Miltiadis Papadogiannakis. A Pioneer of Georgioupolis

Where has the statue gone from the village square? people have been asking. Well, after a sojourn in the council chamber it has a new home in a garden at the church of the Ascension in Georgioupolis village. "Who was he?" is the next question. "What did he do?"

Miltiadis Papadogiannakis moved to Georgioupolis (Then known as Paleocastella in the province of Almyros) in 1884. His home village was Kalamitsi. At this time the village of Paliocastella was renamed Almyroupolis.

He was first president of the new "Village Association" and helped to set up an agricultural union.

They wanted Georgioupolis to become a commercial centre and set about planting hundreds of  trees, draining the swamps, fertilising them and providing free quinine to the residents - as there was a lot of malaria in the area at the time.

Around 1912 the first bridge was built over the Almyros river - then called Gargadoros

Here you can see the remains of the old bridge alongside the modern one

He died in 1934. In his will he left an area of 3000m2 for the building of the Saviour's Ascension  church ( the large church where his statue now stands) Also in his will his last wish was to be buried at St Nicholas Church - the one on the causeway - though it was just an island then. I do not know if this was carried out.

There is a lot more, and also many other people from the area instrumental in the work he spent his life carrying out - but too much for this blog!