Manolopoulio Hospital of Pyrgos

The historic building of Manolopoulos was built according to historical references in 1886 with the initial sponsorship of the families Manolopoulou and Kandirerli. In 1902 it was named “Manolopouleio Municipal Hospital of Pyrgos“. It has been for 110 years, the trademark of the city, since it was first built as a hospital. It is a jewel of architecture. In 1936 it was renovated. Interventions, renovations and repairs took place in the building in the 1960s. The earthquakes of 1993 caused extensive damage to the building. It is a remarkable special function building. The organization of his views is of a neoclassical style. It’s supposed to be the work of Chiller. The monument is an integral part of the newer history of the Tower and, together with the rest of the newer monuments, is a sample of the cultural and economic flourishing of the city.
The history of Manolopoulos belongs to the benefactor Manolopoulos, from Pylos, Messinia, who reached Pyrgos in order to develop his commercial activities, met and married the daughter of wealthy Ioannis Kandireris, who died in 1883, bequeathed to his daughter and son-in-law great fortune. A year later, the merchant invited Ernesto Zilller, a well-known architect for his neoclassical works around Greece, to the Tower and commissioned him the design of the first large hospital for the region. The foundation stone of the new hospital of a city with serious health problems entered amid celebrations on February 28, 1888. The building was so majestic and expensive in its construction that Athanassios Manolopoulos put all his money in his construction and shortly afterwards went bankrupt. Also, the Lyri family in 1890 offered 20,000 drachmas, while the wealthy raisin merchant Angelis Papadopoulos assumed the cost of the first twenty beds. The majestic building was inaugurated as a hospital in January 1894, with the operating cost being so high that Manolopoulos granted it to the municipality of Lertins in 1900.