Culture of Sifnos

Sifnos is an island to which Apollo gave unsparingly the divine light and maybe this contributed also in its intellectual development.

 Sifnos in field of arts and letters has pushed forward excellent poets, writers, folklore scientists, journalists, tutors and legists as well as architects and it has contributed enough to Greece. It has been characteristically written that: "In the antiquity, the wealth of Sifnos was measured in gold and silver, during the last two centuries, however, it is measured in intellectual wealth." More particularly, a great number of Sifnos’ residents have contributed in the organization, the social upgrading and the development of the free Greek state: politicians, tutors, religious leaders, fighters, poets, journalists, top jurists, financial agents etc.  

Nikolaos Chrissogelos who has been a professor of the school of PANAGIOS TAFOS (the Holy Sepulchre) and then Great Teacher of the Nation has taught and transmitted the arts and letters to hundreds of young people. He has developed a many-sided activity on the revolt of the island and the throwing off of the Turkish yoke. With the initiation of the fight of 1821, he lifted first the revolution flag in Sifnos. He was the honorary representative of Sifnos at the national assembly. Kapodistrias, in recognition of his offer, names him Minister of Education and Religious Affairs and temporary Minister of Justice (1829).  

The literature school of Sifnos is today one of the most important local schools with tens of representatives, and also many folk-poets who justify why Sifnos has been characterized as the "island of poets", with top poets Aristomenis Prevelegios, an academic poet, Ioannis Gryparis, a poet with an high distinction in Letters and Arts from the Academy of Athens, Konstantinos Dialismas, a top tutor and writer, Iakovos Dragatsis, a tutor and archaeologist, Apostolos Makrakis, theologian and philosopher, Nikolaos Decavallas, a doctor at the University of Athens with studies in Germany where he wrote the Big Historic Dictionary of the Greek Language, Kleanthis Triantafyllos or Rampagas, satirical poet, Nikolaos Kambanis, journalist, Stelios Sperantzas, Theodossis Sperantzas, Aristos Kambanis, Antonios Maganaris-Dekavalle, Antonis Prokos, Titos Patrikios,  Nikos G. Stafylopatis, who was the editor of the Anthology of Sifnos’ poets and of the Academy prize-winning collection of folk songs and carols, the theatrical writer Manolis Korres, the folklore scientist Manos Phillipakis, Varvara Fillipaki, Simos Simeonides, the Archmandrite Filaretos Vitalis, the great photographer Evangelos Pantazoglou, the folklore scientist Antonis Troullos, the writer Nikos Stavrianos, etc.