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This is the
tower where
Rigas was
tortured and
strangled.
Rigas' death didn't
end his influence on
the Greeks and other
leaders and finally led
into the Greek
revolution, beginning
the Greek War of
Independence in
1821.
His work
He wrote enthusiastic poems and books about
the Greek history and many became widely
popular. The most famous (which he often sang
in public) is the Thourios in which he wrote…
“It's better to have an hour as a free man than
forty years as a slave." In Greek: «Ως πότε
παλικάρια να ζούμε στα στενά…. Καλλιώναι μίας
ώρας ελεύθερη ζωή παρά σαράντα χρόνια
σκλαβιά και φυλακή»…
He urged the Greeks to leave the Turkish-
occupied towns for the mountains, where they
might experience more freedom.
A Political Constitution for a
Balkan Republic
Rigas’ intention was to revolutionize the Ottoman
Empire, through the wide distribution of
revolutionary literature, such as the New Political
Constitution.
Rigas’ new political order to rise from the
ruins of the Ottoman Empire was set out in his
Political Constitution as a multinational state,
the «Balkan Republic".
In this Republic, that included all
the Balkans, there would be
equality for all, and Greek would
be the language
He published The Charta,
a detailed map of Balkan
Peninsula, which included
all Turks, Greeks,
Romanians, Albanians,
Bosnians, Serbians and
Montenegrins of the
Balkans in a multicultural
state…
…projecting his pioneering vision for a
peaceful, free and democratic Balkan
confederation where all religions and
nationalities would have an equal place.
With his death, the vision of the Republic came
to an end. However, Rigas Fereos became a
powerful symbol for the future generations of
Greece and is considered the forerunner of the
Greek War of Independence.
End of Presentation