Statue Andriantas – Captain Kottas.

The bronze statue of “Captain Kottas”, a Macedonian Gladiator, is located in the New Park of Florina and was made by the Florinian sculptor Dimitris Kalamaras in 1961. The statue of Kalamaras, in an upright frontal pose, with “carved” sharp cuts all over its surface, has caused controversial interpretations, as the hero appears at the moment of his sacrifice and not in a glorious pose.
Captain Kottas, a pioneer of the Macedonian War of Independence, known as Konstantinos Christou, was born in 1860 in Roulia of Korestia, which today bears his name.
In early 1897, Kottas joined the mountain as a rebel. Kottas began to pursue Ottoman rulers and fought several battles with Ottoman troops.
The Ottomans arrested him in Roulia in June 1904 and finally hanged him in At Pazar Square in Monastir in September 1905.

SOURCE OF PHOTOGRAPHS: Christos Tegos