Vienna and the Revolution of 1821: The “Charter” of Rigas Feraios and the refuge of Alexandros Ypsilantis

Vienna existed during 400 years of Turkish rule, the spiritual center and place of freedom for many Greeks, and from this city began the spiritual preparation for the uprising against the Ottoman yoke, which eventually led to Greek Revolution of 1821 and in the establishment of a free and independent Greek state.

According to the APE-MPE, Rigas Feraios, one of the spiritual fathers of the Revolution, who led the Greek people to independence, in Vienna he wrote and printed his revolutionary books, from his pioneering “Charter” to his inspired “Thorium”.

The great offspring of Velestinos, who remained in Greek history as one of its greatest heroes, can be characterized as the ideologist who paid with his blood for the Independence of Greece, who inspired the creation of the Greek state and who was the first to have plans for a United Europe. A Europe where people, based on Riga designs, regardless of race, color, language, nationality, religion and dogma, could all live together, united.

Rigas Feraios lived in a time when he was not able to realize the importance of such a message, which both Austria-Hungary and especially the Ottoman Empire then perceived as a threat to their statehood.

Unfortunately he could not see the realization of his visions, as in 1798 he was betrayed on his way to his homeland Greece, and along with eight other comrades, he was executed by the Turkish commander in Belgrade, which was the end of a pilgrimage he had made a few years ago, starting in Vienna, to fifty fellow villagers from Velestino.

Shelter for Alexandros Ypsilantis

Vienna was also a refuge, but also a prison, as well as for many years – before his bones were moved to Greece – the last residence for the nationalist and military commander of the Friendly Society. Alexandros Ypsilantis, whose cenotaph is still located in the historic Zank Marx Cemetery in the Austrian capital, near the tomb of the great Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Alexander the Great, who was born in Constantinople in 1792 and was an officer in the Russian army and a supporter of Tsar Alexander II, was the leader of the Greek Revolution in the Danube Hegemony and had worked out in collaboration with Papaflessas and Laventis, a general plan for the Revolution.

He himself had started the Revolution from Moldavia in February 1821, and, after the defeat of his army in Dragatsani by the sultan forces, he had taken refuge in Vienna in order to be promoted to Greece but was arrested by the Austro-Hungarian authorities and remained imprisoned. until 1827.

Alexander the Great died in Vienna in 1828 and was buried in the Sanctuary of St. Marx, from where his bones were moved in 1903 to the chapel of the Sinai-Ypsilantis estate in Rapoltenkirchen, west of Vienna, and a few decades later in Athens. of the former School of Guards.