The Zaccaria family, also named Zaccaria di Castro, through their descent from a branch of the older
De Castro family from Gavi, which was further a branch of the
viscounts of Carmandino, dating back to 952, was a very prominent family in the Republic of Genoa, which following the
Treaty of Nymphaeum of 1261, were granted by Byzantine emperor
Michael VIII Palaiologos important trading rights in the
Empire of Nicaea, as a reward for the help received in the recovery of the
Byzantine Empire, and, more generally, in an anti-
Venetian function. In this context, the Zaccaria assumed the
lordship of Phocaea in 1275, first with Manuele then with his son Tedisio and, then, with
Benedetto I Zaccaria, who also held high posts as admiral of the Republic in Genoa, and admiral of the Kingdoms of France and of Castille. Phocaea was an important commercial port, with its hinterland rich in
alum, mineral at the time used for the tanning of leathers and fabrics. In Genoa, they established intense relationships with the most important families of the aristocracy through marriages: • Orietta Zaccaria married
Reinaldo Spinola • Velocchia Zaccaria married
Nicoloso Doria •
Benedetto II "Paleologo" Zaccaria married
Giacomina Spinola • Argentina Zaccaria married
Paolino Doria • Eliana Zaccaria married Andreolo
Cattaneo della Volta The Zaccaria controlled all the alum trade: from extraction to transport to its transformation and sale mainly in
Flanders. After alternating events that saw the Zaccaria lose, at the hands of the Venetians, and reconquer Phocaea and the island of
Chios, they also took possession of the island of
Samos. Benedetto II, known as
Paleologo, due to his mother's lineage, son of
Benedetto Zaccaria, on his death in 1307, assumed the title of
Lord of Phocaea and
Chios. He was succeeded in the title by his two sons,
Martino Zaccaria, who would achieve further titular recognizion as
King and Despot of Asia Minor from titular
Latin Emperor Phillip III, and Benedetto III, their lordship reconfirmed and increased with the dominion of
Samos,
Tenedos, Marmora,
Mytilene, and other territories. After various events, he married in 1311 with
Jacqueline de la Roche, the last heir of the
Dukes of Athens, receiving as a dowry the baronies of
Veligosti in
Messenia and
Damala on the
Argolid Peninsula, he died in
Smyrna in 1345. Upon his death, his eldest living son,
Centurione I Zaccaria, inherited his father's titles which bolstered his position in Latin Greece, having already inherited the title of
Baron of Damala from his elder brother,
Bartolomeo Zaccaria, upon his death in 1334. Centurione was married to the daughter of
Andronikos Asen, the son of
Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria and
Irene Palaiologina, daughter of
Michael VIII Palaiologos. In 1364, Centurione assumed the office of
Bailiff of Achaea, in which he ruled in the name of the absent princes until his death in the 1380s. The
Zaccaria de Damalà branch in Greece would end up in time outranking, outshining, and outliving the main Genoese branch of the Zaccaria family through their own merits and exploits, rising to become the last ruling dynasty of the
Principality of Achaea, and would later become the prominent
Damalas noble family in Chios and in the modern
Kingdom of Greece. ==See also==