Cargèse

Cargèse
Commune
The village and the harbour
Cargèse
Location within Corsica region  Cargèse
Coordinates: 42°08′10″N 8°35′42″E / 42.136°N 8.595°E / 42.136; 8.595Coordinates: 42°08′10″N 8°35′42″E / 42.136°N 8.595°E / 42.136; 8.595
Country	France
Region	Corsica
Department	Corse-du-Sud
Arrondissement	Ajaccio
Canton	Sevi-Sorru-Cinarca
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	François Garidacci
Area1	45.99 km2 (17.76 sq mi)
Population (2012)2	1,263
• Density	27/km2 (71/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	2A065 /20130
Elevation	0–705 m (0–2,313 ft) (avg. 60 m or 200 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Cargèse (Greek: Καργκέζε, Corsican: Carghjese) is a village and commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the west coast of the island of Corsica, 27 km north of Ajaccio. In the 2012 census the commune had a population of 1,263.

The village was established at the end of the 18th century by the descendants of a group of immigrants from the Mani Peninsula of the Greek Peloponnese who had first settled in Corsica a hundred years earlier. The economy of the village is now based around tourism. Cargèse is noted for having two 19th-century churches that face one another across a small valley overlooking the harbour and the sea. One was built by the descendants of the Greek immigrants and the other by native Corsicans.

In the second half of the 17th century there was a substantial emigration from the Mani Peninsula of the Greek Peloponnese. This was mainly driven by the wish to escape from the control of the Ottoman Turks but was also prompted by the lack of arable land and by the intense feuding between different clans.

In 1669 the Ottomans captured Crete, and then a year later in 1670, as part of a strategy to strengthen their control over the inner Mani, they built the fortress of Kelefa on the west side of the Mani peninsular. A number of the inhabitants of the small town of Oitylo (or Vitylo), which lay just 1.5 km west of the fortress, wished to emigrate to avoid the taxation imposed by the Ottomans and negotiated with the Republic of Genoa, which then controlled Corsica, for permission to settle on the island. The Republic offered them a choice of three locations in the Province of Vico and in October 1675 a group of 730 colonists departed from Oitylo and after a short stay in Genoa arrived in Corsica on March 14, 1676. They settled in Paomia, the site of several abandoned hamlets, which is situated 4 km east of the present village of Cargèse at around 450 m in altitude on a hillside overlooking the Gulf of Sagone. The location has similarities to that of Oitylo which also overlooks the sea. The settlers agreed to pledge loyalty to Genoa and to recognise the spiritual authority of the Pope but were allowed to retain the Greek rite as prescribed by the Holy See in Rome.