Zakynthos, Foscolo’s «maternal land», never set him apart from her two other great figures, Dionysios Solomos and Andreas Kalvos. Indeed, compared with the latter, she has honoured the poet of the «Tombs» far more, and from much earlier. Proof of this recognition is the address of Zakynthos, even in various panegyrics and texts of common consumption, as «the island of Solomos, of Kalvos and of Foscolo», the order of their names not always being the same, but often placing the last first, observing the hierarchy of age and of chronological appearance.

This honour is many-sided and is expressed in many ways. Let us identify the chief among them: Foscolo Street, which existed in the pre-earthquake town and continues to exist in the post-earthquake one. It is the town’s central street, where the poet’s house also stands. Before the multiple destruction of August 1953 it began at the Pawnshop, the well-known Monte (Santo Monte di Pietà), and reached as far as the square of Saint Luke [1]. It was the well-known «Kato Plateia Rouga». After the earthquake it took the same name again, but is slightly shorter. Today it begins at Giofyri and ends at the square of the Holy Forty Martyrs (Agion Saranton, in the local dialect, which declines the numeral).

The Foscolian Library was housed in the poet’s house, which the Municipality of Zakynthos had purchased and preserved. Its moving spirit was the historian Spyridon Deviazis. Besides printed matter, all objects relating to the poet and his life in Zakynthos had also been gathered there. Recently the Poet’s house was renovated.

The icon of Saint Phanourios in the church of the Odigitria. It is an old, silver-clad icon, by whose lamp, according to tradition, the poet used to read when he was a child, since the church stood directly opposite his house. Originally, before the catastrophe of 1953, it stood in the church courtyard and specifically at its entrance, which was also the base of its tower-like bell tower. After the earthquake, through the efforts of Nikolaos Varvianis, who before the earthquake, in 1952, had arranged for a related inscription to be placed beneath the icon [2], it was set in a magnificent shrine, with the same plaque, erected on the small portion of the church plot that survived the land redistribution. When the church was later rebuilt, smaller than the original, the icon with the same inscription was placed in another shrine beside the church, where it remains to this day.

The Foscolo Theatre stood until 1953, when it was finally destroyed by the earthquakes, in Solomos Square (then George Square). It was first built in the five-year period 1871–1875, under Mayor Fragkiskos Tzoulatis and to designs by Ernst Ziller [3]. It was rendered unusable, but not demolished, by the earthquakes of 1893 and was rebuilt, after first being levelled, in 1903 in its original form by Mayor Antonios Makris [4]. On its façade there was a relief bust of Foscolo, a work by Georgios Vroutos [5].

The Foscolo printing house was founded by M. Voultsos and Sp. Kapsokefalos [6]. Various books and printed matter were produced there. Among them the periodicals «Kypseli», «Anthon», «Ai Mousai», «Ethniki Anthologia» [7] and others.

The Foscolo Club was founded in Zakynthos in March 1849. A little later, on 4 February 1850, it was turned into an electoral club. Its purpose was various topical political discussions. To that end meetings were held twice a week, every Thursday and Sunday [8].

The Foscolo Reading Room was founded in Zakynthos in 1878 [9].

The periodical «Foscolo» was first published on 1 May 1887 and circulated in only a few issues [10].

The periodical «Ai Charites», named after the Poet’s work of the same title. Its director and owner was Andreas I. Konitopoulos and its editor-in-chief G. M. Voulgaris. Its first issue appeared in September 1911 [11].

The portrait of Foscolo in the Club «O Zakynthos» was painted by the painter–iconographer Panagiotis Plaisas-Nikas the Younger. The Club’s Board of Directors sent its creator, on 1 April 1906, a letter of thanks in the most flattering terms [12].

The Municipal cinema «Foscolo», on the ground floor of the Cultural Centre, in memory of the pre-earthquake Foscolo Theatre, on exactly the same site. One of the best-known cinemas of the town of Zakynthos, in Solomos Square, bears the Poet’s name after the earthquake. It is also the only one that has remained and still operates to this day.

The ship «Ugo Foscolo» came for the steamship line Zakynthos–Kyllini, but ultimately did not fulfil its purpose — unlucky, like its namesake, as regards a sojourn in the «maternal land». We mention it, however, because it bore the poet’s name and represents yet another honour to his person and how this has entered the everyday life of the people of Zakynthos.

The Association Ugo Foscolo was founded on the initiative of Nikos Lalotis and 40 progressive Zakynthians, and its purpose is the restoration of the house where the poet spent his childhood years in Zakynthos and the dissemination of his work.

Bibliographical references

• Leonidas Ch. Zois, Historical and Folklore Dictionary of Zakynthos, volume I, Historical–Biographical, Athens, from the National Printing House, 1953, p. 695.
• Op. cit., p. 676.
• Dionysis N. Mousmoutis, Theatre in the town of Zakynthos 1901–1915, Bastas editions, Athens 1999, p. 30.
• Nikos Lountzis, Theatres in Zakynthos, Proceedings of the 1st Conference “The settlements of Zakynthos from antiquity to 1953”, Athens 1993, p. 245.
• Leonidas Ch. Zois, Dictionary…, p. 230.
• Op. cit., p. 670.
• Georgia Kokla-Papadatou, Periodicals and newspapers of the Public Library of Zakynthos, Zakynthian periodicals, annual publication “Zakynthos ’85”, pp. 118–131.
• Leonidas Ch. Zois, Dictionary…, p. 695.
• Op. cit.
• Op. cit. and Georgia Kokla-Papadatou, Periodicals…, p. 121.
• Op. cit., p. 126.
• Dionysis Flemotomos, Artistic information on pre-earthquake Zakynthos from a codex of the painter Panagiotis Plaisas Nikas the Younger, Periplus (1990), issues 24–25, p. 206.