Chance encounter with Alexander

It is quite fascinating to have those surprise encounters with Alexander. He may just pop up at a street corner or at a turn of the road. But you cannot miss noticing him.

One such unexpected meeting happened in Edessa, Northern Greece when I drove out of town. I had to cross a small piazza that was crammed with parked cars and in a flash his equestrian statue appeared in front of me. I stopped there and then, leaving my vehicle right in front of a hotel. The valet walked up to me, of course, pointing out that I was obstructing the entrance. I explained that I only wanted to take a picture of Alexander. He looked skeptical but allowed me to shoot my photographs.

Alexander stood on a high plinth, comfortably seated on his Bucephalus. He was holding a torch, his eyes fixed on the horizon. It was a bronze rendition of young Alexander, from the time he was still in Macedonia. Beautiful!

Another surprise encounter was in Naples, Italy. Two bronze statues of Alexander and Bucephalus stood on either side of a back entrance to the Royal Palace. The respective plinths carried an inscription in Latin.

The story goes that a certain Alexandra is to marry Tsar Nicolas the next day to become his Tsarina. During the Tsar’s visit in 1846, he had the pleasure of giving his friend Ferdinand of Bourbon, Emperor of Naples and Sicily, a copy of a statue from St Petersburg. It represents an “unbeatable soldier”. We could assume that there was no need to explain who this unbeatable soldier was. But, on the other hand, maybe the Russians no longer knew that this statue depicted Alexander the Great? Who knows!

Useless to say that these unexpected meetings always make my day!