Panagiotaros Venetzanakis (1742 – 1780)

Panagiotaros Venetzanakis (1742 – 1780)

From the village of Kastania on the Mani peninsula in the southern Peloponnese, he was one of the most prominent and feared Greek klephts and warriors of the 18th century.

A descendant of the prominent Venetzanakis family from Mani, he was a close ally and personal friend of fellow klepht Konstantinos Kolokotronis, father of Greek Revolutionary Hero Theodoros.

Venetzanakis was also a veteran of the Greek Revolution of 1770, otherwise known as the Orlov Revolt, which was concentrated in the Peloponnese.

Panagiotaros Venetzanakis fell heroically, at the end of a 2 week stand with 150 fellow Greek fighters, against a force of 15,000 Ottoman troops.

Following his death, his father was captured and brutally mutilated by the Turks, before being hanged from the mast of a ship docked at the port of Gytheio.

While Panagiotaros’ 2 young children were captured and taken by the Turks to Constantinople, where they were forcibly converted to Islam and raised as Ottoman soldiers.