The story
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The wrought iron balconies of this nineteenth-century mansion follow the neoclassical style common throughout the old town. This street is named for Elias Miniatis, a clergyman and scholar born in Cephalonia in 1669. He served as a preacher in Nafplio during the decades when Venice controlled the city as the capital of the Kingdom of the Morea.
While other scholars of his era wrote in formal, archaic Greek, Miniatis chose to deliver his sermons in the vernacular language spoken by the people on these streets. This made him a significant figure in the development of modern Greek prose. Miniatis was educated in Venice and later taught at the Great School of the Nation in Constantinople.
His most famous work, a collection of sermons titled Didachai, was printed in Venice in 1716, two years after his death. The building that houses the Ippoliti Hotel was constructed a century later, during the period when Nafplio served as the capital of the modern Greek state. It retains the original thick stone walls and tall wooden shutters designed for insulation against the sun.
A single street lamp mounted to the stone masonry lights the way toward the harbor.
That was Ilia Miniati Street, Nafplio. Avsha tells a story like this about wherever you are — any street, in your language.
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