Caradja

Caradja, Karadja or Caragea (also known as Caratzas and Karatzas, Greek: Καρατζάς) is a princely house of Byzantine and Phanariote Greek origins, present as dignitaries in the Ottoman Empire, and established as hospodars and boyars in the Danubian Principalities from the late 16th century. The princely lineage remains present in Germany.

The princely House of Caradja originated in the Byzantine Empire, probably in the capital Constantinople. The earliest mentions of the family's history are present in historian Anna Komnene's Alexiad. In 1091, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos sent Argyros Karatzas to Dalmatia, and appointed him doux of Dyrrhachium and of Philippopolis in 1094. In the year 1453, during events surrounding the Fall of Constantinople, Eusthatios Karadja was mentioned as the intermediary between Patriarch Gennadius II Scholarius and Sultan Mehmed II.

In 1591, a Constantin Caradja assigned the rank of Grand Postelnic in Moldavia, and was therefore the first member of the family to be attested in one of the two principalities. Beginning with this generation, it is possible to reconstruct the family's genealogy completely. Constantin's nephew, the Postelnic Jean Karadja, was present in Wallachia, where he founded the monastery in Slobozia, as well as in Moldavia, where he restored the Saint Sava Church in Iaşi (1625).

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