Articles

The battle of Girokomio is connected with the Holy Monastery of Girokomio, which is also called the battle of Saravali, as Theodoros Kolokotronis had established his headquarters in the village.

In the early hours of March 9, 1822, 12,000 Turkish cavalry and infantry rushed out of the castle of Patras and swept the Greek resistance, leaving in Greek hands only the monastery of Girokomio and the nearby linen of Sait aga which was located where the chest disease hospital was until recently. There, on the linen, Gennaios Kolokotronis (son of the legendary old man of Moria) and other mainly Arcadians and Ilian warriors successfully defended themselves against the Turkish attacks against 3,000 Turks, with the result that the Turks did not occupy either the linen or the nearby monastery of Girokomio. On the other hand, the old village of Paleopyrgos is connected with the same battle of Girokomio, which has been mentioned since 1770 and was located in the plain on the road on the left in the direction of Saravali.

In this tower (it is no longer preserved), Kalavrita and Kyparissia fighters were fortified as well as Achaeans under Evangelos Koumaniotis. The Turks failed to defeat Paleopyrgos and from there began the Greek counterattack, which had the seal of the great Th. Kolokotronis. In the battle of Girokomio were also distinguished: Dimitrios Nenekos, Zoumbatiotis chief and Nikolaos Petmezas, a descendant of the well-known family from Soudena, Kalavrita.

Theodoros Kolokotronis (Historical figure) after the fall of Tripolitsa, began to come to Patras. The politicians, however, thwarted his plans, because the chiefs of Achaia, feared inwardly that he would immediately solve the siege of the city and he would take the spoils, while as they proclaimed, they could fight alone and capture the fortresses. He finally campaigned for Patras in February 1822 and took command of the siege, because the government feared that the Turks might advance to the Mediterranean of the Peloponnese and the neighboring coastal provinces. On the 1st of March he arrived in Patras and together with the chiefs of the area and from other neighboring places (Andr. Zaimis, Plapoutas, Kon. Petimezas, Andr. Londos etc.) and with his son Gennaios Kolokotronis, they defeated the Turks in the battle of Girokomio on March 9, 1822.

The losses of the Turks, in the battle of the Nursing Home, were 250 dead and the success is due to the exemplary order and the strictness of the Elder of Morias. He has justifiably been classified, in the historical consciousness of the ‘Nation’, as the undisputed creator of his epic 21.