![Greek refugees of the Ypsilantis troop, watercolour lithograph, 1823.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-griechen-300x225.jpg)
The odyssey of the Greek freedom fighters
In 1823 around 160 Greek revolutionaries ended up in Switzerland, having been defeated and persecuted by the Ottomans. They escaped on foot on a route that took them via Odessa, Bessarabia, Poland and through German states to the border in Schaffhausen.
The secret Filiki Eteria society plans an uprising
![The Oath, painting by Dionysios Tsokos, 1849: a new member of the secret Filiki Eteria society swears his oath of allegiance on the Gospel. Pictured is Theódoros Kolokotrónis, one of the original Greek freedom fighters and leaders of the revolution.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/geheimbund-300x221.jpg)
![Initiator of the military fight for freedom from the Ottomans: Alexandros Ypsilantis, Greek general and leader of the Hieros Lochos in the Greek War of Independence.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ypsilantis-191x300.jpg)
Devastating defeat and flight to Odessa
![The Sultan’s response to Ypsilantis’ uprising: massacre, plunder and destruction in Constantinople. Patriarch Gregory V is hanged.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/massaker-300x215.jpg)
![War scene showing Greek freedom fighters, painted by Vryzakis Theodoros.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kriegsszene-300x271.jpg)
Marching from Odessa to Switzerland
![Icons of the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire: Eugène Delacroix’s painting depicts the massacre on the Aegean island of Chios at Easter 1822, which cost the lives of almost all the population and shocked Europe.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/marsch-254x300.jpg)
![Two portraits of Greek refugees in Zurich. Drawings by Georg Ludwig Vogel, 1823.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/druckgrafik-fluchtlinge-300x213.jpg)
![In the middle of the photograph is the building on Niklaus-Thut-Platz that housed the six ‘Zofingen Greeks’.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/zofingen-300x200.jpg)
![Now on display at Museum Zofingen: the Eleftheria model ship, 150 cm long. The red-and-white flag of the commune of Zofingen was attached by the Greeks, while the Greek flag is a later addition.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/modellschiff-300x200.jpg)
Intervention by major powers and liberation
![Section of the painting entitled Defeat of the besieged of Missolonghi, by Theodoros Vryzakis, 1853.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ausschnitt-ausfall-von-messolonghi-300x260.jpg)