Spinalong fortress. Spinalonga: Leper Island turned tourist paradise

In 1905, the small island of Spinalonga, not far from the fashionable resort of Crete, Elounda, was turned into an island of lepers by the authorities of the island. All patients with a terrible disease, leprosy, leprosy, from which only death could save, were taken there.

Leprosy gradually devoured the human body, perverted the human

Quick reference:Leprosy (Hansen's disease, outdated names - prokaaza, Greek elephantism, Arabic leprosy, eastern leprosy, Phoenician disease, mournful disease, Crimea, lazy death, St. peripheral nervous system, sometimes the anterior chamber of the eye, upper respiratory tract above the larynx, testicles, as well as hands and feet. appearance, making no distinction between young and old, beautiful and ugly. At first, the soul slowly died - neighbors, friends, family turned away from lepers, then the body died - painfully and terribly. A few years ago, the TV series The Island was broadcast on Greek television, telling the story of those who lived and died on Spinalonga, but also about those who, in spite of everything, loved, gave birth to children and dreamed of a life that their descendants would live instead of them.

The mechanism of transmission of infection has not yet been precisely established. Over the past decade, the number of patients with leprosy worldwide has decreased from 10-12 million to 1.8 million. Basically, leprosy is common in tropical countries, but the disease is still widespread in parts of Brazil, South Asia (India, Nepal), East Africa(Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique) and the Western Pacific.

At the beginning of the twentieth century in Crete, the inhabitants of places echka Plaka encountered leprosy, about which in the book of Nikos Kazantzakis "The Man of God" Francis of Assisi, saint catholic church, spoke about his worst nightmare:

“I can't stand lepers, I'm afraid to even look at them. As soon as I hear the ringing of the bells they carry so that passers-by have time to bury themselves, I lose consciousness.
Most of us do not even know what leprosy is, but in Crete stories about leprosy are still in vogue, and mothers still scare their restless children with them to this day. And the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the Cretans exiled their lepers, has long since become an archaeological site, a Mediterranean paradise visited annually by 300,000 tourists!
You can get to Spinalong on a tourist boat that sails hourly from Ai-Nikolaos, Elounda and Plaka: after all former Island lepers lies in the blue sea just 800 meters from the picturesque coast of Crete. Once on his boat from Plaka, a boatman transported lepers and food there - the real Charon, delivering the dead to underworld death on the icy waters of the river Styx. Statistics for 2009 show that in last years the island is visited daily by 1200-1500 tourists, and that Spinalonga is the second most popular and visited (after the Palace of Knossos) archaeological site of Crete! Spinalonga lies at the entrance to the bay of Merabela in Lasithi, and the island got its name from the Venetians, who left their deep mark on Cretan history: “back” means “thorn”, and “longa” means “long”: an island that they turned in 1579 V impregnable fortress, was full of thorns, and even after the Turkish conquest of Crete in 1669, the island remained in the hands of the Italians and served as a refuge for Christians persecuted by Muslims. Only in 1715 Spinalonga became "Turkish", and at the end of the 19th century the Cretans began to exile their lepers to the island, until in 1905 the island officially became a "cursed" island, an island of slow death. First, 250 Cretans infected with terrible leprosy were “stored” here, then, after the annexation of Crete to Greece in 1913do - lepers from all over Greece, and soon from all over Europe. Spinalonga became a place of human shame, the International House of Leprosy, as the island was called: after all, then the disease was considered contagious.

The "House of Leprosy" closed only in 1957, having existed for a little more than half a century, and the last lepers were transported to Athens, to the clinic of Agia Varvara in Egaleo: terrible inhuman shadows, without clan, without tribe, without relatives who had abandoned them a long time ago , burying the memory of his "unclean" relatives on Spinalonga.
These ugly "shadows" - "hanseniki", as the Greeks called them after the Norwegian doctor Gerhard Hansen, who discovered leprosy microbacteria - not only existed on the island, but loved, married among themselves and even gave birth to healthy (sometimes) children who first lived on Spinalonge with their creepy parents, and then the "state" began to take them to " mainland”, where they again continued to drag out an isolated existence, as if they had never left the islands. The children of lepers were also called "hanseniki", and we are talking about a whole generation of such children! About 1000 (!) Patients lived on the cursed island, and only in 1948, when a drug for the treatment of leprosy was discovered in America, a ray of hope flashed for the inhabitants of the earthly hell, Spinalonga: it was from 1948 that the number of inhabitants of the island began to gradually melt. Although this is not entirely true: one Cretan musician, a virtuoso of the Cretan lyre, was left to die on the island, refusing to leave it.
The state did not completely renounce its children, disfigured by Hansen's disease: they were entitled to a small monthly allowance - for food and medicine, on which one could, if not live, then at least prolong their painful path to death. Only in 1936 there was a sharp turn in the lives of patients: Emmanuel Remund was exiled to Spinalongkitty, a third-year law student who contracted leprosy. A man arrived on the island, whose age was impossible to determine: leprosy makes people not only unrecognizable, but also completely erases all age boundaries. The man was blind, the disease had already managed to “eat up” one of his hands.

Emmanuel Remundakis shook up his brothers in misfortune, proved to them that the soul glimmers even in an inhuman form, and that a person must remain a person in any conditions. The houses on the island - the same dilapidated ones that the Turks abandoned when they left Crete - were cleanly whitewashed, the sick themselves dug new roads, organized a cleaning service for the island, built a theater, a cinema, opened a hairdresser, a coffee shop, and from the megaphones of the island rushed to heaven classical music!
People seemed to wake up from a lithargic dream: they began to take care of each other, the old church of St. Panteleimon opened its doors on the island, where a courageous priest served - an absolutely healthy man who voluntarily dedicated his life to lepers. The Brotherhood of the Sick of Spinalonga, founded by a law student, breathed life into the crippled souls and bodies of people. They say that at first the khanseniks received the priest with hostility: they were too angry with God to go to the service. The priest sang psalms, and the islanders plugged their ears or covered the singing with their howls and curses. Many days passed before the first leper appeared on the threshold of the church. A whole ten years have passed since that evening, and the sick last day considered their priest "the miracle of Spinalonga".
The priest was not the only one "alive in the realm of the dead." The Cretan woman Eleni also secretly sailed to the island, following her sick husband to Spina Longa. He tried to turn her away from the terrible step, but Eleni, togetherthen, in order to listen to the voice of reason, she filled the syringe with her husband's blood and injected it into her vein!

The courageous and devoted woman did not fall ill with leprosy, but she did not leave the island either, and while her husband was alive, she remained with him on Spinalonga and took care of the sick.
The courageous priest and the courageous Eleni are not the only ones who were able to get rid of the nightmare of St. Francis of Assisi in front of lepers: in the clinic in Egaleo, the sick who managed to leave Spinalonga found refuge and mercy. (Although medically unacceptable conditions - they have not changed to this day!)
“I have lived here for more than 40 years, I came here from the island of Samos, together with my parents, who also have Hansen's disease. My mother and father died, and I lost my leg and fingers. But I am already healthy and even want to go on an excursion to my native island. Then I will come back here anyway - here is my family, my friends, here we are all the same, here they take care of us and love us, ”says one of the Hanseniks.
So think almost all the surviving lepers: and where should they go? Who among us is not seized by the sacred horror of Francis of Assisi? Who among us in the 21st century is ready to look without shuddering into the terrible face of a leper?

Spinalonga was remembered after Victoria Hislop's book "The Island" was published, which sold about 1 million copies and was translated into 25 languages ​​of the world. It was The Island that formed the basis of the new MEGA series, and it was this book that prompted many of the descendants of lepers to turn to the forbidden pages of their family history.
So, it was from the book of Victoria Hislop that one of the readers learned the story of her great-grandmother, who sold her loom to pay the boatman who transported lepers to Spinalonga under cover of night: her husband Yannis fell ill with a terrible disease and had to leave the world of healthy people. Penetrate on cursed island otherwise it was impossible. Yiannis returned healthy to his village, his courageous dena died on the island, remaining forever among the lepers.
Another Cretan woman, Irina, who was engaged at the age of 16, did not wait for the wedding: her fiancé fell ill with leprosy and was taken to Spinalonga. She stayed to wait for him, since she was still ordered to marry another: although healthy, Irina remained "the bride of a leper." . .
Manolis Fundoulakis is one of the lepers, to whom fate treated with mercy. He contracted leprosy in 1949, at the age of 20, while serving as a policeman in Piraeus. However, the bride was not afraid of either his terrible appearance or the disease itself, and their marriage breathed life into a mutilated body. young man. In 1955, an absolutely healthy daughter was born to them. Manolis Fundoulakis spent a long time in a clinic in Agia Varvara and, as secretary of the Hansen Society, often visited Spinakonga. Thanks to him, Greek society was able to slightly open its eyes and, even from under the eyelashes, but look at their leper brothers.In 1968, the German director Werner Herzog came to Crete and shot a short film, only 13 minutes long, which he called "Letzte Worte" - "Last Words". The film was about the wonderful maestro of the Cretan lyre, Andonis Papadakis, who most spent his life on the island of lepers.

It was he who refused to return to the "civilized" world after the last patient left Spinalonga.
Yes, what kind of civilization can we talk about! The world of people who buried their sick brothers alive was not worthy to listen to the sounds of his lyre. The spines and lizards of Spina Longa were much more merciful. . .
Someone called lepers "still lifes" - "dead nature". Very sharp and scary. But even without visiting Spinalonga, one should not forget that the ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and no one knows in advance whether the path to Golgotha ​​is prepared for him or not.
Maybe in schools, in addition to the lesson of Home Economics, lessons of Mercy should be introduced?

Spinalonga - "Shutter Island"

Once the small fishing village of Elounda, which became fashionable resort, known not only for the most expensive hotels in Crete and great views to Mirabello Bay, but one of the most interesting excursions to Spinalonga, the "Island of the Lepers". This small rock island, 850 m high and 200x400 m in area, has an ancient and rich history. Also in ancient times a temple was built here in honor of the immortal lovers Aphrodite and Aris. In 1579 The Venetians built a fortress to protect the Mirabello Bay. The fortress protected from enemies ancient city Olonte, the current Elounda, and during the raids of the Saracens, Christians hid on the island from persecution. During the Venetian-Turkish war, this fortress remained impregnable for 24 years. But the island gained its fame due to the fact that the last leper colony in Europe was located on it.

Meet and welcome!

The island owes its gloomy fame to the stubbornness of the Turks, who flatly refused to leave their homes and leave for their historical homeland after Crete gained independence. And in 1903, the government came up with a brilliant idea to gather all the lepers and transfer to this paradise island. The operation was successful, during the day the entire population of the island changed by 100%.
From then until 1957, when a cure for leprosy was found, for the inhabitants of Spinalonga, the road to the island became a one-way road. There, on the opposite bank, there were families, children, friends, houses, to which there was no chance to return ever. They lived like this until their death and buried them only on the territory of the leper colony.

Main gate.

I can't even imagine how these people felt, specifically psychologically, since the living conditions in the leper colony were even better than on the "mainland". For example, it was here that electricity appeared earlier than in Crete, the Greek government paid benefits to all lepers, and medical care was established.How did these people live? They opened shops, taverns, got married. In marriages, children were born, who, however, were immediately transported to the mainland, if there were no signs of illness. If they were adopted by relatives, then these children could even visit their parents.

The street, some of the buildings are being restored and there is even a small museum

The house of the mayor of the colony, by the way, an elected position.

Turkish restored house

Cemetery. After the closure of the leper colony, all the dead were reburied in the village of Plaka, opposite Spinalonga

In the 50s, a cure for leprosy was found and lepers began to leave the island, but not everyone wanted to leave, and many even returned back. They simply could not fit into society, because. medicine did not relieve external signs leprosy. Although the leper colony was officially closed in 1957, the last inhabitants left only much later, when the Greek government built a separate quarter for them and provided them with a lifetime pension. From those times there were ruins, which are now being restored. And in modern times, there are crowds of tourists who learned about the island from Victoria Hislop's book "The Island", and will soon learn from the series, which recently ended filming.

« My Lord, God, Creator of the Universe,
In prayer weak and contemptible
Listen, listen in holy majesty!
When the whole world of earthly people
With cold, gloomy indifference
In my deep bitterness he cursed me,
Cast out into the desert
Where I suffer to this day
Dragging his unfortunate lot.
Where life goes out like a candle
Where gradually dying
With a humble prayer,
Lips quietly moving
And eyes wet with tears
Looking into the night sky,
Creator, I beg your mercy!
No, I don't need any blessings
Though I am sick, poor and naked,
But slowly dying
I am smitten with a terrible leprosy,
I pray - hear my weak moan!
Send me death, but death is instant
Send me death without any torment,
Breaking the painful cycle.
I will be a sweet consolation
Forever with her to go into oblivion ... "

Is in eastern Crete a place that is highly recommended for visiting by tour operators, guides, and tourists themselves. In appearance, the impregnable island-fortress of Calydon was in the Minoan era part of the city-state of Olunda (Olusa). Here, in the harbor of Olus, ships from all over the Mediterranean came to trade. Rich and powerful, he was famous throughout ancient world fortified acropolis, and controlled bodies of water. Terrible in appearance spinalonga island in question is the remainder of that city. The abyss swallowed Olus during an earthquake in the 4th century, and all that remains of clear evidence of it is a mosaic floor panel with dolphins on the site of an early Christian basilica of the 5th century.

Museum-monument

It is advisable for people who are especially sensitive and with a subtle psyche to prepare mentally for an excursion to the island or not to go at all. The fact is that Spinalonga has a rather sad history, and for more than 50 years people suffering from leprosy suffered from unbearable physical suffering and died in absolute poverty here. And it seems that every pebble here is saturated with their groans, tears and complaints about their terrible fate. Some tourists note that they suddenly felt an increased heartbeat or a sudden headache, which subsided only after sailing from this place.

But, even knowing what happened on Spinalonga in the first half of the 20th century, many put his visit in compulsory program excursions in Crete and its environs. It is unlikely that people are driven by simple curiosity to visit the "Island of the Living Dead"! After all, Spinalonga is not so much a museum under open sky, how much is a monument to the victims of a terrible disease, who were left to the mercy of fate, and who tried to live in disgusting conditions, believed and hoped for a miracle. They say that faith and only faith makes people believe in the impossible, and Spinalonga is a "living" proof of that!

A fortified fortress or a place where you can't get out alive

Let's start with history! A piece of land 200 by 400 meters, broken off due to a devastating earthquake, was empty for some time when the Venetians captured it in 1559. What appeared to their eyes are the ruins of ancient fortifications to protect Olus from enemy raids and the Byzantine church of St. Foka, which remained on the island in memory of the expulsion of the Saracen Arabs from Crete. On top of the wreckage, the Venetians built a powerful fortress to control the entry of Ottoman ships into Mirabello Bay. By 1586 the building was complete and the Venetians now had a well-fortified small bulwark to protect the entrance to the harbour.

The Venetians named Calydon in their own way - Spinalonga. Either it was inconvenient for them to pronounce the phrase "Steen Olunda", or for some other reason, but they now called him nothing more than Spinalonde, which later transformed into Spinalonga. Until 1715 it remained Venetian. Then the Turks took over. The capture of the island was one of the most difficult victories for them. After all, by that time they had already owned Crete for about half a century, and Spinalogue was for them "a matter of principle." The Turks settled on a "convenient" geographically and safe place for almost 200 years. And even the Cretan uprising of 1897-1898, when Crete was actually Greek, did not affect the departure of the Turks from the “habitable” land area.

Then the Greek government came up with the following idea - to send all lepers to Spinalonga. The decision was made in 1903, and 251 patients were transferred to the island. Yes, the way back was ordered to them, but on the other hand, in those days, people were afraid of leprosy, like the plague, and the expectation was that the Turks would be afraid of lepers and run away from the island. And so it happened! The sick got their homes, and ... EVERYTHING. The government did not keep its promises - medical care, regular delivery of provisions, more or less human living conditions. People lived out their lives in unheated houses blown from all sides by winds, having no means of subsistence, medicines that somehow alleviated the terrible torment; no food, no drink.

It was the beginning of the 20th century. Greece was “torn apart” by a series of wars, so the authorities were more concerned about foreign policy problems than the unfortunates on the island, who were simply doomed to a slow death due to the same political events. Moreover, their number has gradually increased since 1913, when Crete became Greek. Now lepers were taken to the leper colony on the high seas not only from Greece, but from other countries of Europe.

How many suicides have been committed here?! How many had to suffer day and night from terrible pains, only briefly turning off in a dream ?! Everywhere groans, pain, tears of despair, a plea for death. Why many kept the desire to live - known only to them! Thanks to the inhabitants of the village of Plaka, which is opposite Spinalonga, who secretly brought food and clothes to the sick.

Of course, people in these terrible conditions tried to survive. They begged for alms from the few inhabitants of the island, who still remained on the outskirts, started families. True, in most cases these were rather mutually beneficial marriages, when the blind "married" the one whose eyes had not yet been struck by the disease or whose hands could function. Or vice versa! In these marriages, children were born, and most of them absolutely healthy. But the joy of motherhood and fatherhood was overshadowed by the horror of the choice - either the child is sent to an orphanage in Crete, and he will never be able to see his parents, or he is left on a prison island.

old man and student

And yet a “miracle” happened! One day a strange old man appeared on the island. It was a priest from Crete who voluntarily decided to help the unfortunate sick. In the Byzantine church of St. Panteleimon, which had barely survived from the time, he began to conduct services. There were almost no parishioners, but slowly they began to appear. With ardent prayers, the courage to live among those disfigured by an incurable disease, the risk of contracting it (people did not know then that you can get leprosy only under certain circumstances, and this risk is minimal), the priest made the parishioners believe that there are people in the world who care about them fate.

The life of lepers changed drastically also thanks to Epaminondas Remundakis, a law student who fell into it in 1936. This 21-year-old boy was also sick, but when he got to the island, he was shocked by what he saw. Then he decided to correct the terrible fate of the islanders in better side. He created the "Fraternity of Spinalonga Patients Saint Panteleimon". Now this public organization could not be ignored by the authorities. Thanks to Remundakis and his "Brotherhood" on the island:

• The Byzantine church was restored for worship;
• We organized the repair of houses, cleaning the streets and a small bazaar;
• They built a ring road, a school, a theater, a hairdresser, a cafeteria;
• They found a doctor who agreed to move to the island and treat the sick;
• The ranks of leper colony nurses were replenished, as their salaries increased several times;
• Conducted electricity (by the way, first than in Crete).

Surprisingly, life on the island in many ways resembled an ideal model of society: there were no crimes, those who could physically work, those who could not work received benefits and medical care, classical music was playing from street loudspeakers.

And then there were miracles at all - a cure for leprosy was discovered in America! Many have been cured and returned home. Those who had the disease in a severe stage were transferred from the island to other leper colonies or hospitals for infectious diseases. Epaminondas Remundakis was placed in one of them near Egaleo (Greece).

Last words of the musician

Tourists who have arrived on the island of Spinalonga read on the main gate Dante's gloomy inscription "Abandon hope, everyone who enters here." It turns out that the Italian thinker was wrong - hope does not die, if you strongly believe! And even the most terrible place in the world can have a strong meaning for someone, as for one person - the last inhabitant of a sad island.

In 1967, director Werner Herzog made a black-and-white film about a lyre player who never spoke. When the international leper colony on Spinalonga was abolished and its inhabitants left for the mainland, one flatly refused to leave. He was forcibly forced to return home to his relatives. The old man refused to talk, and henceforth his communication with the world was ... music. When he was dying, he only said: “I won’t say anything ... I’ve finished ... I wish so ... And these are my last words!”

How to get there?

Boats from Agios Nikolaos, Elounda and Plaka are sent to the island every day: from Agios - in the morning, from Elounda - every hour. The shortest sea ​​route- from Plaka. Within 10 minutes you will be at the coast of Spinalonga. You can get there not by regular boat, but by boat, if you agree in advance with the locals.

It makes sense to take a ride on the island in the summer, as there are no excursions during the winter months. Besides strong winds blow this small piece of land up and down.

Especially for Lilia-Travel.RU - Anna Lazareva

Spinalonga (Greece) - description, history, location. The exact address, phone, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

• Tours for May to Greece
• Hot tours to Greece

Previous photo Next photo

Spinalonga is a jagged island off the coast in eastern Crete, in Mirabelu Bay. Once the island was part of the mainland, but later the thin bridge was destroyed - according to some sources, not in a natural way, but by the hands of the Venetians. Even before the beginning of the period of their rule, a fortress had already been built on Spinalong. The Venetians immediately appreciated the advantages of the location of the island in the bay and built a full-fledged fortification here, which remained almost impregnable for many centuries. In the 16th century, in the context of a constant struggle for dominion in the Mediterranean, this was necessary: ​​Cyprus was already under the rule Ottoman Empire, and the Turks constantly raided the coast of Crete. In the middle of the 17th century, the Ottomans captured Crete, but the Venetians managed to keep Spinalonga in their hands for another 75 years. The islet became the last refuge of Christians in Crete.

The arrival of the first batch of lepers became a more effective means of expelling the Turks from the island than an armed attack.

In the end, Spinalonga was also captured by the Turks, and civilians, mainly fishermen, settled here. But after a century and a half, the roles changed: two revolutions took place in Crete. Now on the island, Turkish families were fleeing from the Cretans, but this did not last long, and by 1900 Spinalonga was already sparsely populated. Three years later, the Cretan government signed a decree on the arrangement of a colony for lepers here. The arrival of the first batch of patients became a more effective means of expelling the last remaining Turks from the island than an armed attack. In those days, leprosy caused almost superstitious horror. And the opportunity to live in relatively human conditions in houses abandoned by the Turks was truly an act of mercy for the sick of Crete.

The leprosarium on the island was preserved even after Crete became part of Greece, and patients were brought here from all over the country, and later from other countries. The circumstances of life in the Spinalonga leper colony were nightmarish for a long time. The houses were in a dilapidated state, and the patients had no opportunity to repair them. There was not enough money, food, even drinking water. The situation began to change for the better only after the Second World War, and before that, Spinalonga remained an island of tears and sorrow.

Spinalonga Island

After the discovery by the Americans of a cure for leprosy, the number of inhabitants of Spinalonga began to decline, and by the middle of the 20th century the island was depopulated. But despite the grim history, Lately it has become one of the most popular tourist sites of Crete and one of the five most visited attractions Byzantine period on the island. The fortress of Spinalonga is well preserved, and from the top of the hill on which it is located, opens beautiful view on the sea. Some buildings have been restored and refurbished. There are cafes, souvenir shops, and a sports equipment rental center on the island.

25.01.2011

SPINALONGA: The Island of Tears.

"Stones in empty houses

hide the hell of yesterday

crying and screaming from the pain of hundreds of patients"

Foreword: The new Greek series The Island, based on the novel of the same name by Victoria Hislop, has drawn attention to the forgotten island of Spinalonga. And as it turned out, there is something to tell about him ... Since I did not find much information in Russian on the Internet, I decided to fill this gap on my own.

small island near Crete, located in the Lassithi region in the Mirabello Gulf, north of the villages of Plaka and Elounda (now famous resort on Crete). ancient name

islands - Calydon, but after the capture by the Venetians, the island was renamed Spinalonga.

There are two versions of the origin of the name. The first is that the name is determined by the shape of the island, which resembles a long spike (from it. spina - spike, longa - long). The second version, that the name comes from the toponym "Stin Olunda" (In Olunda), due to the difficulty of pronunciation by the Venetians, was distorted in Spinalonda, and later in Spinalonga. This name has already been used for one island in Venice, currently called Giudecca. In 1957, when all foreign toponyms were changed to Greek, the island was again renamed Calydon.

Due to constant pirate attacks from the middle of the 7th century to the middle of the 15th century, Elounda and most of the territory adjacent to it was practically deserted. When Crete fell into the hands of the Venetians, and they discovered salt mining here, the area became economically developed and inhabited.

The Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli argued that Spinalonga was not always an island. In 1526, the Venetians decided to separate part of the Kolokytha peninsula with a shallow passage of 170 meters and create an impregnable bastion island to strengthen the protection of the port of Olous (present-day Elounda), but this information remains unconfirmed.

Until the 16th century, the remains of the ancient fortress walls that protected Ancient Olunda remained on the island, on top of them the Venetians built their fortress walls (1579-1586) and erected a fortress with 35 cannons on the ruins ancient acropolis. Then Cyprus was already captured by the Turks, and it was obvious that the turn of Crete would soon come. After the capture of Crete in 1649 by the Turks, Spinalonga remained in the hands of the Venetians until 1715. Many Christians took refuge on this small island, fleeing forced conversion to Islam.

The Turks who settled in Spinalonga after the capture were mainly engaged in shipping, fishing and trade. In the middle of the 19th century, the population increased as the island was a center of trade. In 1834, 81 Turkish families lived on the island, and in 1881 the number of inhabitants reached 1112 people. The Turks took refuge in Spinalonga after the Cretan Revolutions of 1866 and 1878. After 1898, most of the inhabitants left the island, the municipality was abolished, and in 1900 only 272 inhabitants (Turks) remained on it.

On May 30, 1903, a decision was signed to use the island for a leper colony, where the first 251 lepers from Crete were sent to isolate them from the healthy population.

Previously, lepers, due to their terrifying appearance and contagious disease, lived rejected local population, on the distant borders of cities, in places called "meskinies" (meskinies), asking for alms from travelers.

In Crete, the toponym Meskinia is still preserved, for example, in Rethymno and Heraklion. Namely, in Heraklion, we are talking about the area of ​​Chrysopigi, located south of Ikarou Avenue, to the Poros area. Living conditions in the meskinies were poor, there was no necessary medical treatment, and the leprosy virus was considered especially contagious and incurable. At that time, people were madly afraid of leprosy, and leprosy had to wear bells so that the healthy could move away from them in advance.

At that time, it was not yet known that most of the population had a natural immunity against leprosy, and the risk of infection was much less than it seemed. Therefore, the island was an ideal solution for isolating the sick and for the peace of the healthy population. Spinalonga was distinguished by easy communication with land for the transport of patients and products, and there were also many empty houses abandoned by the Turks.

After 1913 (the year of the unification of Crete with Greece), the number of patients on the island reached 1000 people, they were already brought from all over Greece, and later from abroad. Spinalonga in those years becomes the International Leprosarium.

Initially, living conditions on the island for the sick were terrible, Spinalonga was an endless slum, mired in complete poverty and squalor, a cemetery with a delay, without the smallest organization, no drugs, no hope. Many died from wild pains, disfigured and forgotten by everyone. Spinalonga patients received a small monthly allowance, which was sometimes not enough for food and medicine. In that difficult period, Greece, tormented by a series of wars (Macedonian, Balkan, World Wars I and II, Civil), struggled to get back on its feet, a fact that made life difficult for lepers on the island.

Despite all the difficulties, these people not only did not give up, but also developed a self-organized society with their own rules and values. They got married, although it was forbidden by law because of their illness, gave birth to children - some of which were born healthy. The island also operated the Church of St. Panteleimon, built by the sick, where one brave priest led services, being healthy, he volunteered to share his life with lepers. They opened coffee houses, bakeries, hairdressers, shops to improve their own living conditions. With a small allowance, they bought the necessary products at a small bazaar, which was organized by peasants from Plaka at the gates of the island. Purchases were paid for with specially sterilized money, the same thing happened with the letters of lepers. Those who had the physical strength were engaged in gardening and fishing. The situation began to change in 1936, when the sick Epaminondas Remundakis, a third-year law student, arrived on the island, who became the founder of the "Fraternity of the Sick of Spinalonga" and fought for many years to improve the living conditions of the sick. Thanks to the activities of the society, houses were plastered in Spinalonga, a ring road was opened, a street cleaning service was organized, a theater and a cinema were built, and classical music was constantly heard from the speakers in the streets. So the life of the lepers began to resemble something close to the life of normal people outside this island. Even electricity in Crete first appeared here. Remundakis, after the closure of the leper colony at Spinalonga, was transferred to the Leprosarium of St. Barbara.

In 1948, a cure for the leprosy virus was discovered in America. Therefore, from 1948 to 1957. the number of patients on the island is significantly reduced. Some of the cured returned home, the other 20 seriously ill were transferred to Athens for observation in a special Hospital Infectious Diseases, located in the town of St. Barbara in Egaleo. For the rest, fate was not so favorable ...

After the departure of the last patients in 1957, the island was abandoned and remained without inhabitants for many years, thus important historical monuments came to a standstill. Most of the buildings of the Leprosarium are completely destroyed

were sewn, it is obvious that no one had the desire to keep mournful memories of the recent past!

It didn't go without terrible secrets in Spinalonga.

In the years civil war, as well as another decade after it, hundreds of healthy people were sent to Spinalonga. Their punishment was to contract a terrible disease and never return home. For the first time, the results of a journalistic investigation were presented in Kostas Hardavellas' program "Atheatos Kosmos" at the end of 2010. The reason to pay attention to this topic was the same notorious series "Island".

Nowadays, Spinalonga is recognized as an archaeological monument, some buildings are being restored. The island is popular destination for excursions and swimming. It is visited by more than 300,000 people a year (about 1200 - 1500 visitors per day), which puts it in the top five Byzantine - after the Byzantine archaeological sites of Greece. Despite this, some ruins, traces are not so ancient era remain to remind of these persistent unfortunate people.

The novel "The Island" about Spinalong by the British writer Victoria Hislop is an attempt to overcome social bias, isolation - "the stigma of the sick." The novel has been translated into 14 languages ​​and has sold over 850,000.

“Rarely in one monument - History speaks so eloquently from time immemorial. Rarely does one monument keep traces of history. Ancient Greece, Saracens, Venetians, Turks, modern Greeks.

If you find yourself on this island, find these ruins! Explore the place and rate how it is stone island some human souls, despite their illness, isolation, continued to work, live, create families and, as a result, defended their rights to a better future, because they loved life and were strong…

Before Victoria Hislop, Spinalonga was written about by: Galatea Kazantzaki in 1914 "The Sick State" - a love story that takes place on the island and Femos Kornaros, who in 1933 published his story of the suffering of "Spinalonga". These works were recently republished in one volume under the title “Femos Kornaros - Galatea Kazanzaki. Island of the Lost. - A sick state.

Also in 1968, the then young director, now famous Werner Herzog, made a twelve-minute film "Letzte Worte" about the best Cretan lyre player who spent most of his life on Spinalonga. When the leper colony was disbanded and all the patients left it, he was left alone on the island, flatly refusing to return. This documentary was awarded an award International Festival Short Films in Oberhausen.

In 1958, the Greek film "The Island of Silence" was also shot (the first work of director Lila Kurkulakou) with the participation of Yorgos Kabanellis, Nina Sguridou, Orestis Makris, Yannis Sparidis, J. Kurkulakos. In the film, you can see the island in those years when the sick had just left it. The picture became the official participant from Greece of the Venice Film Festival in 1958.

In 1973, Jean Paniel Pollet made a forty-minute documentary film "L'Ordre" about Spinalonga and its inhabitants, in which the last patients transferred to the Hospital for Infectious Diseases of St. Barbara took part.

How to get there?

Spinalonga can be reached by boat from Agios Nikolaos, Elounda or Plaka.

Boats depart from Agios Nikolaos in the morning, and in addition to visiting Spinalonga, lunch and swimming are offered on the Kolokytha peninsula before returning to Agios Nikolaos.

There are flights every hour from the port of Elounda all summer months, it takes about half an hour to reach the island, although the program often includes a trip around the Kolokytha peninsula.

Boats also depart from the village of Plaka. It is from here that the journey lasts the least, 10 minutes, since Plaka is located directly opposite Spinalonga.

During the winter months there are no organized flights to Spinalonga, but you can always find a local boatman to give you a lift to the island, ask the coastal taverns of Plaka, they will always help you with advice. Once on the island in winter, for sure, you will meet only workers of the archaeological service. In summer, in addition to tourists, you can find a guide who offers their services for a small fee.

“Walking through the streets of Spinalonga, stop and hold your breath.

From some shack around

sisters or a man's groan.

Leave two tears from your eyes and you will see

how the millions of tears shed on this road will shine!

Ep. Remundakis.

PHOTO GALLERY: