The process of restoring the house of Ilias Venezis in Ayvali, Asia Minor, has begun. The great Greek writer was born and lived in the house until the age of 18.
The restoration was a result of pressure from repeated reports in the Greek and Turkish media, as well as from the local community and organizations.
The roof of this emblematic house, significant for the history of Hellenism in Asia Minor, has been repaired, along with the light-plastered wooden frame of the upper floor, which is supported by the stone-built ground floor.
The house, originally owned by Ilias Venezis’ father, Michael Mellos, from Kefalonia, and his mother, of Lesvian descent, stands in a wide upper alley of Ayvali, close to the collapsing Church of the Holy Trinity.
The church played a tragic role in the events described in Venezis’ historical work The Number 31328.
The work recounts the fall of Asia Minor Hellenism in September 1922, his subsequent arrest, and his time in the labor battalions for 14 months, until his release alongside the few surviving compatriots.
Early life of Ilias Venezis
Venezis was born in Kydonia (Ayvali) in Asia Minor on March 4, 1904, according to his autobiographical note. His father, Michael Mellos, was from Kefalonia, and his mother was from Lesvos. His maternal grandfather, Dimitrios, was named Venezis, a surname Elias would later adopt as his literary pseudonym.
Venezis was only 18-years-old when he was arrested. Born in Ayvali in 1904, he and his family spent time in Mytilene during the World War I.
He lived through the period known as the First Persecution. They returned to their homeland in 1919. Venezis graduated from the historic Kydonia High School, the successor to the renowned Kydonia Academy.
After his release from the Labor Battalions in the fall of 1923, he returned to Mytilene.
This was in line with the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. There, he became involved with the literary circle of Stratis Myrivilis, who encouraged him to document his experiences during captivity. This led to the creation of The Number 31328.
It first serialized in the newspaper Kampana of Mytilene, where Myrivilis was the director. Venezis and Myrivilis, mentor and student, later shared the first-ever State Prize for Prose. Both were candidates in 1956 for the Chair of Literature at the Academy of Athens, a position Venezis eventually secured.
Venezis attended the Gymnasium of Mytilene. the philosopher Ioannis Olympios was headmaster, but he graduated from the Gymnasium of Kydonia.
Political persecution and literary contributions during war and occupation
In Mytilene, Venezis worked at the Bank of Greece. In 1932 they transferred him to Athens, where he permanently settled. He worked at the bank from 1930 to 1957. Two years before his retirement, at the behest of Governor Xenophon Zolotas, he wrote “The Chronicle of the Bank of Greece”, a history of the Bank’s first 25 years.
After The Number 31328, he published other important novels like Galini and Aeolian Land. Both of them are significant for the history of Asia Minor Hellenism. Venezis actively expressed his political views during the Metaxas dictatorship, facing persecution as a result.
During the Nazi Occupation, authorities arrested him for speaking about freedom at a gathering of Bank of Greece staff to mark the October 28 anniversary. They imprisoned him in “Block C,” an experience that later inspired him to write his only play, Block C. Intellectuals protested his execution, ultimately saving his life at the last moment.
Venezis faced political persecution under the Idionymon Law and during the Metaxas dictatorship.
They imprisoned him again during the Occupation for his speech on freedom but they spared him from execution following significant public outcry from the literary and intellectual community.
Twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature
With a rich literary legacy, this Greek writer from Asia Minor received two nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1960 and 1963.
He passed away in 1973, and in accordance with his wishes, his family buried him in the cemetery of Molyvos (Mithymna), northern Lesbos, opposite his hometown. His grave remains anonymous, marked only with the word “GALINE,” which he personally chose.
They identified Venezis’ house, unknown to many, in 1970 when his sister, Agapi Molyviatis, and her son, Petros Molyviatis, a young diplomat, visited Ayvali.
They photographed the house, and later they published this image in 1972 in the magazine Eolika Grammata and in 1974 in Nea Estia. Dimitros Psarrou, the author of The Aivali, eventually acquired the photo, and they likely preserved it in his archive.
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