Ioannis kapodistrias biography of martin

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[close] Κόμης Ιωάννης Αντώνιος Καποδίστριας, John Capodistrias, Corfiote Capodistria

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Jean Gabriel Eynard (1775-1863), was a Swiss banker, diplomat and prominent Philhellene, a great supporter of the Greek Revolution, and a benefactor of Greece.

His father was Gabriel-Antoine Eynard, a merchant and banker from the old and powerful noble family of Mont-Eynard, who came from the province of Dauphiné in the South East France[1].

The original branch of the family remained Roman Catholic, while the younger one had joined the Reformation. Gabriel-Antoine Eynard (father of Jean Gabriel Eynard), came from the Calvinist branch of the family, who immediately after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), had taken refuge in Geneva to maintain his faith. Several members of the family held public office in the city and developed outstanding philanthropic work, while Jean-Gabriel Eynard’s grandfather, Jean-Louis Eynard de Trémolières, was called l’avocat des pauvres (“the lawyer of the poor”)[2].

In 1769, Gabriel-Antoine Eynard moved to Lyon, where he founded a trading company. In 1770, after his first wife Marie-Françoise de Normandie, had died, he married Marie-Madeleine Meuricoffre, the daughter of a merchant from Thurgau, Switzerland, with whom he had three children. The second one was Jean Gabriel Eynard. The young man, who is raised in a strict Calvinist environment, is extremely studious and art-loving. From an early age he learns from his father the economic and commercial processes and he excels professionally.[3].

In 1793 the bloody conflict between the Jacobins and the Girondins takes great proportions. Lyon had joined the monarchical camp, and was besieged by the troops of the French Conventional Assembly. The Eynard family was among the city’s defenders. Gabriel-Antoine Eynard was in fact the elected mayor of Lyon. On October 9, the city was occupied by the rebels[4]. Jean Gabriel Eynard managed to escape to Geneva. On the contrary, his

Count IoannisKapodistrias (11 February 1776 – 9 October 1831), sometimes anglicized as John Capodistrias, was the first Governor of the Independent Greece and he is considered as the founder of the modern Greek State, and the founder of Greek independence.

Ioannis  Kapodistrias is greatly honoured in Greece today. In 1944 Nikos Kazantzakis wrote the play "Capodistria" in his honour. It is a tragedy in three acts and was performed at the Greek National Theatre in 1946 to celebrate the anniversary of 25 March. The University of Athens is named "Kapodistrian" in his honour; the Greek euro coin of 20 lepta bears his face, as did the obverse of the 500 drachmas banknote of 1983–2001, before the introduction of the euro, and a local re-organisation programme that reduced the number of municipalities in the late 1990s also carries his name. The fears that Britain, France and Russia had of any liberal and Republican movement at the time, because of the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, led them to insist on Greece becoming a monarchy after Kapodistrias' death. His summer home in Koukouritsa, Corfu has been converted to a museum commemorating his life and accomplishments and has been named Kapodistrias Museum in his honour. It was donated by his late grand niece Maria Desylla-Kapodistria, to three cultural societies in Corfu specifically for the aforementioned purposes.

On 8 December 2001 in the city Capodistria (Koper) of Slovenia a lifesize statue of Ioannis Kapodistrias was unveiled in the central square of the municipality. The square was renamed after Kapodistrias, since Koper was the place of Kapodistrias' ancestors before they moved to Corfu in the 14th century. The statue was created by Greek sculptor K. Palaiologos and was transported to Koper by a Greek Naval vessel. The ceremony was attended by the Greek ambassador and Eleni Koukou, a Kapodistrias scholar and professor at the National and Kapodistrian University