Theophrastos Georgiadis

Theophrastos Georgiadis (Greek: Θεόφραστος Γεωργιάδης, 1885-1973) was a Greek author and teacher. His work about the once prosperous urban center of Moscopole, today a small mountain village in southeastern Albania, is considered of great value since it concerns the period before the town's destruction in 1916.[1]

Life

Two of the five surviving churches in Moscopole described by Georgiadis before the 1916 destruction: Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (left), Church of the Holy Virgin (right).

Georgiadis was born in Moscopole, modern Albania, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was a teacher and director in the local Greek school until 1916.[2] When Moscopole was ravaged by irregular bands during World War I, and most of its cultural buildings were destroyed, he was compelled to leave.[3]

Work

In his volume Moschopolis, first published posthumously in 1975 in Athens, Georgiadis makes brief descriptions of the 22 churches and chapels of Moscopole, from which only 5 survive today. He includes information such as donors' inscriptions of each church, the church registers as well as descriptions of the architectural style and the decoration of each building.[3] For instance, about the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel he mentions that it had two chapels dedicated to Saint Spiridon and Saint Nahum, which are in ruins now.[4] In the Church of the Holy Virgin, notes that a scene of the Apocalypse was depicted in the porch which is now almost completely destroyed.[5] Georgiadis gave also details about several churches that are completely destroyed, such as Saint Euthimios.[6]

References

1. Peyfuss, Max Demeter (1989). Die Druckerei von Moschopolis, 1731-1769 : Buchdruck und Heiligenverehrung im Erzbistum Achrida. Wien: Böhlau. p. 16. ISBN 978-3-205-05293-7.
2. Κεκριδής, 1989: p. 19
3. Kirchhainer, 2003: p. 1
4. Kirchhainer, 2003: p. 4
5. Kirchhainer, 2003: p. 13
6. Kirchhainer, 2003: p. 16

Sources

• Kirchhainer, Karin (2003). "Iconographic Characteristics of the Churches in Moschopolis and Vithikuqi (Albania)" (PDF). Makedonika. 35 (4): 163–191. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
• Κεκριδής Ευστάθιος (1989), "Θεόδωρος Αναστασίου Καβαλλιώτης (1718; 1789). Ο Διδάσκαλος του Γένους", Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, retrieved 2010-09-11