All about Zakynthos

At the place where the house of Ugo Foskolos was located, on Foskolos Street, the prefect Andreas Ioannou, placed the marble sculpture, which existed in the grave of the Dionysios Stupathi family. Dionysios P. Stupathis, a great merchant, ( ; - 1911) was a great donor for Zakynthos. Among the donations he made during his lifetime, are the donation of 6 thousand drachmas for the Quarantine station, the maintenance of the pier at Agios Nikolaos of Molos, which was destroyed in the earthquakes of 1897, and endowments for poor girls. When his sister Eleni died, he commissioned the sculptor Ioannis Vitsaris (1834 - 1892) to decorate her grave, paying the sum of 2,500 golden pounds. Vitsaris placed on her grave one of his finest works, the "Angel" or "Spirit of Sorrow". The prefect Andreas Ioannou, utilizing the land, which belonged to the Municipality of Zakynthos and where the house of Foscolo was located before the earthquake, transformed it into a cenotaph and by activating several Zakynthians, managed to convince the last scion of the Stupathi family, Panagiotis, to offer the "Angel of Sorrow" to be placed on the site, continuing his father's donations. The only compensation paid to him was the sum of 50,000 drachmas, given by the Museum of Solomos and Eminent Zakynthians, while the obligation to restore the tomb of Eleni Stupathi, after the removal of the "Angel", was undertaken. The work was created during the sculptor's mature period and is considered one of his best.