Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

The history of the island of Spinalonga
is equally dramatic, famous for the imposing
Venetian fort which was erected in 1579 and
considered unassailable because equipped
with one of the most powerful batteries of
cannon in all
Crete. Not even
the Turks could
succeed in taking
it. Only during the
first half of the
eighteenth
century, by which
time Venice had
lost all authority over Crete, did the Turks
take possession of the little island which
then became a smugglers' haunt. In 1903,
after Greece's liberation from foreign
dominion, Spinalonga was transformed into
a leper colony, and the bastions, the
storerooms and the military barracks were
occupied by hundreds of sufferers and their
families until 1953 when the sanatorium was
closed and the island with its imposing walls
and towers became a tourist attraction.
Climbing up the hills behind Elounda one
has a magnificent view across the red roofs
of the villages of Epano Elounda and Pines,
across the olive trees and the low stone
walls, as far as the bay with its peninsula and
the little rock of Spinalonga.
The island of
Spinalonga was
fortified by the
Venetians in 1579
and was handed
over to the
Ottomans only in
1715 - the last of
Venice's territories
on Crete
39