Panagiotis Benakis - Merchant

THE POWERFUL EALDORMAN OF THE PELOPONNESE

He was born in Kalamata in 1700 and was the son of Cretan Benos Psaltis and Stathoula Gerakaris. He was involved in commerce and acquired a large fortune. In a short time he became one of the strongest lords - masters of the Peloponnese. It had whole villages of fiefdoms, vineyards and farms up to Akrita Street of the present-day. The five-storey mansion of Panagiotis Benakis was located on the north side of today's Mavromichali square, including the church of Aghios Taxiarches, (Taxiarchaki). Due to his participation in the Orlophics, the mansion was destroyed by the Turkish – Albanian troups of Velis Aga. After 1821, the ruins and the surrounding area of ​​the mansion were given as a dowry to Antonis Mavromichalis and the Mavromichalis mansion was built there.

In 1767, Panagiotis Benakis contacted George Papazolis to organize an uprising of the Greeks against the Turks. He transformed his home into a secret meeting place with many other bishops and masters of the Peloponnese. When the Orlovian Revolution finally broke out in 1770, he created and maintained a civil guard with his own money. Due to his age, he remained in Kalamata, and then he boarded a Russian ship and fled to Naxos. His family had already been taken to Kythera. He died in 1771, at the age of seventy, in Livorno. It has been claimed that his death was due to poisoning, but there is no such historical evidence.