Nobody can forget that hearty and erect man, truly beautiful in both body and soul, the dazzling athlete whose fearless character neither time nor the pains of old age could tame. This is how the late 19th century encyclopedist chose to remember Dimitrios Notis Botsaris, the general whose bust we see standing next to the Ottoman tower. He was born in Souli in 1808 and spent his youth fighting alongside his family against the Ottomans. He eluded the assassins of Ali Pasha, he survived the siege of Missolonghi, and was the leader of a small band of Souliotes at the age of seventeen. He joined the regular army when Greece won its independence and became adjutant to King George I. In 1863 he served as Minister of War and was repeatedly elected in the Greek parliament.