Kioutahis Pasha, head of strong Turkish forces, had invaded Attica in July 1826. After a series of clashes, he confined the much smaller Greeks to the Acropolis. On September 30, the guard of the Acropolis, Ioannis Gouras, was killed. Taking advantage of the fact, Kioutachis launched continuous attacks against the Greek defenders. The most serious took place on October 7, which developed into a fierce battle that lasted until the evening. It could also be called the "battle of the sewers", because of the detonations of the tunnels that the Greeks had built and filled with explosives. In this battle, Ioannis Makrygiannis, leader of the Greeks in the fortress of Serpetze (Conservatory of Herod of Atticus), was wounded three times.
"Good Christian came and told us secretly that the Turks will move a large force against my post and will also capture the arches from below Serpetze, where my post is... and enter the castle. That in that place are the mouths of the Turks' burrows and ours. We also had a pit ready against them and we didn't have the gunpowder in it. Then, after we found out about the movement of the Turks, we hurried (Northern Epirus Konstantinos) Lagoumitzis (Papakyriakou was his real name) to go and tie it up, to put the gunpowder. Lagoumitzis tells me "The hole is from-down-from the Turks and I will thunder when I tie it, and the Turks will hear me and I am in danger. If you guard me, he tells me, I go in, otherwise I don't, that I'm in danger", writes Ioannis Makrygiannis in his memoirs.
"Come on, let's do your work and I'll watch over you. And if I die, then you suffer." Lagoumitzis entered. I was awake so many nights, night and day, we were working and digging some ditches and I was also digging my dapia. I fell asleep. The Turks, hearing the sound of Lagoumitzis, gathered in a crowd and made a gyrusi and entered my dapia the oxo (that I had divided it in two and had an arch through which I passed. Then my people mingled with the Turks. I get up suddenly where I was bent over, I stuck to the dapia.
"The Turks shot me, I also shot them in the pile. They give me a rifle and wound me in the neck. Then I make my foot go down from the dapia, I fell. The place was cramped, people were suffocated by the oxo dapia. They stepped on me and passed and, the place being narrow, they destroyed me. They also saw the blood, they hoped that I was killed. After everyone had passed and only a few remained and they too entered the castle, then the Turks would also enter at the same time as them. Katzikostathis was inside, he left his post and left and went to the door of the castle from inside the dome and no one was fighting the Turks. Then I get up in a dazed state and beat a dozen people outside with the knife, I didn't let them in", continues Makrygiannis and continues.
"And I pulled the door where we had been open and we caught the war and fought with pistols. Neither the Turks could fire a rifle, nor could we, and we were fighting there for more than three hours. The Turks rushed in and wounded me again in the head, in the crown. Drain my body of blood. The people turn to take me inside then I say to them "Brothers, let us go inside and outside we will remain lost - we are, if we do not defeat the Turks and liberate Lagoumitzis. (That the mouths of the pits and Lagoumitzis were distinguished by the Turks).
"I tell them, if we don't resist and they take Lagoumitzis from us, the castle is lost and so are we. But let's get down to it. Then the brave Greeks fought like lions. A brave lad of Katzikoyannis, Dalamaga was his name, also came to us, and his Arabis and a dozen others of mine, and we caught up in the war and fought. As the evening wore on, many of the people came and more companions came. Turkish neon midatis (reinforcement) also came and rushed at us, entered the arches, bent them all over and opened muzzles and rifled into the castle.
"They rushed to take our dapi from us as well. There they killed Dalamaga and fifteen others. I understand myself too, back in the head very badly, the bandage of the fez went into the bones, into the window of the mind. I fell down dead. I was drawn in by the people then I felt. I said to them "Let them finish me here, so that I don't see the Turks alive and trample my post". Then the burned Greeks pitied me very much, fought bravely, drove the Turks out of our territory and put them all in the arches and dug into the castle.
"Then Lagoumitzis came out and came to us with the same situation. He told me that he should stay there, that I should stick to the castle and that the doctor would tie me up. I told him, “Slide in. If I die, the castle is not lost; if you die, it is lost." Our men tied up Serpetze and threw burning old clothes and grass into the arches. The smoke filled the Turks, and the whole army had their rifles ready. Towards evening they made to leave, our men fell into the pile and several Turks were killed. Such war and killing by topic did not happen another day. We also killed many officers and the good patriot Neroutzos-Metzelos.
"Cannons and bombs and grenades and submachine guns rained down. The war began at dawn, the night ended. They took me and took me back to the castle. Kourtalis the doctor did not want to operate on me, as I was heavy and drained all my blood. Then those who were inside the castle gave it in writing that he has no suspicion (that they were afraid that I would die and they told him that he killed me). Then he manipulated me and I was in danger of dying from the pains in the head and the - The war took place in the month of October, six days later where Gouras was lost", he concludes.