Written by Petrit Latifi
“The Hormovite who saved the Acropolis”
A British historian friend of mine wrote to me that the Albanian archives had documents on a historical figure who had played a decisive role in the defense of the Acropolis of Athens – Kosta Hormovite.
I had never heard this name before so I asked my friend if he could tell me more. Kosta Hormovite, known as Lagumitis Llagap for his role in opening the defensive tunnels, was an important figure during the siege of Athens by the Ottoman troops. Born and raised in Hormova, he joined the Albanian troops that defended the Acropolis from the Ottoman army that had besieged it.
For his contribution to this historic battle, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Greek army. With the declaration of Greek independence, Kosta from Hormova lived in Athens and where he must have had a quiet life, honored by the Greek authorities for his role in saving the Acropolis.
According to the few notes of Greek historians, upon his death, the Hellenic State covered all expenses and decided that his death mask be placed in the National Museum of Greece. I was able to learn these notes from my historian friend who wrote with surprise why Albanian historiography had forgotten this very interesting character of the beginning of the Modern Greek State.
Kosta Hormoviti is mentioned and his activities are described in Dhimiter Grillo’s monograph, “The Contribution of the Arvanites to the Greek Revolution”, published in 1986.
Professor Doctor Irakli Koçollari writes of Kosta in the newspaper DITA:
“The Greek revolution for independence lasted several years and certainly its chronicles are filled with countless, bloody and heroic acts and sacrifices of that people, until the last hours of the battles that led to the declaration of independence. Of course, no one can deny that the Arvanites but also the Albanians, as part of that reality, made invaluable contributions to that great and glorious epic for freedom.
Without wanting to mention here the well-known heroes of that revolution and their exploits, we will only talk here about one of the special contributors, in those battles that led to the final victory and independence of Greece, the battle for the capture of the Acropolis.
After several years of fighting, in the summer of 1827, the rebels’ battles had reached the city of Athens, even around the walls of the Acropolis, where the military headquarters of the Ottoman troops was located. The fighting was bloody and the resistance of the Turkish units for several weeks was almost insurmountable and there were quite a few losses among the rebels.
Precisely at these critical moments, a fighter stood lined up next to the commanders of the rebel forces, who had been on the fronts and in bloody battles for years. He was a silent and taciturn man. In those difficult hours, he had proposed to the rebels’ headquarters another way of confronting the Ottoman forces, who stood resolutely on the Acropolis fortress.
The fighter, in short, was an Albanian. His name was Kosta Dalara! He was from the village of Hormovë in Tepelena.
From the few data available about his youth, it is learned that Kosta Dalara was born and raised in Hormova, Tepelena, a village or town with an ancient and rich history of civilization. Another piece of information reports that his origin was from Lekli, a neighboring village very close to Hormova. For many years, he had served together with his brother Dhimitër Dalara to Ali Pasha, as his loyal men with the duty of engineer, or as he was called in the language of the people at that time, “lagëmxhi”. (“Llagëmi” – an underground channel to enter a secret place or to protect oneself from a threat.
Such narrow channels or tunnels have been found in houses, or even cities. “Llagëmi” also means a narrow tunnel that is made underground or in rock, which is filled with explosives to blow up a certain place, terrain. “Llagëmxhiu” was a master who knew where tunnels or underground shelters could be opened…, or in the military sense, a man who knew how to use TNT or gunpowder to break through and blow up fortifications, forts or trenches where the opponent was positioned. IK)
As such, “llagëmxhi” worked in many defensive or urban constructions that Ali Pasha Tepelena invested in, in many areas and provinces of the pashalik. This engineer, the “llagëmxhiu”, was also used by Ali Pasha in military operations that he undertook to subdue or break the resistance of his opponents, positioned in fortresses or various natural fortifications.
THE ENGINEER THAT SHOCKED THE EARTH
Indirect information tells us that “Hormoviti” or “Llagëmxhiu” was the director of works in the opening of the Bence water supply tunnel and in the construction of the aqueduct that conveyed water from this tunnel to the center of the Tepelena Castle, where the pasha had built a fountain, quite beautiful made of marble.
However, this master remained by the Tepelena pasha’s side in many of the combat operations that he undertook. When deemed necessary, he knew how to identify the most critical points, where the opponent could and should be hit, penetrating through secret “lagëmxhi” (underground tunnels), which only he knew how and where to open. As a true engineer, he was a master in the use of explosives, TNT or gunpowder to strike where the opponent did not expect it.
From the documents of the “Ali Pasha Archive” some information is preserved that speaks of the “lagëmxhi” and his operations on several fronts of war. In one of the documents, the one from July 1808, at a time when Ali Pasha’s son, Veliu, was the Pasha of Morea, informs us about a military operation on a fortress in the Gortynia Monastery. In the information letter, Veli Pasha, writing about Llagëmxhiu, informs his father:
“… I had thought that the tunnel that Llagëmxhiu had opened was very far from the tower where the rebel Ali Farmaqi was positioned and consequently the blow would have no effect. But, Llagëmxhiu had placed nine hundred and fifty ounces of gunpowder inside the tunnel. The explosion was so powerful that the whole place was shaken and the walls of the tower where Farmaqi stood opened on all four sides and collapsed… … it seems that the explosion had caused great damage and had also destroyed their water tank…. in these conditions the rebels, after that duel with a white handkerchief in his hands … and asked to surrender…”
But, without dwelling on these events, we will dwell on his contributions to the anti-Ottoman battles and the Greek revolution that led to the independence of this country.
Famous commanders of the Greek uprising for independence, General Makrijani, Commander of the uprising Karaiskua, Surmeliu, etc., wrote about him, who had the opportunity to know him closely in the most important anti-Ottoman battlefields, as well as those for the liberation of Athens.
Kasomuli, a renowned fighter and writer of the Greek Revolution of 1821, writes about “Llagëmxhiu”: “The immortal and proud hero Kosta Dalara, who was often called by the surname “Llagëmxhiu”, from the many trenches, canals or underground tunnels that he opened along the siege of Mesollonghi and in the Acropolis, to find and strike the Turks by surprise, was a rare fighter….”
In Mesollonghi he fought heroically alongside other insurgent fighters. As Karaiskua and Dimitar Fotiadhi write, “he performed truly heroic acts and miracles…”
After the fall of the besieged Mesollongji, the warriors who had faced months of prolonged hunger were able to break through the siege and escape through the fire of the artillery and the clanging of Ottoman swords…, in that escape known as the “Exodus of Mesollongji”, where the hero of the revolution, the brave soldier Marko Bocari, was also killed.
Among the warriors who broke through the siege with swords in hand was Kosta Dalara. But from here he continued further on the path of the freedom struggle against the Ottoman occupation. The path he took together with the other insurgents was Athens, which was in the hands of the Turks. From Hormova, the village of Llagumxhiu, there were 50 other warriors who lined up alongside the insurgents.
THE BATTLE FOR TAKING THE ACROPOLIS AND ATHENS
In his memoirs, General Makrijani, speaking of the bloody battles to take the Acropolis, where the Ottoman troops and its war headquarters were concentrated, writes: “We approached the walls of the fortress, of the Acropolis, and fought from the side where the Plaka neighborhood is, exactly where the Arvanite gate is, one of the six entrances that had the walls surrounding the city of Athens and the Acropolis, which is now located near the Dionysios Theater.
At that time, the Arvanites lived there. From below to the houses there was a church. It was there that the immortal, famous Kosta Lagëmxhiu, a brave and honest patriot with his rare skills and rifle in hand, fought like a lion for our homeland and its freedom…..Even in Mesolonghi, this brave man had made rare sacrifices and heroism, therefore our Homeland owes a lot to this warrior!”
Continuing his writing, Makrijani recalls: “Kosta Llagëmxhiu and I were tasked with working day and night so that he could open trenches through which we could go close to or inside the line of fortifications that were in the hands of the Turks, through which they came close to us and caused us great damage… In one of them that the two of us opened, our comrades Gurra, Papakosta and the true patriot Thoma Gjirokastriti came after us. Just inside the front line, Kosta had noticed three underground holes that led somewhere further, perhaps deep into the territory controlled by the Turks.
Without wasting time, after carefully examining the three dark underground passages, he immediately entered one of the Turks’ trenches. Then he turned and with great speed began to work to connect one of the underground holes, with the trench he had dug, which was close to that of the enemy.
When he had finished this, he entered alone into the secret hole on the side of the Turkish front. After a few hours he returned from there and showed us that that secret underground passage led quite a distance and came out into a square where all the high-ranking Turkish military officers gathered to drink coffee and talk among themselves.
With rare courage and in complete secrecy, Kosta Hormovit began to take one after another several charges of gunpowder. He would secretly enter this underground passage and take them, at the end of the passage, right under the square where the Turkish soldiers were gathering. None of them managed to understand his secret movements or the fact that he had filled the entire pit under the square, where the soldiers met and discussed the fighting plans, with gunpowder.
But Hormovit would have to enter and remain hidden on the side of the Turkish front, at the moment when he had to set fire to the many explosives that he had stacked at the end of the secret hole. He went and for a while he disappeared there, inside the Turkish camp. For almost half a day his fate was unknown.
The moment of the explosion was awaited and immediately after it the insurgents would attack the Ottoman front with all their forces, taking advantage of the heavy blow and the confusion that the Turkish headquarters would receive from within.
In these difficult moments, of expectation and anxiety, Commander Makrijani, addressing his fighters, said: “Brothers! Even in the midst of from the Acropolis if we manage to enter, but also outside if we remain, in both cases we will be lost if we do not strike the Turks with all our strength, to support and open the way for the return and freedom of Kosta Hormoviti, who is inside the Turkish front…
If we do not support with the fire of our weapons and the power of our swords the exit of “Llagemxhiu”, if he remains a prisoner in the hands of the Turks, we will also have the Acropolis lost and we will all be lost with him!”
But, after a while, a terrible explosion had shaken the country and blown up the entire headquarters of the Turkish military. A great anxiety had accompanied that great signal for the victorious attack.
While the order to attack was eagerly awaited, suddenly the insurgents saw “Llagemxhiu” coming silently from a hidden path.
Referring to the memories of Commander Makrijani, about these very emotional events, he writes:
“He, Hormoviti saw me and turned to me. At that moment I was wounded and covered in blood. When he saw me in that state, he said to me:
You stay here, let the doctor come and bandage your wounds immediately! I will return again and climb the walls of the fortress together with the other warriors!
No! I said. You stay here! If I die, we will not lose the fortress together with the Acropolis. But, if you die, we will lose, so we will not win the Acropolis!”
However, the brave warrior did not obey and together with the other rebels he encountered the Turkish forces, struck in the heart by that powerful explosion, and continued the clashes until the moments of the great victory.
HORMOVIT’S LAST WORRY
The courage, skills and bravery of the Albanian Hormovit had long been known even among the Turkish forces. The Turkish Pasha Qutahu himself, with whom the rebels had fought in many battles, had proposed that Llagumxhiu either withdraw from the fighting or switch to his side, as he would have as a reward an amount of gold equal to the weight of his body.
But, before the interests of freedom, Hormoviti-Dalara despised everything…..
Kosta Dalara (Hormoviti or Llagemxhiu) died in Athens in 1851. Asked, in his old age, if he had any worries left in his life?, he replied:
– Yes! I have a great worry! That my father is still captive!
In honor and memory of his contributions to the wars for Greek independence, today in Athens one of the main streets bears his name “Llagumxhiu”.
References
Dhimiter Grillo’s monograph, “The Contribution of the Arvanites to the Greek Revolution”, published in 1986.
Balkan Academia 