The
Marchese Marco Venieri was
given command of the Greek
island of
Kythera
in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade. He claimed a family
descent from
Aphrodite under her other
name,
Venus.
The
Venieri gallantly but vainly defended the island of Paros
against the
against the massive onslaght of the Ottoman admiral Barbarossa in 1537.The ruins of their
castle are still to be seen on Paros' hill of Kephalos.
In 1571,
the year of the great naval battle in
Nafpaktos
(the Battle of Lepanto
, October 7, 1571), the Venieri donated a number of galleons to the western allies.
Although
the main branch of the family lived in Crete
, it held
control of Kythera until the Campoformio Convention of 1797.
The family
spread over the Aegean
region,
holding power in many other islands including Mykonos
.
One of his descendants is the Greek artist
Lydia Venieri the Greek-Canadian architect
Constantine Venieris and the
Greek actress of late '80s
Irene
Venieri
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