A chapter of Cavallini family history, their coming to Kythera & the link to L. Hearn

Captain Angelo Cavallini* captained a vessel running from Venice (his home town) to Constantinople and Smyrna. On one of his journeys he fell sick and the ship made dock at Kythera for him to disembark and take some weeks on the island to recover. Returning to Venice, he found himself so captivated by the island that he decided to return and make it his home. He married an Italian from the island by the name of Rosa and bought the well known Cavallini house in Avlemonas that was built in 1827, and still retains the details of building faintly visible in the mortar. Old contracts show that Angelo became the Greek ambassador to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After his death his 5-6 children inherited his estate and sold it amongst themselves. His oldest son, Giannis, who is buried in Kapsali by the church of St. Spiridon, became the vice consul to the Hungarian Empire and an agent of Lloyds, he was a lawyer by trade and one of the Kytherian aristocracy, and in his youth he met Rosa Kassimati, mother of Levkadios Hearn, who, having been rejected by Hearn’s father, returned to her homeland. He married Rosa, who must truly have been an exceptional woman for her time, and she bore him three children: Angelo, Katina and Ziza, who all lived the life of the true aristocracy, indeed Angelo was one of the first Greeks to own indoor plants!

* Sometimes spelt Kavalini, Cavalinis or Cavalenes.