YouTube TV - No long term contract Loading. We are professionally publishing these works using the classic text and artwork. This is a reprint of the original work published in 1813. Today, visitors can take a ferry from the nearby towns of Plaka, Agios Nikolaos, and Elounda to the island to explore the crumbling remains of what was a society unto itself.Condition: New. Renewed interest in visiting the island began in the 1980s and culminated in a popular historical fiction book by British author Victoria Hislop. After the colony officially closed in 1957, the Greek government destroyed all records pertaining to Spinalonga’s history as a leper colony. The cure for leprosy was discovered in 1948, and gradually what remained of the inhabitants of Spinalonga were treated and sent back to the mainland. The island had its own church, a school, and even several cafes. Young and highly educated, Remoundakis founded the Brotherhood of the Sick of Spinalonga, which advocated for improved living conditions for the island’s residents, including the ability to run their own businesses. In 1936 Epaminondas Remoundakis, a law student from Athens, arrived at the colony after being diagnosed with leprosy. At its height, in 1933, there were just under 1,000 patients living on the island. Sufferers were sequestered on the island, away from society, to protect the healthy. When the Spinalonga leper colony was founded, the disease was considered incurable. When it closed in 1957, it was the last one left in Europe.
But in 1903 the island became something else entirely, a leper colony. The Ottoman Turks held the fort from 1715 until long after Greek independence, the last of the Turks only leaving in the early 1900s.
The fort remained in Venetian hands for more than 40 years after the rest of Crete was conquered by the Ottomans, so impregnable were its defenses. When Crete was a part of the Venetian empire, it was a fortress, built to protect the the Port of Olous. Over the years, the island of Spinalonga has served as a place of holdouts.
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