Our great benefactor Dimitrios Karytsiotis <1741-1819> was born in Agios Ioannis <Agianni> and according to the Agianni tradition, he left “with one tsarouhi”. In 1798 he built the magnificent and “marble” Karytsiotis School on Koutri hill in Agianni in which young people from all over mainland Greece and our islands studied there and in 1805 he built the annex of the School of Agios Ioannis in Astros.
In 1805 he donated to the people of Astros and to the School an area of about 48 acres, the so-called “Agrokipio”, next to and around the School so that the teachers of the school could be paid for their tuition and the boarders of the school could eat the fruits and vegetables. of the “garden” such as grapes, loquat. He also enclosed the “Agrokipi” with a stone wall (mantra), in some places higher than two meters. The mantra is preserved to this day to the east of the farm, the rest was eaten by “development”.
The large square of Karytsiotis is located in the “Agrokipio” of Karytsiotis.
HY Ministry of Defense/GDAPC/ARCH/B1/Φ30/65069/3340/1-8-2005 – Official Gazette 1194/B/30-8-2005
Characterization of the Karytsiotis school square and part of the farm, in Astros Kynourias, as a historical site.
We classify as a historical site the remaining section of 18,850 square meters. of the old farm (with a total area of 46 acres), which belonged to the Karytsiotis School and within which the Karytsiotis School is located, as shown on the 1:1000 scale Land Map and marked with elements 1, 2, 3 to 15, due of the important historical events that took place in the specific area.
This area is part of the farm – originally 46 acres, which Dimitrios Karytsiotis had donated to the School, which he had founded in 1805 – planted with orange, lemon and olive trees, the product of which was used to pay the School’s teachers and covering its expenses.
In this farm, two important events of the Revolution took place, the known as the “Pumpkin Reconciliation Table” on June 19, 1821, to which the chieftains had come, in order to overcome their differences and agree on the success of the Revolution that was starting at that time, as also the Second National Assembly of the Greeks (March 30 to April 18, 1823) with the presence of chieftains, politicians, masses of people and the army. Within the School, which is included in the area under declaration, the declaration of the National Assembly was drawn up.
In 1805, with the help of his brother, Georgios, he brought water for the village from the “manna of water” about 5 km, above the holy monastery of Loukos, with a stone aqueduct, (aqueduct) that still exists in some places, for for the village to have water and “to water the farm garden so that the School can be open”. According to his brother’s will, the water belonged 1/3 to the holy monastery of Lukous, 1/3 to the School and 1/3 to the village. Astros and Paralio Astros lived with this water for irrigation and irrigation until the 1960s, and then with the increase in the population, water from the wells was added.
There were two entrances to the farm, one of which is still preserved today near and east of the school. The other entrance was a magnificent and historical monument, further down from Astrous primary school, opposite the house of Dimitrakis Efthimiou, through which the old man of Moria and the delegates of the National Assembly passed, but after 1966 it was also eaten by “development”. and our kutamara, as the same happened with the eaten steps of the school.
In the corner next to the entrance was the adobe building used by the farm’s agronomist and gardeners. This building in 1959 became the Astros museum by our late respected professor Kyriakos (Koulis) Hasapoyannis. .In the 1960s Astros had a Museum which unfortunately today it seems we cannot have, with the “prefaces of the crack and static adequacy”.
The farm or a large pervoli in the 1960s still had the stone paddock all around and near the road there were palm trees. Where Karytsiotis square is today, there were large square streets with various trees and flowers, mainly rose, orange, and mint trees and at the bottom of the square there were two rows of medlar trees. Where is the entrance of the current Astros high school, there was a cistern that collected the water from the “sugelo” for the gardeners to water the orchards and trees. In the paddock near the road below the Zafeiri Foundation there were banana and palm trees. The “farm” of about 48 acres starts from where the OTE building is located to the cemetery, with all the schools, fields and squares, the site of the Zafeiri Foundation.
From the neighboring Karytsiotis School, thousands of students passed by and “ate” the building’s stairs, which a stupid employee replaced with a new one. wild marbles, because he did not know and “there was no other way” to preserve our history and the safety of the visitors.
The mansion “ASTROS” in Trieste, later Pallazo Cartiotti in Trieste. Our great benefactor left Agiannis at the age of 15 in 1756 but he never forgot his place and Astros. It is of great importance that our great benefactor named the magnificent mansion in Trieste “ASTROS”.
SOURCES
astrosgr.com 