5. Aivaliotes’ Impact on Mainland Greece

Most Kydoniates who entered Greek society in 1922 overcame their misery and some reached the top of their professions. Most notable, in 20th century Greece, were: Ilias (Mellos) Venezis, internationally acclaimed author of, among others, “No. 31328,” “Galini,” and “Aeoliki Gi,” who was inducted to the

Greek Academy of Letters in 1957; Fotios (Apostolelis) Kontoglou (left, self portrait), Greece’s foremost 20th century iconographer and author, who painted many churches in Greece and abroad; Panos Valsamakis, the father of modern Greek ceramic arts and author, whose works appear in several public buildings and the national Gallery of Arts in Greece; and Theodoros  Kougioumtzelis, professor of nuclear physics at Athens Polytechnic, who led his field for decades.

Others included doctors (such as I. Kerestetzis, A. Gouttas), government ministers (such as D. Gounaris, S. Gonatas and G. Kassimatis), educators, writers, metropolitans, journalists (such as Athens publisher A. Paraschos, who owned Ethnikos Kirix, Diaplasis ton Paidon and Embros) and businessmen. (It is worth noting that Agapi Molyviatis, Venezis sister and mother of Greece’s foreign minister in 2004-06, P.  Molyviatis, was born in Kydonies.)

Their infinite love for the place they left behind led many of them in 1953 to form the Union of Kydoniates, an organization that lives to this day and whose job has been to keep the memory of the “lost homeland” alive by creating a library of books and oral history testimonials and by continuing to celebrate some of the city’s unique customs. 

Panos Valsamakis at his studio in Marousi circa 1970s                                                                   Ilias Venezis in the 1950s