Oítylo

Oitylo, also known as Vitylo, stands above a bay on the western side of the Mani peninsula in southern Greece. Its setting combined access to the sea with the rugged terrain of the interior. The Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi described the settlement around 1670 as a place of towers and defensible stone houses. In that decade Ottoman authorities built the fortress of Kelefa nearby as they sought to strengthen their hold over Mani. Some inhabitants of Oitylo negotiated with the Republic of Genoa to settle on Corsica, then under Genoese rule. They left Mani in 1675 and established a community at Paomia in 1676. The migration linked this corner of the Peloponnese to the wider Mediterranean, while the families carried their Greek language and religious traditions to their new home.