Georgios Sinas ( el, Γεώργιος Σίνας, german: Georg Sina; 20 November 1783 – 18 May 1856) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

- Austrian entrepreneur and banker. He became a national benefactor of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and was the father of another Greek national benefactor,

Simon Sinas Simon von Sina or Simon Sinas ( el, Σίμων Σίνας; 1810–1876) was a Greek-Austrian banker, aristocrat, benefactor and diplomat. He was one of the most important benefactors of the Greek nation together with Georgios Sinas. Biography Sim ...

. He was also the founder of the National Observatory of Athens.

Biography

Georgios Sinas was born in

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

. The Sinas family came from

Moscopole Moscopole or Voskopoja ( sq, Voskopojë; rup, Moscopole, with several other variants; el, Μοσχόπολις, Moschopolis) is a village in Korçë County in southeastern Albania. During the 18th century, it was the cultural and commercial ...

, Ottoman Empire (now southern

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

). The ethnic origin of the family has been described as Aromanian, Hellenized Aromanian, or

. Regardless of their ethnic origin, the Sinas family in Vienna were part of the social-cultural Greek merchant class which maintained close relations with the newly founded Greek state of their era. At an early age Sinas lost his mother and was raised by his aunt in

Serres Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...

(today in

), where he lived during his first school years. Approximately in 1790 he moved with his father, the tobacco and cotton merchant Georgios Sinas the Elder (1753–1822), to the Habsburg residence

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where he finished his ground level studies. At the age of 20, he became involved with his father's businesses and managed to take initiatives and successfully expanded the family business. He became chief director of the National bank of Austria, a position that he retained for 25 years. Moreover, he became a successful banker and subsidized not only enterprises but states and royal families in Europe. Already in 1818, he and his father were raised to Hungarian nobility by Emperor

Francis I of Austria Francis II (german: Franz II.; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor (from 1792 to 1806) and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire, from 1804 to 1835. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response ...

. He has contributed financially in the construction of the

Chain Bridge (Budapest) Chain bridges are suspension bridges built with chains. Some chain bridge built using this design have retained the name Chain Bridge. Thus as a proper noun, it may refer to: In Hungary: * Chain Bridge (Budapest), a bridge over the Danube in Bu ...

, the first permanent connection across the Danube between Buda and Pest, which is used even today. His name is inscribed on the base of the south western foundation of the bridge on the Buda side. Georgios Sinas retained relations with the newly established Kingdom of Greece and in 1833 was made the ambassador of Greece to Austria by King Otto, a position he held for the rest of his life. He financially supported the Greek community in Vienna and his family's hometown of Moscopole, modern southern

. Moreover, he donated huge amounts of money to philanthropic, cultural and educational institutions of the Greek state, like: * Arsakeio school in Athens. *

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

. *A number of medical and archaeological institutions. Sinas' greatest donation to Greece was the financing of the Athens National Observatory (1845) a work of the Danish architect Theophil Hansen.Imperialism and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. George Vlahakis. ABC-CLIO, 2006. His son,

, continued his work on the fields of business and benefaction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinas, Georgios 1783 births 1856 deaths Greek philanthropists Greek diplomats People from Niš Ambassadors of Greece to Austria Austrian people of Greek descent Austrian people of Aromanian descent Greek people of Aromanian descent 19th-century philanthropists People from Serres Businesspeople from Vienna Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the Austrian Empire