Cargèse

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 42°08′10″N 8°35′43″E / 42.1361111111, 8.59527777778

Administration
Commune of Cargèse
Location

Country	France
Region	Corsica
Department	Corse-du-Sud
Arrondissement	Ajaccio
Canton	Deux-Sevi
Statistics
Elevation	0 m–705 m (avg. 60 m)
Land area^¹	45.99 km²
Population^² (1999)	982
- Density	21/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	2A065/ 20130
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Cargèse (Corsican: Carghjese) is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica.

The Cargèse region of Corsica has been home to many civilizations through out the centuries. Its geographical position and the radiance of its natural beauty has made an innondation of invaders call this place home. Since the beginnings of recorded history the island has been forced to submit its shores to invaders which the sea relentlessly washes up, challenging Corsica to persevere in the face of adversity with a will as strong as the granite rock from which the island was hewn.

[edit] Origins

Pre-neolithic humans inhabited this region since 7000 - 6000 B.C., followed by the Iberians, then the people of Liguria and then the Phoenicians. The origins of Greeks in the region goes back to 565 BC when the Phocaean founded the city of Aleria. They in turn were followed by the Greeks of Syracuse. Taking much advantage of the richness and diversity of this international metropolis, they created the first commercial syndicate in Corsica. This migration was followed by the Romans, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Franks, the Moors and the Genoese.

[edit] Corsican Maniots

Corsican Maniots are descendants of Maniots, who migrated to the Corsican region during the 400 year Ottoman rule over Greece. To this day the Cargèse region of Corsica is referred to as Cargèse la Grecque (Cargèse, the Greek). [1] The origins of the Greek Maniots community in Corsica dates back to the 17th century, when Greece was then under Ottoman Turk rule and there was a flow of Greek emigration from the Ottoman Empire towards countries in Western Europe. Particularly severe was Turkish rule towards the Maniots, some of the most resilient mountain clans throughout the Ottoman Empire, in the region of the Mani area, Laconia, south-east of Peloponnese, near the ancient city of Sparta. Adding to the tensions in the Mani region was long vendettas between some of the more powerful Maniots families which included; the Stefanopoulos family (descentants of Comnene Dynasty from the Empire of Trebizond, kin to the Kalomeros).[2][3]), the Mavromichalis, the Mourtzinos (claim descent from the Palaeologus Dynasty) and the Yatrianon, also know as Yatrians (the Medici Family is descended from them). Hundreds of Greeks decided to emigrate and in 1663 his Grace Parthenios Calcandis, the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Oitylo, negotiated with the Republic of Genoa, then ruling Corsica, for asylum. The Genoan administration promised to grant the Greeks the territory of Paomia for a small fee to Genoa and to recognize the religious authority of the Pope. On June 25, 1665 the Genoa government granted the request of the Greeks but it took another ten years for the migration to take place. The Greek names of the emigrants were Italianized before they left for Corsica: for instance, Papadakis was changed to Papadacci. In five years the colonists built a village, Paomia where they were engaged in agriculture and weavery. Within one year, the Greeks built the five hamlets of Pancone, Corone, Rondolini, Salici and Monte Rosso, transformed the area in one of the wealthiest agricultural lands in Corsica and lived in peace with their Corsican neighbours. When the Maniots refused to help the Corsicans in a local uprising against the Genoa clashes between the two began, they were forced to leave their village and move to another one, to Aiaccio. After Corsica was sold to France, the Maniots returned to their original area and George Stephanopoli, nicknamed Capitan Giorgio, who was a maternal relative of Laure Junot, duchess d'Abrantès,[4] accepted on behalf of the Maniots, France's offer to settle in the new village of Cargese, where they have lived since then alongside their Corsican neighbors.

The Greek language appears to have been perpetuated in patois form until the mid-twentieth century. Occasional Greek Orthodox services take place in one of the commune's two main churches.