Spinalonga

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Island of Spinalonga

The island of Spinalonga (official name Kalidon) is located in the eastern part of Crete, near the town of Elounda. Harking back to the Venetian occupation, the name Spinalonga is Venetian, meaning "long thorn". The location is also the setting for Victoria Hislop's bestselling novel The Island and Werner Herzog's experimental short film Last Words.

1 Name Origin
2 History
3 Spinalonga Today
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Name Origin

According to Venetian documents, the name of the island came from the Greek expression "STIN ELOUNDA ( meaning "to Elounda"). The Venetians could not understand the expression so they familiarized it using their own language, and called it SPINA (thorn) LONGA (long), an expression that was also maintained by the locals. The Venetians were inspired for this expression by the name of an island near Venice called with the same name and which is today the island of Giudecca.

[edit] History

The Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli reports that Spinalonga was not always an island, but was linked with the adjacent peninsula of Kolokitha. He mentions that the Venetians cut down, in 1526, this part of the peninsula and thus they created the island. Because of its position the island was fortified from the earliest years, obviously in order to protect the entranceway of the port of Ancient Olous. Olous and accordingly the wider region were depopulated at the middle of the 7th century A.C because of the raids of the Arab pirates in the Mediterranean. Olous remained deserted till the middle of the 15th century when the Venetians begun to construct the salt-pans in the shallow and salty waters of the gulf. Consequently the region acquired a commercial interest and progressively it begun to be inhabited systematically. This fact in combination with the Turkish threat, particularly after the occupation of Constantinople in 1453, the use of gunpowder for warlike purposes and the continuous piratical raids forced the Venetians to fortify the island of Spinalonga.

So in 1578 they charged the engineer Genese Bressani of the planning of the fortifications. He created blockhouses at the highest points of the northern and southern side as well as a fortification ring along the coast of the island closing out any hostile disembarkation. In 1579 the General Previsor of Crete Luca Michiel put the foundation stone of the fortifications. There are two inscriptions that cite this event: one on the transom of the main gate of the castle and the other on the base of the rampart at the north side of the castle. In 1584 the Venetians realising that the coastal fortifications were easy to conquer by the enemies attacking from the vicinal hills, they decided to strengthen their defence by constructing new fortifications on the top of the hill. Thus the Venetian fire would have bigger throw rendering Spinalonga an impregnable sea fortress, one of the most important in the Mediterranean basin.

Following the Turkish occupation of Crete in 1669, only the fortresses of Gramvousa , of Souda and of Spinalonga remained into the Venetian hands for almost half a century. Many Christians in order to be saved from the persecution found refuge in these fortresses. In 1715 the Turks came to terms with the Venetians and occupied the island. At the end of the Turkish occupation the island constituted the refuge of many Ottoman families that feared the Christian reprisals. After the revolution of 1866 other Ottoman families came to the island from all the region of Mirabello. In 1881 the 1112 Ottomans formed their own community. Later, in 1903 the last Turks abandoned the island.

In 1579, the Venetians built a fortress on Spinalonga over the ruins of an acropolis. They kept control of the island until the Ottoman Empire took possession of it in 1715.

The island is notable for being one of the last active leper colonies in Europe, being used in this manner from 1903 until 1957. The last inhabitant, a priest, left in 1962. This was to maintain the religious tradition of the Greek Orthodox church, in which a buried person has to be commemorated 40 days, 6 months, 1, 3 and 5 years after their death. (Leper colonies that have survived Spinalonga include Tichilesti in Eastern Romania, Fontilles in Spain and Talsi in Latvia. As of 2002, one of the few remaining lazarettos in Europe is the one in Dubrovnik.^[1])

There are two entrances to Spinalonga, one being the lepers' entrance, a tunnel known as Dante's Gate. This was so named because the patients did not know what was going to happen to them once they arrived. However, once on the island they received food, water, medical attention and social security payments. Previously, such amenities had been unavailable to Crete's leprosy patients, as they mostly lived in the area's caves, away from civilization.

[edit] Spinalonga Today

Today, the unoccupied island is one of the main tourist attractions in Crete. In addition to the abandoned leper colony and the fortress, Spinalonga is known for its small pebble beaches. The island can easily be accessed from Elounda and Agios Nikolaos. Tourist boats depart from both towns on a daily basis. There is no accommodation on Spinalonga, meaning all tours last only a few hours. Boat trips from Elounda take approximately fifteen minutes while trips departing Agios Nikolaos can take upwards of one hour.

The book "Island of the Damned" by Victor Zorba - a local expert on the island - is still in print. It relates the true story of the leper colony and, as the author met with the last governor of the colony, contains many exclusive photos and stories of the German occupation.

The book "The Island" by Victoria Hislop is set on Spinalonga and shares the fictional story of a family's ties to the leper colony.