French Philhellenic bronze mantle clock featuring Nikolaos Mitropoulos, the Greek War of Independence hero.

Philhellenism ‘the love of Greek culture’ and Philhellene ‘the admirer of Greeks and everything Greek’, from the Greek φίλος Philos ‘friend’ and Ελληνισμός Hellenism ‘Greek’, was an intellectual fashion prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron or Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The spread of awareness and appreciation of ancient Greek civilization that swept through Europe in the late 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries was one of the main reasons for the development of philhellenism.

The idea of the creation of a Greek state on the territories where Greek antiquity had thrived struck Europeans as fascinating, especially the educated and prosperous bourgeois classes.

The Greek Revolution was assisted from the very beginning by a vibrant wave of support from the most important European cities. Philhellenism, as such support was called, contributed considerably to the Greek cause.

The Greeks uprising against the Ottoman Empire constituted a source of inspiration throughout the 19^th century for European art and culture.