Karpathos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karpathos (Greek: Κάρπαθος, Turkish: Kerpe, Italian: Scarpanto, Latin: Carpathus; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea.
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[edit] Geography
The island is located about 29.4 miles south-west of Rhodes, in that part of the Mediterranean which was called, after it, the "Carpathian Sea" (Carpathium Mare).
Karpathos is comprised of 10 villages. All villages preserve intensively the traditional style of the island. In the South East of the island you can find Pigadia (Officially: Karpathos City), capital and main port of the island. The capital is surrounded by the villages of Menetes, Arkasa, Aperi, Volada, Othos, and Piles. In the North one can find Mesochori, Spoa and Olympos the last village in the North of the island, of great folkloric and architectural interest. There are two ports in the island; one is in the town of Karpathos and the other in the north of the island next to Olymbos named Diafani. The island's airport, with its relatively large runway, is located on the south side (Afiartis area)
Karpathos is connected to neighboring islands and to the mainland via ferries and airplanes. The ferries provide transport to and from Peiraias (via Crete and Rhodes). Scheduled domestic flights connect the island with Rhodes, Kasos, Crete and Athens daily. Additionally, charter flights from various European cities are frequently scheduled during the high season (April through October).
[edit] Population
The latest estimate of the island's permanent population is around 6000 people. This number more than doubles in the summer months as many Karpathian expatriates with their families come to the island for their vacation. Also, taking into consideration the number of tourists that visit, there can be up to 20,000 people on the island during the summer months.
[edit] History
War and conquest define Karpathos' history. Karpathians fought with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC and lost their independence to Rhodes in 400 BC. In 42 BC the island fell to Rome. In the following centuries, Karpathos was ruled in turn by the Arabs, the Genovese pirate Moresco, the Venetians, and the Ottoman Empire. It was both in ancient and medieval times closely connected with Rhodes; it was held by noble families under Venetian suzerainty, notably the Cornaro from 1306 to 1540, when it finally passed into the possession of the Turks. From its remote position Karpathos has preserved many peculiarities of dress, customs and dialect, the last resembling those of Crete and Cyprus. Ottoman rule ended when the Italians conquered the island, together with the whole Dodecanese, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. Karpathos even found itself ruled by the Italians years before the end of World War II. Karpathos became Greek teritorry in 1948. Its current name is mentioned, with a slight shift of one letter, in Homer's Iliad as Krapathos (Οι δ'αρα Νίσυρον τ'είχον Κράπαθον τε Κάσον τε).
Despite such a scattered past, the last half-century has been pivotal in charactering the island. A war-ravaged economy sent many a Karpathian to the U.S. eastern seaboard cities. Karpathos today has a significant Greek-American constituency who have returned to their beloved island and invested heavily. As a result, Pigadia and other towns successfully infuse modern elements into a traditional setting. In the mountains north, a world unto itself, residents preserve tradition almost religiously.
[edit] Art and Culture
Karpathos is very conservative, both in attitude and culturally. This entails that many arts lost in the rest of Greece, or only shown as part of the usual folklore exhibitions, are alive and well on the island.
The major art forms are music and poetry or a combination of both called mantinades. A mantinada consists of a poem formed with 15-syllable verses to form rhyming couplets. Ethnologists also claim that a simple form of dance called pano horo is an original Karpathian variation of the Sirtos (circle dance).
The traditional musical instruments are lauto (lute), lyra (lyre) and tsambouna (a primitive version of the bagpipe) as on other Dodecanese Islands in different combinations.
Local fine arts are viewed with suspicion by locals who don't understand the foreigners amazement and pilgrimages to exhibitions of local artists.
Known far over the borders of Karpathos are Minás Vlahos and Jannis Hapsis. They have been joined by the Austrian painter and sculptor Jani Jan J. who opened an art school in Arkasa recently.
Other artists “imported” to the island are the British writer Roger Jinkinson (Tales from a Greek Island, September 2005 ISBN 1-84327-997-5 ), the American writer and editor Roberta Beach Jacobson and the German writer and photographer Alf B. Meier.
[edit] External links
| Municipalities and communities of the Dodecanese Prefecture |
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| Afantou • Archangelos • Astypalaia • Attavyros • Chalki • Dikaio • Ialysos • Irakleides • Kallithea • Kalymnos • Kameiros • Karpathos • Kasos • Kos • Leipsoi • Leros • Lindos • Megisti/Kastelorizo • Nisyros • Patmos • Petaloudes • Rhodes • South Rhodes • Symi • Tilos |
| Agathonisi • Olympos |
