Nikolaos Stournaras, one of Greece’s national benefactors, died in Halkida.
Nikolaos Stournaras was born in Metsovo in 1806. He was the nephew of the benefactor Michael Tossizza (whose sister was Stournaras’ mother). Once he had completed his studies in his hometown, he went to Livorno in Italy, where he worked at the trade house of the Tossizza family. He was later sent to Paris to study at the School of Trade and Industry after which he moved to Alexandria where he worked as an assistant to his uncle, Michael Tossizza and then as the director of the trade house of the Tossizza family. He bought large plots of land in Fthiotida and at the same time, donated significant amounts of money to educational institutes and established charities in Alexandria and Athens in addition to helping to fund the construction of a school in Metsovo. In 1853 he went to Greece to work on a number of development projects but died suddenly. In his will, he left significant amounts of money to charitable causes, the schools in Metsovo and Alexandria and for the foundation of a technical school in Greece.
