#mesolonghi

Mesolonghi 1979

This customs takes place twice a year in the Historic Town of Missolonghi. This is the summer one, which is much more crowded than the winter one and lasts for three consecutive days.

April 19, which coincides with Orthodox Easter Sunday in 2020, marks 196 years since Lord Byron, the most famous British Philhellene, died in Messolonghi in 1824.

George Gordon, Lord Byron is one of the first and best-known personalities who loved Greece and fought to the death for its independence.

Byron actively participated in Greece’s War of Independence, eventually losing his life in Messolonghi on April 19, 1824.

Born in 1788, George Gordon, who held the title of Lord Byron, became the leading figure of British Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century.

He lived a full life in every possible aspect and died at a young age for a cause he loved, which made him into even more of a romantic legend than he had been while a living poet.

Young, handsome and aristocratic, Byron lived exuberantly and had innumerable romances and scandalous relationships — although his acts of selfless heroism became part of a wider historic struggle.

For Greeks, Lordos Byronas, as he is called, epitomized the concept of philhellenism.

Some of photographer Perikles Merakos' most impressive images from Greece's wetlands; these rich ecosystems are key stopping points for migratory birds.

Reports emerged from Mesolongi, central Greece, a few days ago of the country’s most serious case of vulture poisoning in the last decade, with nine dead birds found so far in the area’s lagoon, while two others were transported to hospital in Athens.

A similar incident last year in the Nestos River region of northern Greece prompted an intervention by the European Commission, which urged the country to take action against animal poisoning.