1st Junior High School of Chios

The Chios School, founded in 1792, was one of the most important intellectual centers of Hellenism before the Revolution. Its establishment owed much to prosperous Chians who, leveraging privileges from the mastic trade, financed education on the island, while Chian merchants abroad brought the ideas of the European Enlightenment. Its first director was Athanasios Parios, and the school’s library was enriched thanks to Adamantios Korais. Its fame exceeded the island’s borders, attracting students from all over Greece. It was destroyed in the Massacre of Chios (1822) and reopened in 1839, while a new building was erected in 1885 with donations from the Chians of Alexandria. In subsequent decades it functioned as a Gymnasium, Lyceum, and educational center, also hosting the first Archaeological Collection of Chios. Today it houses the 1st Gymnasium of Chios, continuing its centuries‑long educational tradition.