Yannis Ritsos: His life at the Sotiria sanatorium and meeting Maria Polydouri

The show, Fasma, on ERTNEWS dealt with the Sotiria hospital, since many years ago it had functioned as a sanatorium.

Yiannis Ritsos had been hospitalized for two years in the said sanatorium as a tuberculosis patient and in fact then he had also met his beloved, Maria Polydouri.

Below you will see what is mentioned about that period, the miserable living conditions and how the well-known poet turned out to be a “communist”.

“Yiannis Ritsos suffered from tuberculosis since his childhood and in fact his whole family did. From time to time he was hospitalized in various sanatoriums. The “Sotiria” sanatorium was a micrograph of Greek society. At the time when Ritsos was hospitalized, the conditions in society were miserable and the struggles for asserting rights were at their peak. And in fact Ritsos was one of the leading claimants of rights. In Crete, in a sanatorium that was, the tuberculous patients were aroused and the decision-makers were forced to change them to better conditions!

At the end of the 70s, Ritsos was hospitalized in Sotiria in an 8-bed ward and did not want to be hospitalized in better conditions. He was very open to the world, he spoke, recited his poems and created a positive atmosphere around him. He was a gentle personality, full of kindness and understanding for the suffering of the world.

There was a time when there were ten times as many as the buildings could hold. Many lived in huts in squalid conditions. They were looking for a place to die. All they were offered was a plate of food! The poverty and despair that had no fate in the sun creates the conditions of the revolution!”.