One of such a self-made wealthy merchants was Theodoros Dimitriou who together with his wife Afrati left their town at 1790 for Zagreb, then an Austrian city. He managed to earn a significant fortune by trading a variety of goods which helped them to give a proper education to their children. Of them, Dimitrios destined to become a famous and celebrated personality for his role as a leading figure in the movement for the national awakening of the Croatian people (then under Austro-Hungarian rule) as a national writer, poet, dramatist and political activist. Recognized as one of the most learned people of his time,Croatian Writers in the Byronic Mould, I Živančević-Sekeruš – The Modern Language Review, 1992 – JSTOR he was the first who imposed the Croatian language in the local literacy, he created the National Croatian Theater in Zagreb and became famous for his political activism for the Croatian national revival through his key role in many Croatian patriotic pamphlets at the time. Demeter's award for drama which established 35 years after his death (1872) stood until nowadays and his bust decorates the yard of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb.
