What is Emmanouil Pappas known for?
47588715#0
Emmanouil Pappas () is a village in the Serres regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality of Emmanouil Pappas. It is situated in the foothills of mountain Menoikio, 17 km east of Serres, and 101 km northeast of Thessaloniki. The former name of the village was Dovista (Δοβίστα in standard Greek or Ντουβίστα/Duvista in the local dialect). It was renamed Emmanouil Pappas in 1927, after the hero of the Greek War of Independence in Macedonia who was born there in 1773.
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
6355334#0
Emmanouil Pappas () is a municipality in the Serres regional unit, Greece. The seat of the municipality is in Chryso. The municipality takes its name after a local historical figure who played an important part as a leader in the Greek War of Independence against Ottoman rule. Emmanouil Pappas was born in the village that was previously called "Dovista" (Δοβίστα), probably of Slavic origin, though historians are uncertain of the exact root of that word. One conjecture involves the mispronunciation of the Latin 'Dove est', meaning 'where is it?', because, apparently, the village was undetectable from a distance.
Emmanouil Pappas (municipality)
47588715#25
The people of Emmanouil Pappas were present in the Macedonian Struggle as well, since many of them were initiated by the Hellenic Macedonian Committee (Ελληνομακεδονικόν Κομιτάτο) and took an active part, either as members of guerilla bands (andartes or "Makedonomachoi"-literally "Macedonian fighters" ), or transporting weapons and ammunition (following the known from 1821 route Tsayezi-Dovista through lake Tachinos) or serving in other posts. The presence of people from Dovista in armed bands that were active even as far as the soil of modern Bulgaria is documented in a telegram, sent on October 12, 1878, by the consul of Greece in Serres Ioannis Papakostopoulos to the Prime Minister Theodoros Deligiannis:
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
12104100#1
Pappas was born in Dovista (Δοβίστα), Serres regional unit, a village which is now named after him (Emmanouil Papas). Son of a priest, Pappas excelled in commerce and banking, not only in Macedonia, but also in Europe, establishing trading posts in Istanbul, Vienna and Budapest, despite the limited education he received.
Emmanouel Pappas
47588715#33
During the First Balkan War Emmanouil Pappas and the whole territory of modern Serres regional unit to the east of Strymonas river was captured by the Bulgarian army on November 6, 1912. A small Bulgarian garrison was installed in the village but it left just few days before the decisive Greek victory in the battle of Kilkis-Lahanas of the Second Balkan War, which marked the liberation of East Macedonia after 550 years of foreign rule. Thus, Emmanouil Pappas became part of Greece on June 29 (Julian calendar, which was used in Greece until 1923)/July 11 (Gregorian calendar), 1913. During the Bulgarian occupation of the village (known to local historical memory as "Proti Voulgaria", literary "First Bulgaria") that lasted 8 months, the inhabitants suffered harsh persecutions and oppression by the Bulgarian authorities who employed a Bulgarization policy. People from Emmanouil Pappas participated in the fierce clashes between Bulgarian troops and irregular Greeks (members of old bands and other armed civilians from the city and the Greek villages around) that took place during the last two or three days before the retreating Bulgarians set on fire the city of Serres and fled to Bulgaria upon the arrival of the Greek army. Their casualties were 8 dead:
1)Daniil Daniil, 2)Christos Katsaros, 3)Dimitrios Kartsios, 4)Ioannis Tounas, 5)Lascaris Tsiakiris, 6)Dimitrios Chatzieleftheriou 7)Eleftherios Chatzieleftheriou, 8) Athanasios Psaltis. The testimony of the Bulgarian officer Ivan Kirpikov to the international commission of the Carnegie endowment which conducted an inquiry on the war crimes committed in the Balkan Wars, is indicative of the severity of those clashes and the participation of people from Emmanouil Pappas and other Darnakochoria. There is no doubt that those peasants wearing "the peculiar Greek costume of the villages that were considered as centers of Greek propaganda", according to the Bulgarian officer, were from Emmanouil Pappas and the other Darnakochoria, who were approaching the railway station through the railway line that passes by the village of Chryso.
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
47588715#35
During the interwar period a significant economic and cultural growth took place in the village of Emmanouil Pappas, especially in the 1920s and until the aftermath of the great financial crash of 1929 reached Greece. The enormously high prices which US and European companies offered for Greek tobacco at that time brought to most inhabitants an economic prosperity, landmarks of which are a few neoclassical houses that were built then and survived until today. The village became an important center of tobacco production and processing with several tobacco houses, which employed over 400 workers, most of whom came from Serres and other villages. A lot of various shops opened for the needs of this newly emerged working class and there was also set up a private power plant, which electrified the houses and streets of the village. At the same time there was a remarkable intellectual blossoming and there were founded several clubs that developed a significant cultural activity, such as presenting theatrical plays and the publishing of a magazine, already mentioned in a previous chapter. In the same period also was formed for first time a footbal team in the village, by the "Music-Gymnastics Association Emmanouil Papas".
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
47588715#23
The construction was completed in 1906. It is a neoclassical building which still decorates the place near the church of Saint Athanasius, bearing the inscription "ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΤΗΡΙΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟΥ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΟΣ ΔΟΒΙΣΤΗΣ 1906" (School of the Greek Orthodox community of Dovista). It was restored in the middle of the first decade of 2000 and today the ground floor serves as museum about the life and activity of the hero Emmanouel Pappas, while the first floor hosts occasionally Municipal Council meetings and other events. The decision to build a new school building was certainly associated with a significant spiritual and cultural flowering that occurred at the same time, which also led to the founding of various associations with social and educational activities and national guidelines. In late 19th-early 20th century, there existed in the village three such associations: the "Fraternity of Saint Demetrius" (Αδελφότης Αγίου Δημητρίου), which built a homonymous church in 1862, the "Progressive Fraternity Dovista" (Φιλοπρόοδος Αδελφότης Δοβίστα), founded in 1883 and the "Music-Gymnastics Society Virtue" (Μουσικογυμναστικός Σύλλογος Αρετή), founded in 1910. In the first years after the liberation of the area from Ottoman yoke and its incorporation to the Greek state, there was also founded the "Music-Gymnastics Club Emmanouil Papas" (Μουσικογυμναστικός Σύλλογος Εμμανουήλ Παπάς), whose board published a short-lived magazine titled "Emmanouil Papas" in 1932.
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
47588715#34
The inhabitants of Emmanouil Pappas could not enjoy their freedom for a long time because their village, like the rest of Eastern Macedonia fell during World War I again under Bulgarian occupation ( a period known in local historical memory as "Thefteri Voulgaria"-literally "Second Bulgaria") after the events of the National Schism in 1916. Bulgarian rule is much harsher this time. The Bulgarians, being confident that the region will remain in their possession after the war, are engaged in an orgy of repression and persecution of the native Greek populations, in order to force them either to be Bulgarized or to leave their homeland. Thus, many Greek civilians residing in Bulgarian-occupied areas decide to flee to the territory to the west of Strymonas river that still remained under Greek rule. Greek schools are shut down and replaced by Bulgarian ones while the Greek language is banned in the churches and Holy Service is held only in Bulgarian, by Bulgarian priests. However, the most inhumane measure is the so-called "hostageship", the displacement of Greek civilians aged 17–60 years to different regions of Bulgaria and the present-day Republic of Macedonia (which was then also under Bulgarian occupation), where they are forced to perform hard labour and die by the thousands, due to the unacceptable living conditions, malnutrition, exhaustion, diseases etc. A committee of the American Red Army that came in Eastern Macedonia to provide humanitarian aid when the war ended, estimated that the total number of displaced to Bulgaria (and other Bulgarian-occupied areas) Greek civilians from Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace during the Bulgarian occupation of these areas during World War I was nearly 200,000, of whom around 60,000 died and never came back, while many of those who returned were in such wretched health condition that had become incapable of any work. Among these 200,000 hostages or "ta dourdouvakia", as they are known in local tradition (Greek corruption of the Bulgarian phrase трудов войник/troudov voinik=labour soldier, as they were called by the Bulgarians), there were about 200 inhabitants of Emmanouil Pappas, of whom 110 died in Kicevo (today Republic of Macedonia) and Karnobat (Bulgaria). Their names are written in the memorial in honour of the fallen in the wars, in the central square of the village.
The above-mentioned report of the Committee of the American Red Cross also mentions that humanitarian aid (food, clothing, etc.) was distributed in Dovista and the neighbouring villages.
Another not so known aspect of the history of the village during World War I, is that apart from the Bulgarian garrison there was installed and Turkish force too, which had set up a temporary hospital (in the school building) with Austrian military doctors, according to the memoirs of the German Air Force Lieutenant Georg Wilhelm Heydemarck.
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
47588715#24
The people of the village participated in all national struggles of modern Greek history. The leader of the Greek revolution in Chalkidiki Emmanouel Pappas was born at Dovista in 1773. Many villagers were initiated into the secret revolutionary plans by Emmanouel Papas and were ready to fight in the battles of the oncoming revolution. According to local tradition, the Pappas' family house was used for storing weapons and ammunition which were first landed at the harbor of Tsayezi (close to modern Nea Kerdyllia and ancient Amphipolis) on the Strymonian Gulf and then transported to Dovista through the (drained since 1938) lake of Tachinos (named after the nearby village of Achinos), whose northernmost shores were lying in a distance of around 16–17 km from Dovista. With the outbreak of the revolution, a big number of recruited fellow villagers of Pappas followed him to Chalkidiki. Many of them were killed in the battles there, while the survivors followed Pappas in his departure from Mount Athos after the Ottoman repression of the revolution in Macedonia and continued the struggle in southern Greece, fighting under the commands of Emmanouel Papas' son Ioannis, who later fell in the battle of Maniaki, alongside Papaflessas.
Emmanouil Pappas (village)
47588715#1
The village is renowned for its traditional Macedonian architecture with three-story houses and picturesque narrow streets. The main attractions are the building of the old school that was built in 1906 and has been recently restored, the main church of Saint Athanasius, built in 1805 on the same spot where an older church existed, with its magnificent wooden carved iconostasis and the chapels on the surrounding hills.
Emmanouil Pappas (village)