Lela Karagianni

Loukia Georgianti, daughter and student of the sculptor Nikolaos Georgiantis (1883- 1947), as well as a graduate of the Scuola dei Arti in Florence, created the bust of Lela Karagianni (1898-1944) in the late 1950s, funded by the Association of Greek Women Scientists. An important female figure in modern Greek history, Lela Karagianni was one of the most important Greek resistance fighters. When the occupation began (1941-1944), Karagianni was transformed from a housewife to a determined freedom fighter. She founded and financed the resistance organisation “Bouboulina”, a name that belonged to the great heroine of the Greek War of Independence and Karagianni’s own great-grandmother, and set her house up as headquarters. The aim of the organisation was mainly to help British nationals escape to Egypt, but its members also engaged in acts of sabotage against the Germans and also created an espionage network that gathered information and passed it on to other members of the National Resistance and to the Allies. The organisation’s action was reported to the authorities and the brave resistance fighter was arrested, along with five of her children, and brutally tortured in the Merlin Street detention centre. From there, she was transferred to the Haidari concentration camp, where she was executed, along with fifty-nine other resistance fighters, just one month before the Liberation. Her marble bust can be found on the pedestrian street of Tositsa Strs. since the summer of 1963. Her pedestal is adorned by a laurel branch in relief, while the heroine's name can be seen within a frame. The sculptor's signature can be found on the left and, on the right, there is an inscription that reads “Erected by the Association of Greek Women Scientists, 1963”.