Statue of Georgios Anemogiannis

Statue of G. Anemogiannis (1798-1821)

The historical events: On May 24, 1821, the siege of Nafpaktos began, with the Turks confined to the well-fortified acropolis. After a failed assault from land (June 10, 1821), Georgios Mirialis, the Speziot lieutenant of Botasis' ship, transformed one of the small ships into a fireship, but without the knowledge of Kalafatis and Patatoukos, he simply placed combustible materials on the ship.

A helmsman was sought for the fireship; out of the 800 sailors serving in the Greek fleet, only one 25-year-old youth offered himself, known as Georgios Paxinos, who served on the ship "Symmachoi" under Laskarina Bouboulina (Poupli) with captain Nikolaos Orloff..

When asked about the reward he wished to receive, according to Botasis' testimony, "[...] he smiled and cheerfully replied: I want nothing now; if God grants me success, then I will take ten dollars, to make a gift of my betrothal."

Anemogiannis embarked on the fireship as its helmsman,

Accompanied by Mirialis, along with rowers in the towed boat carrying the fire, Anemogiannis headed towards the Ottoman fleet protected in Nafpaktos under favorable winds. However, they were detected by the Turks, and gunfire began from the fortress and the Turkish ships. Mirialis hurried to set the fire, cut the rope, and urged Anemogiannis to jump into the sea to save himself; otherwise, the ship would burn uselessly.

Anemogiannis attempted to attach it to the Turkish ships, and even as the flames engulfed the sails, he continued the effort with the rudder and when the flames covered the deck, he steered from the side with the tiller, until he was forced to fall into the sea. From there, holding the tiller, he did not cease to struggle, keeping only his head above water.

The last words of the firebrand, from the written testimony of Ioannis Athanasopoulos, a comrade of Paxinos, "[...] You seek freedom, silly brothers, and I will die first for our faith, for our golden homeland, if our torch does not burn." The Turks approached, repelled the fireship, and captured Anemogiannis.

The Greek captains tried to save him with monetary compensation or through prisoner exchange, but the Turks impaled him alive and hung his body for days in the fortress as a "banner of their barbarity."

Recognition and promotion

The effort of the brave firebrand's compatriots, many years later, to pay tribute to their local hero was noteworthy, with
a) the addition of his name to the "monument of those fallen in the national struggles," the unveiling of which took place in the central square of Gaios in October 1931 b) the naming of the promenade road in Gaios as "Pyropolitis Anemogiannis Street." c) the placement at the entrance of the port of Gaios, Paxos, of a bronze statue of him (2.5m high) on a special pedestal, on which a bronze plaque with the hero's last words was also placed (September 4, 1966), which cost 100,000 drachmas, gathered by a special committee. The creation of the statue was commissioned to the renowned sculptor Nikolaos (Nikolaos Pavlopoulos), and its casting was done at the 301 Military Base Factory.

Repeated proposals were made

- however, they never received a response - to name one of our country's submarines after him and to use a special commemorative philatelic stamp by the Paxos Post Office.

The residents of Nafpaktos placed a marble plaque at the fortress of Nafpaktos (1930), which states: "IN ETERNAL MEMORY OF THE HEROIC FIREBRAND GEORGIOS PAXINOS ANEMOGIANNIS. Having fought to burn the Turkish fleet before Nafpaktos, he was captured and burned alive at the Fortress on June 10, 1821."

And on July 9, 1972, the unveiling of a bronze statue, similar to that of Paxos by the sculptor Nikolaos, took place on the battlement of the Nafpaktos castle (named: Anemogiannis' Bastion) and they named the pedestrian street on the coastal road, located on the western arm of the harbor, "Georgios Paxinos Anemogiannis street."