The Merchant Academy in Argostoli was founded in 1966 and has been operating since 1975 as a Merchant Navy School. Its facilities are on an area of ​​18 acres, which was donated by benefactor Vergotis, so the school is called “Vergotios”. Studies include theoretical and practical part as well as paid work. Graduates can work as captains, ship engineers, port workers, and generally employed in shipping.

The modern Merchant Academy building, reminiscent of a ship deck, has been built at the side where the Great Maitland Square, or the Metela, as the locals called it, which was so named by the statue of Thomas Maitland, famous for his cruelty, who was there. It is remarkable that this statue was the first sculpture made by Greeks to be used as a public monument in modern Greece. After the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece on 21 May 1864, the inhabitants planted the tree of freedom there and renamed it to Union Square. In this square a number of social and sporting events were hosted (Sunday ride, gymnastic demonstrations, football matches, etc.) until its abolition with the construction of the new building. As for the Maitland statue, he rests on the Adriatic seabed, as the ship that transported him to Italy during the Second World War was torpedoed.

A little further to the west of Union Square, where you will meet the “Old Plaka” restaurant today, there were barracks and at the end of the coastal road up there was a hospital. Even further to the west, there was Lazareto, the sanctuary that was founded in 1705. It was a square building with turrets, rooms, sheds and a church and was especially used to deal with plague epidemics that plagued across Europe. There, in 1823, the philhellene poet Lord Byron disembarked on his way to rebellious Greece, as it was the first building to see as he entered by sea in the gulf of Argostoli. Lazareto ceased to be used and abandoned during the 19th century and was demolished around 1900.