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Cargèse (Municipality, Corse-du-Sud, France)

by Ivan Sache

Flag of uncertain status

Presentation of Cargèse
Municipal flag (?) of Cargèse

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Presentation of Cargèse

The port city of Cargèse is located on the west coast of Corsica, on the northern shore of the Gulf of Sagone, some 50 km north of Ajaccio.
Cargèse is known for having two churches built opposite each other in the village, a Latin Catholic church, which is usual in France, and a Greek Catholic church, which is less usual, especially for such a small city.

The origin of the Greek community in Cargèse dates back to the XVIIth century. Greece was then under Ottoman rule, which was particularly severe in the region of Mani area (Laconia, south-east of Peloponnesis, near the ancient city of Sparta).
Some 800 Greeks from the city of Vitylo (aka Otylos) decided to emigrate. In 1663, His Grace Parthenios Calcandis, the Greek Catholic Bishop of Vitylo, started negotiations with the Republic of Genoa, then ruling Corsica. Genoa promised to grant the Greeks the territory of Paomia, whereas the Greeks promised to pay a small fee to Genoa and recognize the religious authority of the Pope. On 25 June 1665, Calcandis officially thanked the Genoese government for its offer. However, it took another ten years to organize the emigration of the Greeks to Corsica.

On 25 September 1675, after the return of a Greek commission that had visited Paomia, a contract was signed with captai