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The history of the name 'Spinalonga' is in itself subject to
conjecture but it is widely accepted that its roots lie somewhere
in the Olous, Olondi, Elounda location and the words meaning long
and thorn. Spinalonga is actually the name of the sizeable
but slender peninsula and on maps the small island is identifiable
by the name Kalidon.
Acquired from the Byzantine Empire at the start of the thirteenth
century Spinalonga was to become a crucial part of the Venetian
powerbase on Crete for the next four centuries. Huge fortifications
still dominate this tiny but strategically important dot on the
map.
Such were the natural isolation and manmade defences of this
tiny island that it managed to hold out against the Ottoman Empire
for almost fifty years (from 1669 to 1715) after the fall of the
rest of Crete into Turkish hands. From 1715 until the turn of
the twentieth century it was held by the occupying Ottomans and
populated by civilians.
The island is probably best known to the wider world for its
twentieth century role as an isolated community of leprosy sufferers,
a function that it fulfilled from 1903 up until 1957. This, however,
is only one phase of a lengthy and varied history. Many of Spinalonga's
most striking features, the massive fortifications, date back
five centuries or more to the Venetian occupation. In beginning
to understand the past and significance of Spinalonga at times,
it is important to appreciate its geographic position in relation
to the rest of Crete's north east coastline.
If you use the Spinalonga
satellite map and zoom out you can easily tell how crucial
a strategic position the island occupies. Its location guards
the entrance to the shallow and relatively sheltered bay on which
Plaka and Schisma (Elounda 'town centre') sit. Along with 'Big'
Spinalonga, or Spinalonga peninsula, it marks the edge of a shelf
where the land falls away into the deep waters of north Mirabello
bay. With major walls, fortifications, cannon emplacements and
battlements the Venetians were able to command naval control over
any ships passing to the north or south of Spinalonga into these
shallow waters. The bay it protects has two main residential settlements
on its shores. Plaka sits directly opposite Spinalonga and Elounda,
a far more populous area, is at the southern end of the bay. At
the far southern end of the bay the small causeway is bisected
by a narrow canal suitable only for open fishing boats. All large
commercial and trip boats must enter and exit the bay at the northern
entrance, past Spinalonga. Mirabello Bay, into which the canal
gives access, is a large bay on the north east coast of Crete.
Its sweeping curved coastline almost forms two thirds of a circle
and Mirabello itself offers safe haven to large ships in extreme
weather even today.
Crete's earliest cities date back over four thousand years to
the early Minoans and it is impossible that they wouldn't have
utilised the parts of Spinalona peninsula and island that were
above the waves back then to their greatest advantage. Constant
seismic activity in the Aegean has ensured that the features visible
today would not have been familiar to the first inhabitants of
Crete
Although there are no visible Minoan or Dorian remains on the
island, the wider Spinalonga area would have been of great strategic
importance to even the earliest settlers on Crete. By the third
century bc the city of Olous, now buried under the silt and seas
south of the causeway, had become a regional powerhouse with miltaristic
tendencies akin to those of its near neighbours Lato and Oxa,
all three being frequently involved in local struggles, alliances
and enmities. Ruins of an ancient acropolis from this period are
purported to lie under the huge Venetian fortifications.
The earliest major structures visible on the island today are
still its most striking and substantial. During the lengthy Venetian
occupation of Crete huge fortifications were built at different
levels on Spinalonga. Huge stone battlements and gun emplacements
ensured total control of the waters giving access to the tiny
bay. High walls and natural features turned the island into an
impenetrable fortress, home to the troops that defended it.
The next wave of inhabitants came during the Ottoman occupation
and it is the shops and residences from this period that form
the majority of the buildings on the west coast which is somewhat
sheltered, facing across to Plaka. The east side of the island
has few structures except fortifications and a chapel and is open
to the winds of the Aegean sea.
By the twentieth century many of the old Ottoman buildings had
been reopened to house the region's inhabitants sufferering from
leprosy. Houses and structures that were hundreds of years old
had an arrest placed on their decline as those exiled to the island
forged a dignified community out of shared affliction in a decaying
place. Although none would have chosen to be confined in such
a tiny place village life did continue and the twentieth century's
technology reached across the water. Modern dormitories were built
during this period; these are the large concrete buildings to
the north of the church and Ottoman period buildings. For the
first time visitor probably one of the most poignant sections
of a circuit of the island is right at the very end. Just before
descending from the walls back down to the landing stage the visitor
has to pass the twentieth century cemetery, final resting place
of many sufferers of the disease. Its views to the open sea may
be glorious on a summer afternoon, but only if you are free to
leave.
The island of Spinalonga has been uninhabited since 1962 when
the last priest had remembered the fifth annivesary of the last
resident death and burial on the island in 1957.
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Featured Crete & Greece Sites
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Holidays
at the Blue Palace Resort opposite Spinalonga
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