The Cargese Family - the Greek speakers of Corsica

[catgeorge]

[catgeorge]

How did they get there?

When the Turkish advance finally reached the Mani in 1460, the Maniates put aside their internal riffs to meet their common enemy in battle. The Maniotes put up fierce passionate resistance and courageously fought off the invaders in what was a rather loosely formed cooallition of clan warriors but of what would become known as klefts, "The freedom fighters of Mani". They would not settle for concessions with the Turks in their homeland and they made it their purpose to live in defiance of the Turks and constantly track, harass and confront any Turkish movement through the Peleponese and Mani. A word of mention is due here, there were some other groups within Greece that lived as klefts and were constantly at war with the Turks. The Souliotes from Souli, the courageous mountain fighters in the Northwest of mainland Greece defied the Ali Pasha from Ioaninna and successfully fought off their advances until 1803 when the mounted a major assault. These Greeks would continue to resist and would live in a constant state of war with the Ottomans for the next 380 years.

They constantly held out hope for their "Christian" Europeans to aid them in their struggle against the "Powerful Ottoman Empire" and along the way forged alliances with the "Franks", the "Venetians" and the "Russians" to wage war against the Turks. These allies not only empathized with the Greeks but saw the strategic importance of their peninsula as a base to secure their trade routes to the East. Due to the heavy traffic of merchant vessels sailing by the Mani in order to enter the Aegean and cross to Turkey, the Maniates reverted to Piracy. During the last two hundred years before 1800 Maniate piracy activity was in full swing. Piracy became one of the main means of survival, and the Maniates were some of the most daring and feared Pirates. They began building their own boats with the booty and money they captured, and their skills as seamen and pirates earned them a reputation for able bodied seamen and mercenaries. One the more famous Maniote pirates came from Oitylo. The pirate Limberakis Gerakaris resorted to piracy and became notorious. One of the more common tactics (of all pirates) was to capture prisoners and sell them into slavery or ransom them back. Oitylo became a famous slave market and was referred to as "Grand Algiers". It is hard to imagine that the sleepy little villages of Oitylo and kelefa had such a past, and that they were the main epicenters of population in the 16 and 1700s. Since the Turks were unable to subdue the population they implemented a way to designate a Maniot a representative to the Sultan. They called this person a "Bey" or prince. In 1667 Limberakis Gerakaris was captured at sea and jailed for piracy by the Turks. The Turks had ended their last war with the Venetians (1645-1665) and were looking to regain control over the Mani. They selected Kelefa hill, as a place to build a castle, because of several reasons. It was strategically positioned over Oitylo bay, home port for the Maniates piracy activity that flourished and the lucrative trade route it created that came right through there. Also Gerakaris who is pleading for his life is a powerful kapetan back in Oitylo but he is in the hands of the Turks! The Turks wanted to control this area of high piracy activity and vibrant clans that acted free and independent. So in order to gain his freedom the Turks would name Gerakaris the "Bey of Mani" in return that he agreed to return to the Mani gloriously as their leader and put down any rebellion that might ensue challenging him. He was already the most notorious and successful lead pirate of the time and the support of the Turks enabled him to pursue his vendetta against the Stephanopoli clan which after he captured and executed 35 of the Stephanopoli in a sweeping raid, and the Turkish garrison guns pointing at Oitylo and Kelefa, several families, overwhelmed and tired of the blood thirsty feuding negotiated a deal with the Venetians to emigrate with 800 family members from Oitylo to Corsica, forming the Cargese community.

The Cargese community

[Mens-Sarda]

The story continues :

When in 1730 the island of Corsica rebelled against Genova, the Greeks refused to join the rebellion, and their village was burnt by Corsican rebels; the Greeks managed to save their families in time, they found shelter in Ajaccio where they remained for 50 years. Some families moved to Spain and to the Balearic islands, others began negotiations to move to nearby Sardinia. In 1746 about 50 Greek families of Cargese / Carghjese migrated to Sardinia where they obtained from Carlo Emanuele III territories near the Villa of San Cristoforo of Montresta to build their settlement. So they founded Montresta "the Greek", which had an equally tormented history because of the hostility of the inhabitants of Bosa towards the Greek intruders which occupied their lands, so much that in 1830 only 2 Greeks remained alive. There is a mistery behind the disappearance of the Greek community, because there are no fonts about what happened, it's probable that during the years they were gradually killed in a spiral of crossed vendettas. Nowadays Montresta is a simple, little and very isolated Sardinian village, where nothing of Greek remains.
Instead in Corsica in the village of Cargese / Carghjese the Greek language continued to be spoken until late 70s, nowadays is considered officially extinct, however the inhabitants continue the Greek traditions and also the church of Cargese / Carghjese continues to celebrate using the Orthodox liturgy.


Localization of Cargese / Carghjese, along the arduous western coast



Localization of Montresta, about 250-300km south of Cargese / Carghjese, in an isolated area inside north-western Sardinia, it's the only village within the range of about 15-20km