Patrick Comerford
I have been recalling in recent week how I have come across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised I had written little about these sculptures over the years.
Rather than leave these photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over these few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.
The sculptures I have looked at in recent weeks include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris in the campus of the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, the bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis in front of the White Tower, and the Monument for the Jewish Holocaust on the edge of Eleftherias Square.
The sculpture of ‘The Woman of Pindos (I Γυναίκα της Πίνδου) stands at Fanarioton Square, at the junction of Pavlou Mela, Mitropoleos and Stratigou Kallari streets, and just a few minutes’ walk from the White Tower and the waterfront in Thessaloniki.
The sculpture by Kostas Domboulas is dedicated to the women of Epirus in north-west Greece and recalls their bravery in the resistance during World War II. In the harsh autumn of 1940, when Italy invaded Greece through the Pindos mountains, the women of Zagori – many of them elderly or mothers – carried ammunition, food, and supplies up the frozen slopes to support the Greek soldiers.
The bronze sculpture on a marble base depicts a woman from Epirus in heavy military attire, carrying bullets and food on her back as he brings supplies to soldiers on the front. Her right foot is placed on a rock that symbolises a forceful movement that adds dynamism yet poignancy to the sculpture.
When Mussolini’s fascist army invaded Greece through the rugged Pindus mountain range, they expected a quick and easy victory. Instead, they faced fierce resistance not just from soldiers, but from the local village women who carried heavy supplies and hauled massive loads of ammunition, food, and weapons on their backs up steep, snow-covered mountain trails where even mules could not go.
These women of Pindos knitted warm clothing for soldiers facing freezing conditions and even laid down in freezing rivers to form human bridges for army engineers. On many occasions, women actively chased down and fought off invading Italian troops using makeshift weapons such as axes and large pieces of wood.
The inscription in capital letters reads:
Γυναίκες Ηπειρώτισσες,
ξαφνιάσματα της φύσης,
εχθρέ γιατί δε ρώτησες
ποιον πας να κατακτήσεις
Women of Epirus,
surprise of nature,
enemy, why didn’t you ask
who you were trying to conquer?’
This quotation is the chorus of the legendary 1973 song Γυναίκες Ηπειρώτισσες (Gynaikes Ipeirotisses, ‘Women of Epirus’), sung by the Greek singer Marinella (Μαρινέλλα) from Thessaloniki, who died earlier this year (28 March 2026) at the age of 87.
Marinella was born Kyriaki Papadopoulou in Thessaloniki on 19 May 1938, and began her journey first appearing on the radio show ‘Pediki Ora’ before going on stage in her teens. By 1957, she and Stelios Kazantzidis had become a celebrated duo, singing the songs of Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Giorgos Mitsakis, Giorgos Zambetas, Apostolos Kaldaras, Theodoros Derveniotis, Stavros Xarchakos and Christos Leontis.
She became the first singer to represent Greece in the Eurovision contest in 1974, when she sang Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ’ αγόρι μου (‘A little wine, a little sea, and my boyfriend’). She went on to give her voice to generations through decades of music.
She sang at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, representing the music and culture Greece. She remained devoted to her singing to her final years.
The sculpture of the Woman of Pindos was installed in 1990 when Konstantinos ‘Ntinos’ Kosmopoulos (1928-2011) was the Mayor of Thessaloniki. The project was sponsored financially by the Epirus Cultural Association.
This monument was created by sculptor Kostas Domboulas (born 1942). As an academic, he was a faculty member at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he taught in the architecture department for almost four decades, from 1972 to 2009.
His other works his ‘Monument to Fallen Resistance Students’ in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, installed at the Faculty of Law in 1999. It is a modern, abstract metallic sculpture that rises directly from a bed of pebbles on the ground. It features marble plaques inscribed with the names of students executed during the National Liberation Struggle (1941-1944).
In this series:
1, Introduction (21 September 2026)
2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)
3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)
4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)
5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)
6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)
7, The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)
8, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas, Fanarioton Square (8 October 2026)
Next: The Stumbling Stones (‘Stolpersteine’) by Gunter Demnig
Γυναίκες Ηπειρώτισσες, Μαρινέλλα
