Description

A victim of the Balkan uprising against the Ottoman Empire and a pioneer of the Greek War of Independence, Rigas Feraios is remembered as a Greek national hero. He was born in 1757 in Velestino, Magnesia Antonios Kyriazis or Kyritzis, considered to be his real surname, is not confirmed by modern research. He preferred to use the surname of his birthplace, while the Greek intellectuals who lived in exile called him Feraios because in ancient times his city was called Ferai.

Rigas’ political vision was to create a multinational Balkan territory that would be free from the entanglements of Ottoman politics and in which the Greeks would have a dominant position. To achieve this goal he tried to revolt all the slaves in the Ottoman peoples of the Balkans against the common tyrant.

He even sought to meet Napoleon the Great to ask for his help. He was, however, arrested on December 8, 1797, by the Austrians in Trieste and handed over to the Turks, who killed him by strangulation on June 12, 1798, in Belgrade.