GREECE PELOPONNESE ARGOLIS NAFPLION TOWN

Above: Statues of Staikos Staikopoulos (1799-1835), one of the heroes of the Greek War of Liberation, and of Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias (1776-1831), one of the most distinguished politicians and diplomats of Europe. After a long career in European politics and diplomacy Kapodistrias was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece in 1827. He is considered as the founder of the modern Greek state and of Greek independence after 400 years of Turkish occupation. In 1831 he was assassinated in Nafplion by rebels from the Mani. - Below: A commemorative plaque and bullet holes in the wall of the church of Agios Spiridon are reminiscent of the assassination.

Below: The "Bavarian lion", cut from the rock on the slope of Palamidi hill, commemorates the Bavarian soldiers that died during the plague epidemic in 1833-34, when the new king of Greece, Otto of Bavaria, resided in Nafplion as first Greek capital.