Odessa, 2006
Pages: 80
ISBN: 966-8815-04-1

The Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Odessa, housed in the Maraslis historical residence, honoured the great benefactor of “two homelands” (Greece and Ukraine) by organizing an exhibition dedicated to his life and work. The exhibits come from private collections and public institutions in Odessa, including the State Archive, the Gorky Library, the Historical and Laographic Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Literature and others.
The lavishly illustrate catalogue of the exhibition contains an extensive introduction on the life and work of the benefactor. The exhibits are divided into the following groups: 1) Maraslis’s youth (1831-185), 2) Benefactions, 3) Personality, and 4) In Memory of G.G. Maraslis.
“For Maraslis, the talented civil servant of the ‘Vorontzov School’, nothing in Odessa was unimportant: theatres and streets, parks and sanatoria, microbiological workshops and libraries, abattoirs and art galleries, churches and schools, cheap restaurants, museums and so much else were of daily concern to him. A highly competent businessman and one of the riches men in the town, he did not concentrate on increasing his personal wealth, but devoted a large part of his life to the prosperity of his beloved Odessa. He was justly called an innovator, since not only did he not fear innovations, but actively sought them and demanded the same from the those who worked under him. For all these reasons, the inhabitants of Odessa trusted him implicitly throughout the approximately thirty years that he served as a municipal councillor, as member of the executive committee of the Municipality, and as Mayor.” (From the Prologue by Edward Gourvits, Mayor of Odessa.)
132 pictures, 29×19.