Gregorios Maraslis

Gregorios Maraslis was a foreign-born Greek national benefactor and long-term mayor of Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine).

Maraslis was born in 1831 in Odessa, to a Greek family that hailed from Mara, near Philippoupolis, Eastern Rumelia (now Plovdiv, Bulgaria). He studied in Paris, France and returned to Odessa where he became a civil servant and later (1878) Mayor of Odessa. In his capacity as mayor, Maraslis started a public works program that saw hospitals, a theatre, a new railway station, roads and schools built in Odessa, often contributing to the works from his own funds.

Besides, Odessa, Maraslis also donated substantial sums of money for works in Athens, Thessaloniki, Corfu, Constantinople, Philippoupolis and elsewhere.

Maraslis died in 1907 and was buried in Odessa.