Archaeological Sights and Museums of the Thyreatis Land
We welcome the anniversary events to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution.
We proposed to our municipality, to all those responsible, to the committee “Greece 2021” and to the common mind, the four issues of the Earth Thyreatis that undoubtedly played a catalytic importance for the organization and success of the liberation struggle. The “camp of the Berbena” played an essential and very important role in the Greek revolution.
Undoubtedly there are many other “self-evident” and well-known that the local communities celebrate and we will also promote them, such as the important battle of the liberation struggle in historic Vervena and historic Doliana.
It is no coincidence that our ancestors “lived for four hundred and so many years in the abomination and resurrection day”. In world history no nation has resisted for four hundred years and finally victoriously drove out the conquerors.
These and many more that we have, are undoubtedly very important for the success of the liberation struggle and the common mind tells us we must always distinguish and promote in local, regional and national space and in the anniversary events to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution. .
In ancient Bervena in antiquity lived the Bervenians, an Arcadian genus, while the area of today’s village belonged to ancient Arcadia. The oldest relics that have been identified in the area date back to the 2nd millennium BC. and these are stone pickaxes found at Petra. Relics of Artemis from the 9th century BC were found in the place of Panteleimon. until the Hellenistic years. In this place during the 6th c. e.g. an all-marble temple of Doric style was built.
In the revolution of 1821, Vervena played an important role, mainly due to their strategic position. The “camp of the Bervena” was the first organized camp of the struggle, it had about 2,500 fighters (the other three were from Valtetsi, Chrysovitsi and Piana) and one of the most important camps during the first days of the struggle. Here Kolokotronis had set up his headquarters, in the Tower of Augustus, before his attack against the Turks for the conquest of Tripolitsa. The first organized “Tutorial of the Struggle” also operated in historic Vervena, where the military organization, martial arts and military discipline of the spontaneous revolutionary fighters were taught. The Peloponnesian Senate was also stationed in historic Vervena to coordinate the liberation struggle. In the center of the village, is the three-storey vaulted tower-residence of the Darveris family, where the first national printing house sent from Trieste, necessary for the organization of the Greek state, was established during the years of the Revolution. On June 21, 1821, Dimitrios Ypsilantis arrived in Vervena from Odessa, Russia, where he was officially received by the Peloponnesian Senate, which is mentioned on the marble plaque, which was hung in 1920 at the reception point.
All the villages of Thyrea, without exception, helped the revolution. The Proestos and Elders of Prastos, in consultation with Kolokotronis and the people of Verveni, Karabela and Kritiko, established in Vervena the famous “Cellar”, ie the chamber of the Army, to supply Prastos with food to the army, which was attended by many Prastian fighters. Agiopetritis Protestos, Anagnostis Kontakis, writes that: “if it were not for Prastos, who fed the army for 4 months, the struggle for freedom would have been lost”. General caretaker was George Trochanis from Agianniti.
The historic Vervena and the historic Doliana (and the drum of the Turkophagus) are known from the first very important victories in the liberation struggle on May 18, 1821, which at that difficult time filled the rebellious Greeks with the necessary confidence.
The Greeks defeated the Turks in Doliana, with a few men about the Turks under the leadership of the legendary “Turkophagus”. Nikitaras in the battle of Doliana slaughtered many Turks and since then won the nickname of “Turkophagus”.
Kolokotronis mentions in his memoirs: “The horde of Berbens touched them closely. “After weighing near Doliana, the Turks also besieged Nikitas, and so Nikitas and his men came out, and took them down to the plain, hunting.”
At the same time, the Greeks victoriously repulsed the Turks in Vervena and chased them to Doliana, where they joined the men of Nikitaras and continued the pursuit of the Turks as far as Tripoli.
The Turks after their defeat in Vervena and Doliana were permanently closed in Tripolitsa.
The liberation of the nation is not donated but is won on the battlefields with the blood of our heroic ancestors who practically did their patriotic duty. Unfortunately in Dragouni on May 18, 1821, the Turks with the supremacy of the cavalry defeated the Greeks and there the Agiannitis chief Panos Zafeiropoulos Georgakis Digenis and Agiannites fighters were killed. Panos (Akouros) Zafeiropoulos participated in the battle of Vervena.
The battle of historic Vervena and historic Doliana on May 18, 1821 thwarted the dismantling of the Bervena camp and the plan of the Turks. It also boosted the morale of the revolutionaries and paved the way for the fall of Tripoli.
Undoubtedly the “Bervena camp” played a catalytic role in the organization and success of the liberation struggle.It is no exaggeration to say that the liberation of our homeland started from the “camp of the historic Berbena”.
In 1826 the village was set on fire by Ibrahim.
The article has been published in our contributors Astros Kynouria News
Sources
astrosgr.com 