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It is difficult to ascertain what exactly happened to the books that Nikolopoulos had been preparing for shipment and ultimately never managed to do so. It is likewise exceptionally difficult to determine the precise number of volumes or their nature, given the fact that the inventory list had disappeared. Nevertheless, in 1840, 47 wooden crates with books were in fact delivered according to the wishes of Nikolopoulos to his nephew Haralambos Christopoulos, later Minister of Education and to the Mayor of Andritsaina Zafiropoulos. The books were loaded on a ship in Paris in 1840 and unloaded in June of the same year at the port of Nafplio. They were confiscated for four years as there was no money to pay for the freightage and the fares of those escorting the books, an amount of nearly 3,000 drachmas. In 1844 the book collection was released according to a news story published on 15th November 1845 in the newspaper “Athena”, as the amount of 3000 drachmas had been paid by the Administrative Revenue Office of Trifylia, which had collected this money from the municipal revenue of all six Municipalities of the province of Olympia. The bishop of Chalcedon who was a native of Andritsaina helped offset the freightage costs of the library from Nafplio to Andritsaina by donating 3000 piastres. When the books arrived at their destination by mule, they were stored at the Church of St. Barbara and remained there for 35 years. In 1875, the construction of the school buildings commenced, with plans made by Miltiades Kanellopoulos, an Engineer and Instructor at the Army Cadet School. The edifice was in the shape of the Greek letter ‘Pi’, with the northeastern side open. The monies came from a nation-wide fund-raising drive and a donation by Angelos Giannikesis, consulate of Greece in Trieste. The inauguration of the building took place in 1879 and the library was housed in the west wing of the first floor. In 1932 the northeastern side was added on and the building took on its resent square shape, where the library was to be housed until 1989. Due to repairs to the building, the books were placed in carton boxes and taken to a building belonging to the Municipality of Andritsaina, where they remained until 1998, until the new edifice was finally finished. PUBLIC HISTORICAL LIBRARY OF ANDRITSAINA
The Odyssey of a donation...