Summary

Floral and striped silk bedspread which was part of Maria Markos' dowry. Maria was a young widow, her husband having been killed by Turkish forces (Castellorizo was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire). In 1921 she met Constantine Markos, who had fled to Castellorizo from Izmir, a Greek city in Türkiye. The couple married and in 1922 they migrated to Australia, where they settled in Fitzroy in Melbourne, and had four children.

Castellorizo (which has also been known as: Megisti, Kastellorizo, Castelorosso, Chateau Rhouge and Meis Kizilhisar) has had a tumultuous history. In the 19th Century its inhabitants joined the Greek insurgents in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. Castellorizo was unsuccessful in escaping Ottoman rule, and so in 1912 during the Libyan war, the inhabitants asked for their island to be annexed to Italy. The Italian Government refused so on 14 March 1913 the local population imprisoned the Turkish governor and his Ottoman garrison and proclaimed a provisional government.

In August that year the Greek government sent a provisional governor supported by gendarmes. But they were expelled by the inhabitants on 20 October 1915. On 28 December 1915, the French occupied on the island at the behest of a local pro-French party which feared Turkish reprisals, the island was eventually assigned to Italy under the Treaty of Sèvres in 1921. During World War II the island was occupied by British forces, and then assigned to Greece following World War II.

Physical Description

Silk bedspread with a gold floral pattern on a bright pink background, with red and deep purple striped boarder.

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