Their friends

The Katakouzenoi were not an isolated case; they belonged to the so-called "1930s generation", a cultural movement by people born in the beginning of the 20th century, intellectuals who had mainly studied abroad and returned to Hellas with the dream of transforming their country to a modern state while remaining loyal to its cultural uniqueness and vast heritage (Zias 1994: 11-15).

 

They were closely linked to the vision of Eleutherios Venizelos, a Cretan politician who during his second tenure (late 1920s to mid 1930s) strove to modernise Hellenic economy and social life. During the German occupation of Hellas between 1941 and 1945, the "1930s generation" (and the Katakouzenoi in particular) joined the underground urban resistance against the Nazis. The overall progressive political attitude of these upper middle-class patricians kept them in touch with the avant-garde of Europe (especially France, but also Britain, Italy and Germany) and the United States in the post-war period.

 

Photograph taken by A.Katakouzenos, with almost the entire "1930s generation": (from upper left) E.Venezes, O.Elytes, G.Seferes (the two Nobel prize winners of Hellas), A.Karantones, G.Theotokas, A.Terzakes, K.Demaras (devoted friend of the first woman to join the French Academy, writer Marguerite Yourcenar), G.Katsimpales (hero of H.Miller's Colossus of Maroussi) and A.Empeirikos (with the beard).

The Katakouzenos house was a meeting point for this group, where its members presented their work and discussed cultural and political issues. Following a moderate path, between progressiveness and traditionalism, between high fashion and popular culture, the Katakouzenoi distilled in their lifestyle a Hellenic blend of patriotism and revolution. It is quite characteristic that Professor Katakouzenos denied serious proposals to undertake the direction of important medical institutions abroad (especially in the United States) for mainly patriotic reasons; for his idealistic generation, a real Hellene should remain and work in Hellas, however difficult that was.

 

Leto Katakouzenou among a group of intellectuals and artists of the "1930s generation" in her reception room.

The Katakouzenos House preserves the spirit and intentions of people who deeply influenced Hellenic identity in the 20th century. Its importance lies not only on its collection of paintings, books and furniture. It is the spirit of the people that have inhabited it, its invisible side that makes it so important.

 

Leto Katakouzenou showing foreign friends around the temple of Poseidon in Sounio, near Athens, in the 1940s.

 

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texts by George Manginis and Sophia Peloponnissiou-Vassilacou