Venetsanakis-Kapetanakis’ Tower Hose

Kastania was under siege from the 9th to the 19th of July 1780, with the purpose of annihilating the chief klepht insurgents, Panagiotaros Venetsanakis and Konstantis Kolokotronis.

Ottoman Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha, Mavrogenis, and Ali Bey, with an army of 14,000 men, burnt the villages of Agios NIkolaos and Selegoudi and set up camp an hour away from the Towers of Kastania. They asked Panagiotaros and Kolokotronis to negotiate and come to an agreement, but the request was not accepted by the revolutionaries, and so the Ottoman Turks started the siege. For 10 days canons, bomb launchers and thousands of guns fired mercilessly. The towers were strong and those inside resisted bravely. As ammunition started to run out and with no other help in sight, they decide to leave the tower on the night of 19 July 1780.

The Maniots were far outnumbered by the Ottoman Turks who killed Panagiotaros Venetansakis and his elderly father in an appalling manner, severing their limbs. Konstantis Kolokotronis was seriously injured and hid in the forest, but the Tourkobardouniots found him, slaughtered him, and threw his head off a cliff. His body was found and buried in Kyveleia, Mani.