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.
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