Demetrios Bikelas as a young man.
"I was born in Hermoupolis (on the island of Syros) on February 15, 1835, in the house of my grandfather Georgios Melas, from my mother's side; the house is located at today's Theatre Square. At the time it was one of the best buildings of Hermoupolis which was founded randomly by those who found refuge there from various cities during the Revolution of 1821, when there was no safety of life as the Turks kept slaughtering and enslaving. Most of the refugees were from the islands of Chios and Psara, but there were also many others from Thessalonike, Smyrna and Konstantinoupolis." - Demetrios Bikelas