Lady of Ro

Lady of Ro

The Lady of Ro ( Greek Κυρά της Ρω Kyrá tis Ro ), civic Despina Achladioti or Achladiotou ( Δέσποινα Αχλαδιώτη / Αχλαδιώτου , * 1890 , 1893 or 1898 on Kastelorizo , Ottoman Empire ; † 13. May 1982 in Rhodes ), was a Greek patriot known because she lived alone for years on the small Greek rocky island of Ro near Kastelorizo ​​and hoisted the Greek flag every day .

Life

The life story of Despina Achladioti is mostly passed down orally, there are hardly any reliable sources. A retired Greek admiral from Kastellorizo ​​and an interview in a 1982 television program on the ERT broadcaster contributed significantly to Achladioti's fame in Greece. Documentation, newspaper articles and the internet contributed to the dissemination of the sometimes contradicting life data. There are different variants of her family name and year of birth, such as on the monument in Kastelorizo ​​and her grave on Ro. Whether Achladioti lived alone on Ro until the 1960s or until shortly before her death is unclear, as is when she became the Greek Flag hoisted on the island.

Despina Achladioti and her husband Kostas moved to the small rocky island of Ro in 1927, when it still belonged to the Italian territory of the Dodecanese and was only temporarily inhabited by a few people. For self-sufficiency, the couple cultivated vegetables, ranched goats, sheep and small animals and made their own cheese. When her husband died in 1940, she stayed on the island with her blind mother; after her death she lived all alone on Ro.

During the Second World War , she is said to have provided support to the Greek special unit Ieros Lochos and allied units by supplying the crews of arriving ships. Her presence on this strategically important island ensured that Ro would remain in Greek hands. She achieved this without the support of others. For this she was awarded in 1975 by the Greek Navy and the Athens Academy .

She became known as the Lady of Ro, because she allegedly raised the Greek flag every morning from 1943 and caught it again in the evening to make it so clear that Ro is a Greek island. The Turkish side tried several times to claim the island by hoisting its own flag, although Kastelorizo ​​and the surrounding islands have belonged to Greece since 1947 as a result of the Paris Agreement . The Lady of Ro took down the Turkish flag each time and continued to hoist the Greek flag.

After her death in a hospital on Rhodes, Despina Achladioti was buried on the island of Ro directly below the flagpole on which her Greek flag once flown.

Tomb of the Lady of Ro on the island of Ro

Honors

The Lady of Ro is depicted on a commemorative stamp issued by the Greek Post Office ELTA ( ΕΛΤΑ ) in July 1983. Streets in Heraklion , Rhodes and Chaidari are named after her.

Because of her patriotic attitude and her commitment to the island of Ro, her portrait can also be seen on the 10 euro silver commemorative coin on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution .

Web links

Commons : Lady of Ro  - collection of images

• TV program with the Lady of Ro on the Greek state television ERT (Greek)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maria Hadjimichael, Costas Constantinou, Marinos Papaioakeim: Imagining Ro: On the social life of islets and the politics of Iceland geography. In: Island Studies Journal. Volume 15, Number 2, 2020, pp. 219-236 ( PDF Online ; English).
2. ↑ Who Was the Lady of Ro? December 15, 2020, accessed April 5, 2021 . 
3. ↑ Δέσποινα Αχλαδιώτη: Η εμβληματική Κυρά της Ρω . May 13, 2020, accessed April 5, 2021 (Greek). 
4. ↑ Κυρά της Ρω: 38 χρόνια από το θάνατο μιας σπουδαίας Ελληνίδας. CNN Greece, accessed May 13, 2021 (Greek)
5. ^ Peace treaty with Italy (1947). Retrieved April 5, 2021 . 
6. ^ Lady of Ro, raised Greek flag every day for 40 years - Greek City Times. Retrieved May 1, 2021 (American English). 
7. ↑ Η Κυρά της Ρω . In: Σαν Σήμερα .gr. Retrieved April 5, 2021 (Greek). 
8. ↑ ΑΡΓΥΡΟ ΝΟΜΙΣΜΑ - Η ΕΝΣΩΜΑΤΩΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΝΗΣΟΥ . Retrieved April 5, 2021 (Greek).