from the Bulletin ofthe Metropolis of Methymna, Kalloni, 1936, pp. 9-11; P. Samaras, Η εκπαίδευση στη Λέσβο (Από τα χρόνια της σκλαβιάς), Mytilene, 1948, p. 83.
[49] See. Maria Mandamadiotou, «Η Δωδεκάχορδος κιθάρα του Σταυράκη Αναγνώστη και ο Διαφωτισμός στη Λέσβο. Νεωτερικές ιδέες και παραδοσιακές αντιστάσεις», Kondylophoros, vol. 19, 2021, pp. 36-59 and of the same, «Διαφωτισμός και Επανάσταση στο “επάνω μέρος της Ασίας”: Βενιαμίν Λέσβιος και “ήσσονες” λόγιοι στη Λέσβο και τις Κυδωνίες». In Maria Mandamadiotou ed. Διαφωτισμός και φιλελληνισμός, παιδεία και έθνος. Όψεις της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης του 1821, Conference proceedings, Patras, “Kostis Palamas” Cultural Centre, 2023, pp. 34-52 (available at: https://sgkpalamas-conference.enaliaevents.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Πρακτικά Conference_final_04.04.2023.pdf).
[50] G. Aristidis, Βενιαμίν ο Λέσβιος ήτοι ο βίος αυτού, Athens, 1880, σ. 37-38.
[51] Iakovos Metropolitan of Mytilene, «Περί του πώς ειργάσθη η Εκκλησία της Λέσβου κατά τους χρόνους της Τουρκοκρατίας διά την παιδείαν του Έθνους», Ποιμήν, 1978, p. 42.
[52] See «Ωδή αυτοσχέδιος εις τον Πανιερολογιώτατον και σεβασμιώτατον δεσπότην άγιον Μηθύμνης Κύριον Κύριον Ιάκωβον», «Εγκώμιον Προσευχής», «Άλλο εγκώμιον», in S. Anagnostis, Δωδεκάχορδος Κιθάρα από χειρόγραφο του 1824, Introduction-edited by P. Paraskevaidis. Mytilene, p. 82-86.
[53] G. Valetas, «Νικήτας Ηρακλείδης», Ταχυδρόμος newspaper, folio. 1820, 1934.
[54] Γ. Aristides, Τετραλογία πανηγυρική, ibid., p. 166.
[55] George Valetas, «Κωνσταντίνος Μιχαηλίδης, ο πατέρας του Εφταλιώτη», Δελτίον Ιεράς Μητροπόλεως Μηθύμνης, 1936, p. 40.
[56] On the “Limonian question”, see. Pantelis Argyris, “The Limonian question“, cf. Lesbiaka, vol. 12, 1989, p. 24-55; Spanos, Historical approach and publication of documents from the Nikiforos Glyka Archive, Athens, 2013.
[57] G. Valetas, «Η πνευματική και εκπαιδευτική Μήθυμνα», ibid., p. 211. Stratis Anagnostou, «Όψεις του ιδεολογικού και κοινωνικο-οικονομικού πλαισίου στον Μόλυβο των μέσων του 19ου αιώνα και η επίδρασή τους στη ζωή και το έργο του Αργύρη Εφταλιώτη», in Ο Αργύρης Εφταλιώτης στα νεοελληνικά γράμματα, Proceedings of the Conference, Mytilene, 2002, pp. 152-153.
[58] Tuition at Michaelidis’ school was 2.000 grosia per year for boarders and 800 grosia for students residing in their own homes. See. Lykiardopoulou-Kontara, Κοινωνία και παιδεία στη Λέσβο…, ό.π., σ. 320-321. For education in Molyvos also see Marianthi Karafylli, Σχολεία Μήθυμνας (Μολύβου), Thessaloniki, 2021
[59] The founding deed of the association and the catalogue of the books purchased are preserved in the Library of Molyvos.
[60] On the importance of archaeolatry and the ideological climate in Lesvos in the mid-19th century, see. Maria Mandamadiotou, «Η Λέσβος από τον όψιμο Διαφωτισμό στον Ελληνοθωμανισμό…», Ta Ιστορικά, vol. 76, 2023, pp. 37-62.
[61] See. M. Mandamadiotou, «Η Λέσβος από τον όψιμο Διαφωτισμό στον Ελληνοθωμανισμό…», op. cit.
[62] S. Anagnostis, Λεσβιάς ωδή, op. cit., pp. 3-5.
[63] Nilos Sakellariou, «Έκθεσις περί της εκπαιδευτικής καταστάσεως της Λέσβου», in Γενική Διοίκησις νήσων Αιγαίου. Διάφοροι μελέται περί των νήσων. Α΄. Λέσβος, 1913, p.125.
[64] Economos S. Taxis, Συνοπτική ιστορία και τοπογραφία της Λέσβου, φωτομηχανική ανατύπωση της έκδοσης του 1909 [Κάιρο], Mytilene, University of the Aegean, 1995, p. 129
[65] Georgios Archontopoulos, Λέσβος ή Μυτιλήνη ήτοι Συνοπτική ιστορία πασών των πόλεων, κωμοπόλεων και χωρίων, Mytilene, 1894, p. 23.
[66] Stavroula Lykiardopoulou-Kontara, Κοινωνία και παιδεία στη Λέσβο κατά την περίοδο της Τουρκοκρατίας, Mytilini, 2010, p. 324.
[67] To support the Greek army, the “Lesbian Phalanx”, a corps of 210 volunteers of Lesbian origin, arrived from America. See. K. Vakka-Kiriazi, Η Λεσβιακή φάλαγγα, Mytilene, 2018. Local Christians, on the other hand, do not seem to have participated in the battle of Klapados. See. Metropolitan Iakovos of Mithymna, 8 December 1912, Mytilene, 1973, p. 14.
[68] For “Fovia”, see e.g. Bugle, 6, 8 and 15 December 1912.
[69] Panagiota I. Thevaiou-Papatherapon, Δημόσια Ιστορική Βιβλιοθήκη Μηθύμνης «Αργύρης Εφταλιώτης», Library of Mithymna, pp. 45-46 (available at: http://dspace.cplm.gr/bitstream/handle/123456789).
[70] The publication of the newspaper Mithymna was undertaken from the beginning of 1920 by the journalist and printer Dimitris Th. Kambouris.
[71] See: Υπουργείο Υγιεινής, Πρόνοιας και Αντιλήψεως-Τμήμα Στατιστικής, Απογραφή προσφύγων ενεργηθείσα κατ’ Απρίλιον 1923, Athens,The National Print, p. 36. The refugees’ arrival and settlement was managed at the local level by the Mayor Komninakis Krallis, as noted by G. Tsalikis in Η Μήθυμνα στα κύματα των αιώνων, Athens 2004, p.230. The case of Komninakis, who was mayor from 10/12/1913 to 3/9/1920 and President of the community from 3/9/1920 to 27/3/1930 is fascinating, as it speaks of continuities from the Ottoman era to Greek rule. According to M. Ünver, “MİDİLLİ ADASI’NIN İDARİ VE SOSYO-EKONOMİK YAPISI (1876-1914)”, Istanbul 2012, pp. 102 -103) Kominaki Kral Efendi was thus a member of the 1894 Board of Directors of the Kaza of Molyvos, and also sat on the nine-member Municipal Office by but also Aristi Kiryako Efendi (Aristides Kiriakou) and Astoraki Serezli Efendi.
[72] Specifically, in the 1928 population census the population of Molyvos was 2.554, while in the 1920 census it was 2.187. See: Ministry of National Economy-Statistics Directorate, Πληθυσμός του Βασιλείου της Ελλάδος κατά την απογραφήν της 19ης Δεκεμβρίου 1920, Athens, the National Print, σ. 222 and Ministry of National Economy-Statistics Directorate, Πληθυσμός της Ελλάδος κατά την απογραφήν της 15-16 Μαΐου1928, Athens, The National Press, 1935, σ. 259.
[73] The case of the Krallis family reflects the commercial activities and cosmopolitanism of the bourgeoisie of the 19th and early 20th century, while at the same time offering an insight into the movements and migration in northern and western Lesvos. The members of this particular family, through intermarriages with other powerful families of neighbouring settlements, such as Petra, Argenos, Skamia, but also of small towns of western Lesvos, such as Vatoussa, they formed an important commercial and business network that was active in the northern and western part the island and then expanded to the entire Mediterranean area, to Smyrna, Constantinople, Cairo and Alexandria, as well as to cities in western Europe and America.
[74] According to Valeta, “the Krallis family, with Ioannis Kralis (died in 1887), son-in-law of the powerful Argenos-born merchant Antonis Ioakimoglou […] had great influence in old Mithymna and helped its development”. See. Γ. Valetas, «Η πνευματική και εκπαιδευτική Μήθυμνα», ibid., pp. 215-216.
[75] See. Dimitris Mantzaris, ΕΑΜ Λέσβου. Ηττημένοι νικητές, PhD thesis, University of the Aegean, Department of Social Anthropology and History, Mytilini, 2022, pp. 136-137. For the 1940s in Lesvos, see also Giorgos Galetsas, Στο σημάδι… Το ιστορικό των εκτελέσεων στα «Τσαμάκια» κατά τη περίοδο της γερμανικής Κατοχής, Mytilini, 2010 and Andreas Ballas, Σαν ξυπνήσαν τα μουλάρια και πετάξαν τα σαμάρια… Το αντιστασιακό κίνημα στη Λέσβο (1941-1945), Athens, 2022.
[76] For the electoral data of Molyvos, see. Ministry of Interior, Αποτελέσµατα των βουλευτικών εκλογών της 19ης Φεβρουαρίου 1956, Athens 1957, Αποτελέσµατα των βουλευτικών εκλογών της 11ης Μαΐου 1958, Athens 1959 and Αποτελέσµατα των βουλευτικών εκλογών της 3ης Νοεµβρίου 1963, Athens 1964.
[77] See. Population Censuses of the Hellenic Statistical Service (ELSTAT: www.e-demography.gr). In the latest census Molyvos registered 1335 inhabitants.
[78] Collective work, Ο Μιχαήλ Γούτος και ο Μόλυβος, Municipality of Methymna, 2004, p. 99. See also Mitsos Tsiamis, Η κοινωνική ανάπτυξη του Μολύβου (Μήθυμνας) και ο Μιχαήλ Γούτος, Athens, 1989.
AEGEAN STORIES VAULT
North Aegean Stories
- Achliptarouda
- Administrative Continuities
- Allilodiplografia
- Barbarossa
- Daphnis and Chloe
- Dowry Contract & Residence Permit
- Education in the Ottoman Archives
- Egyptian Photo Parlours
- Egyptian stories
- Eleftheriadis: Paris/London
- E. Schmidt on Painted Houses
- Figures from Byzantine Lesvos
- Global Fashions
- Lomemili and Genoese trade
- Conze and Humann in Molyvos
- Nature in Lesvos
- C. T. Newton in Mytilene
- Ottoman Yearbooks
- Postcards
- Smyrna Photo Parlours
- S. Adam on Education in Lesvos
- Seismic Shifts
- Thinking about the state
- War Trauma
- Seals, Authentication and Identity
- A Medical Diploma and a world of connections
- The Vampire of Mytilene
- Women and Memory in Molyvos
Historial Background
Art Creation in Place
- Dimitris Krallis
- Mariza Krallis
- Aytek Soner Alpan
- Maria Mandamadiotou
- Aneurin Ellis-Evans
- Christina Sgouromiti
- Soloup (Antonis Nikolopoulos)
- Yannis Tentzeris
- Ethan Schmidt
- Nina Houle
- Sam Adam
- Emrecan Çelik
- Gregory Tsolakis
This project was supported by an SFU FASS Kickstarter Grant, by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at SFU and by Gefyra, an SNF-funded collaboration between SFU and UCLA.
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