The benefactors of the Greek Orthodox community of Xanthi

The route is about 2 km long, lasts about 80 minutes and is of moderate difficulty. In it, the visitor will be able to tour buildings of architectural or religious interest, which were either built thanks to the funding/donation of a Xanthi benefactor, or are related to the residence/shop of the benefactor's family.

The role of benefactors was particularly important for the Greek Orthodox Christian populations during the Ottoman period, since they took care of the construction of schools, churches and buildings of public character (e.g. clubs) and preserved through them the ethnic and religious identity of the community.

The visitor, starting from the chapel of Zoodochos Pigi on Lefkou Pyrgou Street and ending at Kavaki, will learn about the tobacco merchants-benefactors Sigalas, Stalios, Matsinis, Kougioumtzoglou, Chasirtzoglou, Michael Floris who rebuilt the Church of Agios Vlasios and the metropolitans of Xanthi and Peritheoriou Eugenios and Ioakeim Sgouros, who rebuilt or renovated churches, the Metropolitan mansion and the monasteries in the suburban forest.

Important were the donations of icons of professional guilds to churches, such as the union of cobblers and shoemakers, or the Epirote Georgios Kagialidis or the elders of the Velios family. There are many more known and unknown benefactors, whose donations and work we can admire today through their material remains.

Points Expand/Collapse

65. Chapel of Zoodochos Pigi

Brief documentation:

The chapel, located on the Lefkou Pyrgou street, was built, as evidenced by the marble inscription, in 1934 by the tobacco industrialist Anargyros Sigalas, in memory of his mother Margarita. He planted about 1200 pine and cypress trees in the surrounding area. In the courtyard there is a column for his mother, who was born in 1855 and died in 1931, originally from Santorini.
Anargyros Sigalas started as a tobacco worker and became Prefect and Member of Parliament for the Rhodope Prefecture in 1936 with the Liberal Party of El. Venizelou. He is related to a mansion on Eleftheriou Venizelou Street that he bought from the Stalios family and to this chapel of Zoodochos Pigi that he built on Lefkou Pyrgou Street.
It is a small one-aisled chapel built within a large free space. The bell tower is embedded in the roof of the chapel, above its entrance to the west and has neoclassical features. Above the entrance door, a stepped cornice is formed, which is interrupted by the marble dedicatory inscription.
A second chapel dedicated to Zoodochos Pigi is located on Pindarou Street in the old Xanthi.

Category of thematic interest: ARCHITECTURAL/HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS INTEREST

History:

The chapel, located on the White Tower, was built, as evidenced by the marble inscription, in 1934 by the tobacco industrialist Anargyros Sigalas, in memory of his mother Margarita. He planted about 1200 pine and cypress trees in the surrounding area. In the courtyard there is a column for his mother, who was born in 1855 and died in 1931, originally from Santorini.
Anargyros Sigalas started as a tobacco worker and became Prefect and Member of Parliament for the Rhodope Prefecture in 1936 with the Liberal Party of El. Venizelou. He is related to a mansion on Eleftheriou Venizelou Street that he bought from the Stalios family and to this chapel of Zoodochos Pigi that he built on Lefkou Pyrgou Street.

Elements of architecture:

obacco worker and became Prefect and Member of Parliament for the Rhodope Prefecture in 1936 with the Liberal Party of El. Venizelou. He is related to a mansion on Eleftheriou Venizelou Street that he bought from the Stalios family and to this chapel of Zoodochos Pigi that he built on Lefkou Pyrgou Street.
6. Elements of architecture It is a small one-aisled chapel built within a large free space. The bell tower is embedded in the roof of the chapel, above its entrance to the west and has neoclassical features. Above the entrance door, a stepped cornice is formed, which is interrupted by the marble dedicatory inscription.

Description of other elements:

The inscription reads "HOLY CHURCH OF ZOODOCHOS PIGI ERECTED BY ANARGYROS N. SIGALAS IN 1934 IN MEMORY OF HIS MOTHER MARGARITA".

Purpose - Use: Church building

Characterization: Government Gazette 612B/30-4-1976 and Government Gazette 661/Β/17-5-1976, Government Gazette 1097/14.12-1995

Dating (period): Interwar period

Year of construction: 1934

Location of the monument: 41.14201101655997, 24.883842240468223

Bibliographic references:

• Thomas Exarchou, "Two monographs. Anargyros Sigalas, Aristos Chasirtzoglou". Xanthi, 2014

Address: White Tower 2-4

Visitable: No