All about Zakynthos

A newer monument, built in the early 1990s, has been placed on St Mark's Square. It is a stone column, which commemorates the execution by hanging of the patriots Yannis Kouroumalos and Andreas Sourmbis by the Germans on August 17, 1944. Christos Rouseas (1896-1978) made the design of the event in the book "Zakynthos in the years of slavery (1 May 1941-27 March 1945)", by Dionysios Ch. It was published in Zakynthos, in April 1949, by the F. Kontogiorgas printing house and is today kept in the library of the Museum of Solomos & Eminent Zakynthians. On page 405, we read: "...a German soldier puts the ropes around their necks, which are tied to the balcony of the Kontonis house above the Curio of Ioannou Patrikiou and they are pressed into the void hanging by the neck...". This is the current location of the 'AVANT GARDE' café's benches.