Spinalonga Island, Crete - Elounta / Elouda / Elounda / Plaka links - Kalidon

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Spinalonga ........... an island of memories and tragedy.

The tiny island lies just off the northern coast of Crete and at the mouth of Elounda's bay, which is created by the Spinalonga peninsula. Famously, the ruins of the Venetian fortress dominate any approach to the island. the Venetians acquired Crete, from the Byzantine Empire, after the successful sacking of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade in the very early 1200s. The Venetians created a commercial power-base on Crete which endured for 4 centuries, despite more than a dozen major uprisings against their rule. The threat of invasion, from an increasingly strong Ottoman Empire, prompted the Venetians to construct the defensive fortresses which can still be seen today. Spinalonga's, one of the strongest on Crete, was built to protect the entrance to the Gulf and datesfrom 1579. It couldn't save Crete itself, which finally fell to the invading Turkish troops of the Ottoman Empire in 1669, but the fortress of Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands, as a haven for Christians fleeing before the invading Turks, until 1715 but in that year it was handed over to the Turks who remained there until 1903 when they, in their turn, were forced to leave the island.

The virtually abandoned island of Spinalonga entered upon the next phase of her sad history when it was chosen as the location for a leper colony ............ a place to which the sick and maimed were transported and left to fend for themselves with little if any hope of again leaving the island - ever. It remained, as such, for the first half of the century until the last leper left in 1957, and it was left with the dubious distinction of being the last leper colony in Europe.At the turn of the century leprosy was a dreaded disease in Crete and the government of the time decided that the tiny, deserted island, was the ideal spot for a colony .......... not too far for supplies to be ferried across but far enough to prevent the spread of the disease on Crete. Once on the island the sufferers were expected to accommodate themselves as best they could in the old buildings that had been abandoned when the Turks were ejected. The lepers were expected to make their lives as best they could, in their island isolation, with little help from anyone else. Family and visits were not allowed, for fear of contagion. As the years passed things did begin to improve, a little, as a small number of doctors, priests and nuns arrived on the island to try to alleviate the suffering of the inhabitants. The years of German occupation of Crete during the Second World War were years of deprivation, starvation and lack of medical supplies ......... the lepers of Spinalonga were largely ignored and left to barely subsist

It is now possible to visit the island, by boat, from Elounda, Plaka or Agios Nikolaos. When the boat docks the visitor enters the ruined village through a long, narrow tunnel. One can go directly into the village or follow the path around the island and past the now ruined, but still formidable, fortress and into the remains of the village itself. Doors hang from broken hinges; roofs are lost and dwellings open to the elements. But the layout of the village, the homes, the streets, the church, the burial place etc., are all still there to be discovered. It is an island of despair and unhappiness but also of stoicism and fortitude.