The Cultural Association of Zakynthos “Ugo Foscolo” was founded in 2009 with the statutory aim of restoring the house where the great poet was born and raised, re-establishing the Foscolian Library, creating a Museum, supporting scholarly research and promoting the poet’s work. The popular house where the great poet was born and raised until the age of sixteen passed into municipal ownership in 1885 and from 1889 until the earthquake and fire of 1953 housed the renowned municipal Foscolian Library.

The initiative to create the association was taken by an important figure of his time, Nikos Lalotis, who devoted his life to the promotion of historical memory and the protection of the environment; his initiative was supported by the signatures of 34 fellow countrymen from Zakynthos and Athens. Among them were distinguished academics, men of letters, writers and scientists, as well as ordinary progressive fellow citizens who recognised in the undertaking a noble purpose and the redress of a historical outstanding matter after the destructive earthquakes of 1953.

In Zakynthos we never forget that Foscolo was born on our island to a Greek mother and an Italian father, that he learned his first letters on the island, that he was a pupil of Martelaos, and that at the age of sixteen he left for Venice to live a militant and turbulent life and finally to win glory in the field of Italian letters as the national poet of the friendly country. Nevertheless, we know that he never ceased to feel Zakynthian, that he dedicated an ode to Zakynthos, that he corresponded with his mother and other friends in Greek, that he sought to go down and fight in the uprising Greece of 1821, and that he longed to spend his last years in Zakynthos, preferably at Akrotiri or Argasi.

For our Association the first statutory aim, concerning the reconstruction of the poet’s house, was fulfilled in 2016, through the cooperation of our Association with the Municipality of Zakynthos and the Region of the Ionian Islands. The reconstructed House of the Poet already serves as a space for the exhibition of objects, works of art and old editions and at the same time as the seat of our Association. The Association’s aim today is to transform the poet’s house into a visitable historic site, with a picture gallery and library. The creation of the Museum that bears his name is equivalent to paying tribute to a great poet born in Zakynthos and is emblematic of the continuity of our local history. At the same time, the humble two-storey popular house, functioning as a Museum, will reconstitute a historical element of the old pre-earthquake town of Zakynthos, and for younger generations it will serve as a point of reference not only to the cultural heritage but also to the architectural tradition of our island in relation to the hidden beauty of the more popular neighbourhoods of the town of Zakynthos. To this end, our Association develops activities and events of scholarly and intellectual content.