Nikolaos Skoufas and Kompoti
The man from Kompoti who proposed the Filiki Eteria in 1814.
- Born
- 1779, Kompoti
- Filiki Eteria
- Founded in 1814 with Xanthos and Tsakalov
- Died
- 31 July 1818, Constantinople
- Kompoti
- 1,439 residents (2021 census)
Nikolaos Skoufas was born in 1779 in Kompoti, near Arta, as Nikolaos Koumbaros. His nickname “Skoufas” comes from his trade; he was a hatter. In 1813 he settled in Odessa, where he became a prosperous merchant and met Athanasios Tsakalov and Emmanouil Xanthos.
The Filiki Eteria
The Filiki Eteria, the secret society that prepared the Greek Revolution, was founded in 1814 on Skoufas's proposal, with Xanthos and Tsakalov. Skoufas recruited members in Russia and from 1816 worked in Odessa with Anthimos Gazis to approach klephts and armatoloi of central Greece. In 1818 he moved the society's seat to Constantinople, where he died of illness on 31 July 1818 and was buried in the church of the Taxiarchai at Mega Revma.
In Arta today
The Municipality of Nikolaos Skoufas and the central square of Arta bear his name, and the Historical Museum of Arta is housed in the building that held his business. In Kompoti there is a statue of him in the square, and on the last three days of July dances are held in his honour.
Kompoti
The village, at 90 m, lives from farming and livestock. The church of Agios Georgios, of 1741, is a three-aisled timber-roofed basilica with 18th-century frescoes and has been a listed monument since 1969; in its courtyard is a monument to Eustathios Gerostathis, who built it. In the summer of 1821 Georgios Karaiskakis fought two battles here. During the Axis occupation (1941–1944) 193 houses of the village were destroyed.