Ένα σημαντικό χειρόγραφο του Λύσανδρου Καυταντζόγλου

Abstract

The School of Arts, forerunner of what is now the Athens Polytechnic, was founded in 1836 with the aim of enabling men working in the construction industry to attend lessons on Sundays and holidays, so as to acquire the knowledge needed to make them into architectural master craftsmen.  And in the beginning this was how it operated.  Later, from 1841 onwards daily courses began to operate alongside the weekly ones.In the Benaki Museum's Neohellenic Architecture Archives an unpublished, hand-written letter from Lysandros Kaftantzoglou, Director of the School of Arts from 1844, to the Ministry of the Interior, has been preserved. In this letter, dated 22 September 1848, Kaftantzoglou proposed: 1) that a scholarship, awarded by competition, should be given to a student of the School for the purpose of completing his education in some European institution; and 2) that the state should entrust public works to Greek craftsmen rather than foreigners. Although Kaftantzoglou – like Governor Kapodistrias (1828-1831) before him – did not consider it appropriate at that time to create an Institute of  Higher Education, nevertheless he made conscientious attempts, as this document attests, to improve the status of Greek craftsmen, repeatedly requesting the Ministry to fund scholarships so that his students at the School of Arts could study abroad.