The joint celebrations in honor of the heroes fighting in Dragatsani, on the anniversary of March 25th, were initiated by the Rector of the University of Piraeus, Angelos Kotios, as a representative of the Greek Universities and head of a multi-member Greek delegation, together with a representative of the General Secretariat of Hellenism Abroad.
The Union of Romanian Greeks, a strong expatriate organization, with its President a representative in the Parliament of the country, Gavriel Zisopoulos, organized - as every year - this historic pilgrimage to the graves of the Greeks who fell for the freedom of the nation , resting next to their Romanian comrades-in-arms.
The tragic battle in Dragatsani, between the forces of the Philiki Etairia and the Ottoman army, on June 19, 1821, highlighted the heroism of the members and the high ideals of the Sacred Band, which was formed by young volunteers, mainly university students. They fought on foot with carabines and bayonets led by the brother of Alexander Ypsilantis, Nikolaos, and assisted by Athanasios Tsakalov, co-founder of the Philiki Etairia, and there they fell heroically and out of 375 only 136 survived the battle.
The small church-monument erected by the Greek diaspora of Romania near the cemetery, at the exact spot of the fall of the Sacred Band, in memory of that important battle, will also be the central point of celebration and pilgrimage for all Greeks and Philhellenes of the two countries in the 2021 events for the 100th anniversary of the Revolution.