Dimitrios Ioanni Karytsiotis (1741-1819): The most famous ancestor of our village

Dimitrios Ioanni Karytsiotis (1741-1819) is regarded as a national benefactor. He is also the most famous ancestor of Karitsa whose family lineage is traced to our village. 

Born in 1841 in Agios Ioannis in northern Kynouria, he was one of six children of Ioannis and Kanella Triantafyllou who both hailed from Karitsa.

In Agios Ioannis, back then the kefalochori (chief village) of the district, there is a small area on the far slopes of Mount Kalogerovouni known as Karytsa. It is there, according to oral tradition, that the land tiller-shepherd family from our village first settled.

At about this time, the family may also have abandoned their old family name Triantafyllou in favour of Karytsiotis. It was quite common in those days for new settlers in a particular area to take on as their family name the name of their home village or place of ancestry.

Dimitrios, along with all his brothers and sisters, grew up shepherding sheep and goats as well as tilling the fields but the family barely eked out a living.

So in his mid-teenage years, at about the age of 15, Dimitrios left the family and travelled to Smyrna in search of better opportunities. Tradition has it that one day while helping his father plough a tilling field, an uncle happened to pass by on his way to Skala, the seaport of neighbouring Astros, to set sail for Smyrna and offered to take Dimitrios along.

The teenager was wildly excited about the idea, and without a second thought dropped the hoe and at once scampered off to find his tsarouchia (rustic shoes) and follow the uncle. In his haste, fearing that his uncle or father might change their mind, he managed to find only one tsarouchi and according to the tale that’s how he left; with just one shoe!

In Smyrna, Karytsiotis worked for a merchant, who valued his work ethic and honesty so much he made him a partner. In fact, he proposed that his daughter marry him but Karytsiotis, having other grander ambitions in mind, declined on the grounds that he was unworthy of a woman of higher education and standing.

Around 1772, aged about 30, Karytsiotis moved to Trieste which was then part of Austria and considered one of the most prosperous Mediterranean seaports as well as a centre of literature and music. The experience he had gained in Smyrna coupled with an inherent merchant outlook enabled him to excel, to acquire great wealth, but also a name highly respected in Trieste society.

Along with other fellow Greeks, he was instrumental in the founding of the Greek Orthodox Community of Trieste and served on its Governing Council.

Karytsiotis also took great interest in the civic affairs of the city and in 1812, by then in his early 70s, he was elected a municipal councillor of Trieste.

He resided in the most prestigious and upper-class part of the boulevard of Trieste, where he erected a majestic mansion, the Palazzo Carciotti. The coastal boulevard fronting the Palace was called, until the conquest of Trieste by the Italians, Via dei Greci and the beach Riva Cartsiotti.

A passionate supporter of the struggle against the Turkish domination of his homeland, Karytsiotis for months provided refuge in this mansion's attic to rescue Hierolochites, a military unit of the Greek revolution for national independence. In 1798, he also provided refuge for the national hero Rigas Feraios. Sadly Feraios was betrayed, arrested by the Austrians, and handed over to the Turks who strangled him and then disposed of his body in the Danube River.

Dimitrios, however, continued his support of the movement for national liberation and the reconstruction of his homeland. Heeding the call of Feraios for the establishment of schools in enslaved Greece, he immediately funded the founding of a demonstration Greek School in Agios Ioannis. The Karytsiotis School, as it became known, was a modern, state-of-the-art education institution in line with European standards. It was staffed by highly skilled educators and aimed to set the example of how education ought to develop in the new liberated Greece that he envisaged.

In 1805 Karytsiotis established a second school known as Mouseio Karytsioti located in neighbouring Astros.

Both Schools catered for boarding students from all over the surrounding area, even from the farthest parts of the Peloponnese and Roumeli. All expenses in the running of the schools were funded by Karytsiotis. This included books, teaching materials and aids, salaries of teachers, a resident doctor as well as meals for all.

Karytsiotis died, aged 78, in Trieste on 2 February 1819, just two years before the outbreak of the revolution for national independence in 1821.

His legacy however continued: In 1823, the famous Second National Assembly of Astros and the Kolokotronikos table took place at theMouseio Karytsioti on July 19, 1821, in honor of Dimitrios Ypsilantis. The school was destroyed in 1826 by Ibrahim Pasha but was later restored by relatives of Karytsiotis. In the following years, it became a school and in 1959 it became an archaeological museum. In 2008 it was closed due to earthquake damage. However, visitors can see the venue where the National Assembly took place, the courtyard with some findings from the Herod Atticus Mansion, and the two-story museum and its walls, which helped as a branch of the school.

See the family branch of Dimitrios Karytsiotis in Family Trees of Southern Parnon.

Family Trees of Southern Parnon are sponsored by the Pan-Laconian Society of South Australia “Leonidas” Inc. and the Karitsa Community of South Australia.