Spinalonga: The Abandoned Greek Island

Spinalonga is an 8.5-hectare island in the Gulf of Mirabello, located close to the town of Plaka on the island of Crete. You may recognize the name of the island from Victoria Hislop’s record-selling book The Island (To Nisi). The rocky outcropping was once used as a military base during Venetian and Ottoman rule. The medieval citadel there is a testament to this phase of history. In 1904, the Cretans pushed out the Turks from Spinalonga, and the island was turned into a colony for lepers. In 1913, when Crete was added to the Greek nation, all people with the disease were sent to Spinalonga.

Spinalonga’s Leper Colony

The island of Spinalonga once had 400 residents. The residents of Spinalonga were stigmatized in society. Their property and financial assets were seized, ownership rights were taken away, and their identity was wiped away. They never received treatment for the disease, even though the treatment for leprosy was discovered in the 1940s. A doctor was on the island but only went there if someone was sick with other illnesses. 

 

Life in Spinalonga

In the first 20 years of the leper colony on Spinalonga, residents lived selfishly and bitterly, just thinking about their own survival. The priest even had a hard time finding people to help bury dead bodies. Gambling, food, and raki (a strong spirit made from grapes and popular in Crete) were escapes for the locals. Then, Epameinontas Remoundakis arrived and started the Brotherhood of the Sick of Spinalonga, determined to improve the quality of life of the sick and to gain the right for locals to marry and start businesses. The Brotherhood organized musical evenings where residents would play music for one another. 

 

In 1938, the locals were allowed by the Greek state to open a hole in the fortress wall in order to reach the perimeter of the island. For the locals, this felt like liberation. 

Victoria Hislop’s Novel

In 1957, the leper colony was finally closed. The government set out to burn the evidence of its existence, and those who survived did not speak about what they went through. In 2005, when Victoria Hislop wrote her novelThe Island, suddenly everybody was an expert on the history of Spinalonga. There was even a popular TV series that came from Victoria Hislop’s book. The government of Greece liked that the book painted a romantic picture of the island of Spinalonga, and enjoyed the fact that tourists came specifically to see the leper colony.

 

Something similar happened to the historic shipwreck in Zakynthos, where at first the locals thought a shipwreck of a tobacco-smuggling boat would bring a bad name to the island. Instead, tourists came by the thousands to see the sight and it brought fame to the island. 

Visiting Spinalonga:

There are several options for visiting Spinalonga, especially if you are in the Lasithi region, in the villages of Agios Nikolaos, Elounda, or Neapolis. Boats typically depart from Plaka, Elounda, and Agios Nikolaos. The cheapest and fastest boats go from the tiny town of Plaka, since it is less than 1 kilometer from Spinalonga island. The boat trip lasts just 10 minutes, but is not available from October to March. 

 

At Elounda, you can reach Spinalonga from the main square of the village in front of the port. A number of Spinalonga tour boat operators are there. From Agios Nikolaos, there is a larger boat that takes larger groups and only travels in the high season. The organized tours last for a few hours and include swimming, BBQ, and a trip to the beach of Kolokitha.