Tsakonians are an ancient Greek tribe with Laconian roots who took refuge in Kinouria of Arcadia in order to avoid Slav invaders and Frank conquerors in the Peloponnese. They have been living there ever since and they still use their tsakonian mother tongue a Doric dialect. Tsakonians are famous for their uncompromising spirit, their huge love for their country and their business success amongst the broader Balkan area.

He had a conflict with Metternich

Amongst many stories about famous Tsakonians, there is the one of Michalis Trochanis, who was born in 1797 in Prastos of Kinouria and moved in Florence in order to become a doctor. There, he met the family of Napoleon the Great and he immediately caught the attention of his younger sister, countess Borghese, who was beautiful and had a soft spot for men.

The handsome young Tsakonian was the son of Anagnostis Trochanis, a ship-owner and famous businessman who had been the co-owner of a ship along with Bouboulina’s first husband and an important provider of the Greek War of Independence of 1821. At the same time, he was a member of Filiki Eteria (Friends’ Society) and had a direct communication with the neomartyr Patriarch Grigorios V.

While studying in luxurious Florence, Trochanis met Austrian chancellor Metternich, the “father” of the Holy Alliance and a tough opponent of the enslaved Greeks. As he had a strong temperament, the young Tsakonian was outraged when he heard Metternich saying “You Greeks are rightly under Turkey, your revolution is pointless”.

The tension between them became bursting when the mighty chancellor, who was feared by everyone around him, caught the young boy in countess Borghese’s arms, as he was also in a relationship with her. Metternich instantly called Trochanis to a duel, but the young man seemed rather undaunted. However, the beautiful countess, who was aware of the skills of the Austrian chancellor, stepped in, and in order to protect her Greek friend. “Please Michalis, leave, Metternich is a sharpshooter and an excellent swordsman, I don’t want to see you die” she said, and gave him a cane with a small bust of Napoleon made of ivory on its handle and a pendant with a portrait of her inside. “I want you to look at it so you won’t forget me”, she told him and bid him farewell.

Already being an enemy of the Greeks, one can imagine how Metternich viewed them after his encounter with Michalis Trochanis. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to assume that his opposition to the national establishment of Greece was among others due to the fact that a Greek stole his mistress and insulted his masculinity. 

He contributed to the Greek Revolution

Michalis Trochanis returned to Greece in 1823 and took part in the liberation struggle against the Turks, under the commands of his brother-in-law Giorgos Manolakis, military general of the Tsakonians and conqueror of the Castle of Monemvasia.

 In 1831, after the liberation, the young doctor was elected as the first Member of the Parliament of Kinouria. When some years later, King Otto invited him for a banquet and offered him the position of professor at the National University, he declined, not wanting to leave his fellow countrymen in Leonidion without a doctor. He stayed there for the rest of his life and unselfishly kept practicing his profession.

Michalis Trochanis died in 1892, but his ancestors, most of them 6th generation doctors, continue the family’s social service up to now. His grandson Aristonis Trochanis, born in 1877, graduated from Athens Medicine School and continued his studies in Vienna, Berlin and Munich, from where he returned in 1912 due to the Balkan Wars. He married Maria Niarchou, sister of poet Kostas Ouranis, with whom he had 3 children. One of those three, surgeon Nicholaos Trochanis, great-grandson of the ‘whisperer’ of countess Borghese, nostalgically narrated his family’s story and showed us the objects given to his great-grandfather by the countess.

He also confessed his desire that the name of Anagnostis Trochanis, father of Michalis Trochanis, be given to a street of Athens, in recognition of his huge and selfless contribution to the liberation struggle of 1821. Not only did he offer an enormous amount of money, but also 22 ships, one of which the "Pygmalion", the flagship of the Greek navy.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

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