12:13 am - Crete. Part 3: Spinalonga Island

The island of Spinalonga is the saddest attraction in Crete. This island is even called the “Island of Tears” or “Island of the Damned.”

We visited it in cloudy weather (it was even going to rain), so these photographs, unlike all other “Greek” photographs, photographs from Spinalonga are not permeated by the warm Greek sun.

The path to the island of Spinalonga goes through Mirabello Bay. Its name translates as “well, very beautiful” - these words were exclaimed upon seeing the bay by some Venetian who had arrived on the island to rule, or by a pirate leading his ships to capture Crete. And this name is justified, the bay is beautiful. But we only saw him from the bus window (((

Here is the island itself. He is very small: and very sad.

Ship on the pier:

The fortress island of Spinalonga.

Due to constant pirate attacks from the mid-7th century to the mid-15th century, this part of the coast was practically deserted. However, after the island came into the possession of the Venetians, they opened salt mining here and the area became economically developed and inhabited. Then the question arose about its defense

Until the 16th century, the island preserved the remains of ancient fortress walls that protected the ancient settlement of Olundu, located in this area. On top of these scenes the Venetians built their fortress walls (1579-1586) and erected a fortress with 35 cannons on the ruins ancient acropolis.

But already in the 17th century, Crete was besieged by the Turks! After they took the island in 1649, tiny Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands for 66 years! Many Christians found refuge on this small island, fleeing forced conversion to Islam (I don’t know how they lived there, on a small island, next to a huge captured island). We see the Turks didn’t care about them.

In 1715, the commandant of the fortress agreed with the Turks to surrender, and at a very good conditions- all people inhabiting the fortress were asked to leave with any property in any direction. So Spinalonga became Turkish.

The Turks who settled on Spinalonga and the surrounding area after the surrender of the fortress were mainly engaged in shipping, fishing and trade. In the mid-19th century, the islet's 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 1,112 people. But after Crete gained independence in 1898, most Turks left the island and the municipality was abolished. In 1900, there were only 272 Turkish inhabitants left on the island.

And here begins the saddest page in the history of the island. The Turks who found housing on Spinalonga were, to put it mildly, “not the most best quality". They traded in thefts, robbery, smuggling and made life very difficult for the Greek authorities. I don’t know why they were not forcibly expelled. But a solution was found. On May 30, 1903, a decision was signed to use the island as a colony for lepers. They went there immediately the first 251 lepers were sent from Crete to isolate them from the healthy population. Each received a one-way ticket - then they knew nothing about the properties of leprosy, how it was transmitted too. Therefore, the patients were simply isolated. Moreover, the unfortunate ones, many of whom were doomed without outside help, we found ourselves in conditions... approximately the same as in the photo below:

The Turks, who immediately fled the island upon learning that it was becoming a ghetto for the sick, left behind only ruins:

The patients had to somehow rebuild these ruins. Of course, without any outside help.

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 slightest organization, without medicine, without hope. Many died from wild pain, disfigured and forgotten by everyone. Patients on Spinalonga received a small monthly allowance, which was sometimes not enough for food and medicine.

During that difficult period, Greece, tormented by a series of wars (Macedonian, Balkan, World War I and World War II, Civil War), struggled to get back on its feet, a fact that made life difficult for the lepers on the island.

After 1913 (the year of the unification of Crete with Greece), the number of patients on the island reached 1000 people, they were brought from all over Greece, and later from abroad. Spinalonga in those years became the International Leper Colony. Despite all the difficulties, these people not only did not give up, but also developed a self-organized society with its own rules and values. They got married, although this was prohibited by law due to their illness, gave birth to children - some of whom were born healthy (the children were taken away and placed in an orphanage in Crete)

Wealthy lepers appear, able to pay for the delivery of the necessary goods, and a brave priest, who was able to provide moral support to the suffering people, moves to the island. Being healthy, he volunteered to share his life with the lepers.

They opened coffee shops, bakeries, hairdressers, shops to improve their own living conditions. Bought with a small allowance necessary products at a small market organized by peasants from Plaka at the gates of the island. Purchases were paid for with specially sterilized money, and the same thing happened with letters from lepers. Those who had the physical strength to do so 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, became the founder of the “Brotherhood 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 in Spinalonga were plastered, 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 speakers on the streets. So the life of lepers began to resemble something close to life normal people outside of this island. Even electricity in Crete first appeared here. Remundakis, after the closure of the leper colony on Spinalonga, was transferred to the Leper Colony of St. Barbara.

In 1948, a medicine was discovered in America that treated the leprosy virus. Therefore, from 1948 to 1957, the number of patients on the island decreased significantly. Some recovered patients returned home, the other 20 seriously ill patients were transported to Athens for observation at a special Hospital for Infectious Diseases, located in the town of St. Barbara in Egaleo.

After the departure of the last patients in 1957, the island was abandoned and remained without inhabitants for many years, thus, important historical monuments fell into disrepair. Most of the buildings of the Leper Colony were completely destroyed, it is obvious that no one had the desire to keep sorrowful memories of the recent past!

Nowadays, Spinalonga is recognized as an archaeological site, reminiscent of persistent, unhappy people!

Below are just photographs of the island where some people spent their entire lives... Like in a prison cell. Although it’s still more beautiful here than in prison...

Just a couple of boats from the nearby village of Elounda

In 1905, the small island of Spinalonga, near the fashionable resort of Crete, Elounda, was turned into a leper island by the island authorities. All those sick with a terrible disease, leprosy, leprosy, from which only death could save them, were taken there.

Leprosy gradually devoured the human body, distorted the human

Brief information:Leprosy (Hansen's disease, outdated names - procaise, Greek elephantism, Arabian leprosy, eastern leprosy, Phoenician disease, mournful disease, Crimea, lazy death, St. Lazarus disease, etc.) - chronic infection, caused by mycobacteria, occurring with predominant damage to the skin, peripheral nervous system, sometimes the anterior chamber of the eye, the upper respiratory tract above the larynx, testicles, as well as the hands and feet. appearance, without distinguishing between young and old, beautiful and ugly. First, the soul slowly died - neighbors, friends, and family turned away from the lepers, then the body died - painfully and scary. A few years ago, the series “The Island” was broadcast on Greek television, telling the story of those who lived and died on Spinalonga, but also about those who, despite everything, loved, gave birth to children and dreamed of the life that their descendants will live instead of them.

The mechanism of transmission of infection has not yet been precisely established. Behind last decade worldwide, the number of leprosy patients has decreased from 10-12 million to 1.8 million. Leprosy is mainly common in tropical countries, but the disease is still widespread in some areas of Brazil, South Asia (India, Nepal), East Africa ( Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique) and the western Pacific Ocean.

At the beginning of the twentieth century in Crete, residents of places echka Plaka faced leprosy, which is described in Nikos Kazantzakis’ book “Man of God” by 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 that they wear so that passers-by have time to bury themselves, I lose consciousness.”
Most of us don’t even know what leprosy is, but in Crete stories about lepers are still in circulation, and mothers to this day scare their restless children with them. And the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the Cretans banished their lepers a long time ago, became an archaeological site, a Mediterranean paradise, visited annually by 300 thousand tourists!
You can get to Spinalonga by tourist boat, which sails hourly from Ai Nikolaos, Elounda and Plaka: after all, the former Leper Island lies in the blue sea only 800 meters from the picturesque shores of Crete. Once upon a time, on his boat from Plaka, a boatman transported lepers and food there - a real Charon, delivering the dead to the underground kingdom of death by icy waters River Styx. Statistics for 2009 indicate 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 Merabela Bay in Lasithi, and the island received its name from the Venetians, who left their deep mark on Cretan history: “spina” means “thorn” and “longa” means “long”: an islet converted by them in 1579 V impregnable fortress, was full of thorns, and even after Turkish conquest Crete in 1669, the island remained in Italian hands and served as a refuge for Christians persecuted by Muslims. Only in 1715 did Spinalonga become “Turkish”, and at the end of the 19th century the Cretans began exiling their lepers to the island, until in 1905 the island officially became a “cursed” island, the island of slow death. First, 250 Cretans infected with the terrible leprosy were “stored” here, then, after Crete annexed 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, the disease was then considered contagious.

The “House of Leprosy” closed only in 1957, having existed for just over half a century, and the last lepers were transported to Athens, to the Agia Varvara clinic in Egaleo: terrible inhuman shadows, without clan, without tribe, without relatives who abandoned them long 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 the microbacteria of leprosy - not only existed on the island, but loved, married each other and even gave birth to healthy (sometimes) children who first lived on Spinalonga with his creepy parents, and then the “state” began to take them to the “Mainland”, where they again continued to eke out an isolated existence, as if they had never left the island. The children of lepers were also called “Hansenik”, 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 away. 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 they could, if not survive, then at least prolong their painful path to death. Only in 1936 there was a sharp turn in the lives of the patients: Emmanuel Remunda was exiled to SpinalongaKis, a third-year law student who became ill with leprosy. A man arrived on the island, whose age it 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 “gobbled up” one of his hands.

Emmanuel Remundakis shook up his brothers in misfortune, proved to them that even in a non-human form there is a glimmer of soul, and that a person must remain human in any conditions. The houses on the island - the same dilapidated ones that the Turks abandoned when leaving Crete - were cleanly whitewashed, the sick themselves dug new roads, organized an island cleaning service, built a theater, a cinema, opened a hairdresser, a coffee shop, and classical music rushed to the heavens from the megaphones of the island. !
People seemed to wake up from a lithargic sleep: 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 devoted 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 Hanseniki received the priest with hostility: they were too angry with God to go to the service. The priest sang psalms, and the islanders covered 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 until last day considered their priest “the miracle of Spinalonga.”
The priest was not the only one “living in the kingdom 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, insteadthen, 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 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 the lepers: in the clinic in Egaleo, the patients 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 with my parents, who also have Hansen’s disease. My mother and father died, and I lost my leg and fingers. But I’m already healthy and I even want to go on an excursion to my home island. Then I’ll 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 “Hansenniks”.
Almost all the surviving lepers think so: and where should they go? Who among us is not seized with the sacred horror of Francis of Assisi? Which of us, even in the 21st century, is ready to look without shuddering at 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. 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.
Thus, one of the readers learned the story of her great-grandmother from Victoria Hislop’s book, who sold her loom to pay a boatman who transported lepers to Spinalonga under cover of darkness: her husband Yannis fell ill with a terrible disease and had to leave the world healthy people. It was impossible to penetrate the damned island in any other way. Yannis returned healthy to his village, but his courageous wife died on the island, remaining forever among the lepers.
Another Cretan woman, Irina, engaged at age 16, never saw the wedding: her fiancé fell ill with leprosy and was taken to Spinalonga. She remained to wait for him, since she was still ordered to marry someone else: although healthy, Irina remained “the bride of a leper.” . .
Manolis Fundoulakis is one of the lepers who was treated with mercy by fate. He contracted leprosy in 1949, at age 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 the mutilated body young man. In 1955, they had an absolutely healthy daughter. Manolis Fundoulakis was treated for a long time at the clinic in Agia Varvara, and as secretary of the Hansen's Disease Society, he often visited Spinakonga. Thanks to him, Greek society was able to open their eyes slightly and, even from under their eyelashes, look at their leper brothers.In 1968, German director Werner Herzog came to Crete and made 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 spent most of 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 even talk about! The world of people who buried their sick brothers alive was not worthy to listen to the sounds of his lyre. Spina Longa's thorns and lizards turned out to be much more merciful. . .
Someone called lepers "still lifes" - "dead nature." Very accurate and scary. But even without visiting Spinalonga, one should not forget that the ways of the Lord are mysterious, and no one knows in advance whether the path to Golgotha ​​is prepared for him or not.
Maybe in schools, in addition to the Home Economics lesson, Charity lessons should be introduced?

Among the hundreds of attractions in Crete, there is a special place that attracts many tourists with its eerie history and atmosphere. The island of Spinalonga has a rich past, but most of all it is famous for its leper colony.

2. The island of Spinalonga is located a few hundred meters from the Cretan village of Plaka. To get to the island, you need to use this boat.

3. The cost seems to be 8 euros from the nose. Children get discounts.

4. While waiting, you can admire the boats moored near the pier.

5. The ships leave approximately every half hour.

6. Finally, the village is left behind, and we set off on a short but real voyage.

7. Spinalonga greets you with powerful fortress walls.

8. On the shore there is a small crowd near the ticket office.

9. Our captain is wearing a branded shirt.

10. The harbor has a wide variety of ships serving tourists. You can get to Spinalonga from both Elounda and Agios Nikolaos.

11. The fortress on the island was built by the Venetians back in 1579. Before this there were ruins here ancient city.

12. From the fortress walls there is a beautiful view of the island and the surrounding area.

13. Old church.

14. And don’t ask for whom the bell tolls.

15. The island has a very advantageous location. The fortress covers the entrance to the bay.

16. The inaccessibility of the fortress is evidenced by the fact that after the capture of Crete by the Turks in 1669, the fortress was held by the Venetians for 36 long years.

17. But then I still had to give in. To prevent the Greeks from settling on the island, a Turkish village was formed here.

18. Several centuries after the arrival of the Turks, Crete gained independence. In 1898, the Cretan state was created, and on Spinalonga the situation changed to the opposite: before it was difficult to expel the Greeks from here, now the problem arose of how to expel the Turks.

19. The decision was made in a very extraordinary way. In 1903, a leper colony was established on the island. Lepers were brought from all over Crete. Soon the Turks left the island, and their houses were occupied by people suffering from a terrible disease - leprosy.

20. At Spinalonga, patients not only lived out their lives, but also led a full life: they worked, socialized and even started families. If the child was born healthy, he was taken from the island. Medicines and food were delivered by sea

21. The Church of St. Panteleimon was built and operated on the island.

22. In the church.

23. Thanks to the efforts of the people living here, a settlement with taverns, hairdressers and other familiar urban amenities arose on Spinalonga.

24. Walking through the streets of the island, you feel like you are in an abandoned city. But this is not the kind of abandonment when cities slowly fade away and then collapse for a long time. At the same time, there are no traces of military operations or emergency incidents. It’s just that once all the people left here and the city was left empty.

25. Many details look as if people left not long ago.

26. At the same time, it is clear that the buildings were built at different times.

27. Some buildings are being restored and look quite modern. From some angles the island seems quite inhabited.

28. Here’s a greeting from the Motherland.

29. The island museum is located in the restored houses. Modest, but it sends shivers down my spine.

30. Syringes, medicines, bottles.

31. After the Second World War, cures for leprosy appeared. Many residents of Spinalonga have recovered, some seriously ill patients were transferred to regular hospitals. In 1957, the island became deserted.

32. After a walk around the island, we boarded the ship. It's hard to describe all the feelings that remain after visiting Spinalonga, but I definitely wouldn't mind visiting here again. Slowly walk through the labyrinths, touch the walls of the ancient fortress, climb the steeply upward path to the very top of the hill, look around the blue sea, the village opposite and the surrounding mountains, and then think about the frailty of existence and rejoice at what we have now . These are such contradictory thoughts and feelings. Bye, Spinalonga!

I devoted the last two days to a trip to Crete, about which there will be three photo reports. Today is the first of them, about the mysterious island of Spinalonga.

Spinalonga is the Venetian name for a small uninhabited island located in the eastern part of Crete near the Greek village of Plaka. Since 1957, the island officially bears the ancient name Calydon, although everyone still calls it Spinalonga out of habit. Next to it is the peninsula of the same name.

Today the peninsula is separated from Crete by a small bay. In ancient times, in its place there was land - here was the large port city of Olus, which went under water after an earthquake in the 2nd century AD. Today, near this place is the village of Elounda. To make it easier to figure out what's what, I'm attaching a map.

In the Middle Ages these lands were empty. The reason for this was the constant raids of pirates.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Crete, which was then called the Kingdom of Candia, became part of the Venetian Republic. Salt began to be mined on the Spinalonga Peninsula, after which a gradual revival of the region began.

The port of Olus was restored.

The name Spinalonga is Venetian. Translated from Italian it means “long thorn”.

Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli argued that Spinalonga was not always an island. According to his theory, in 1526 the Venetians decided to turn the northern tip of the Spinalonga peninsula into an island on which they planned to build an impregnable fortress to protect the passage to Olus.

At the beginning of construction, on the top of the rock there were the ruins of an ancient acropolis, which were used as the foundation. The fortress was put into operation in 1586.

In 1669, Crete was captured by the Ottoman Empire, but Spinalonga retained its independence for more than 35 years, until 1715. After the fortress was surrendered to the Turks, the latter built their own village inside. TO end of the 19th century century, more than 1,100 people lived in it.

In 1898, Crete seceded from Ottoman Empire, and in 1913 became a member. Most of the Turkish population fled.

In 1903, the island was turned into a leper colony. There was no cure for this disease at that time, so everyone who caught the infection was considered incurable. Spinalonga was an ideal solution for isolating the sick and for the peace of mind of the healthy population of Crete - the island was located near the coast, which made transporting patients and food simple. Moreover, there were many empty houses on Spinalonga, abandoned several years ago by the fleeing Turks.

According to legend, after Crete gained independence, the Turks did not want to leave Spinalonga, and it was for this reason that the first lepers were sent to the island, forcing the inhabitants to flee in horror.

The first leprosy patients arrived on the island in 1904, and by 1913 there were already about 1000 of them. At first they were brought only from Crete. Then - from mainland Greece. Finally, by 1915, Spinalonga became one of the largest international leper colonies.

The entrance to the fortress territory was through a curved tunnel. During the time of the leper colony, it was called Dante’s Gate - just like in hell, those who ended up here had no hope of ever returning back. For all arrivals, Spinalonga became the last refuge.

Initially, living conditions on the island were appalling - Spinalonga was an endless slum, mired in poverty and squalor. A real cemetery with a delay - without the slightest organization, without medicine, without hope...

Patients on Spinalonga received a small monthly allowance, but most often it was not even enough for food, let alone any medicine. At the same time, the island was almost completely cut off from civilization - all things were sterilized, water and food were delivered exclusively by boat.

But despite all the horrors, the inhabitants of the island were soon able to develop a self-organized society with its own rules and values. Marriages even began to take place on the island, although this was prohibited by law. Although if healthy children were born in a marriage, they were urgently taken to Crete.

Over time, cafes and shops began to appear on the island, and a church was built. A healthy priest came to Spinalonga from Crete and lived on the island for many years. Residents of the nearest village began to set up an impromptu bazaar at the fortress gates, where they could buy food and send letters to mainland. Life began to get better.

In the 1930s, construction of new houses began, and in 1939 a ring road was built around the perimeter of the island. For this purpose, part of the fortifications was blown up.

In the mid-20th century, a cure for leprosy was discovered. By this time, most of the houses on Spinalonga had been renovated, a theater and a cinema appeared - life in the leper colony began to vaguely resemble life outside it.

By the way, the inhabitants of Crete believe that there are ghosts on the island - the restless souls of the dead. They say that at night voices and bells can be heard on the island.

« My Lord, God, Creator of the Universe,
In prayer weak and despicable
Hear, hear in holy majesty!
When the whole world of earthly people
With cold, gloomy indifference
In my deep bitterness he cursed me,
Banished into the desert,
Where I suffer to this day,
The unfortunate lot drags on.
Where life goes out like a candle,
Where gradually dying,
Calling out with a humble prayer,
Moving my lips quietly
And eyes wet with tears
Looking into the night sky,
Creator, I ask for mercy!
No, I don't need any benefits
Although I am sick, poor and naked,
But dying gradually,
Stricken with terrible leprosy,
I pray - hear my weak moan!
Send me death, but death instantly,
Send me death without any pain,
Breaking the most painful circle.
It will be sweet consolation for me
Go with her forever into oblivion..."

Available in eastern Crete a place that is highly recommended for visiting by tour operators, guides, and tourists themselves. The seemingly impregnable fortress island of Calydon was part of the city-state of Olunda (Olusa) in the Minoan era. Here, in the harbor of Olus, ships from all over the Mediterranean came to trade. Rich and powerful, he was famous throughout ancient world a fortified acropolis, and controlled the waters. Terrible in appearance Spinalonga island, about which we're talking about, the rest 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

For people who are especially sensitive and have a delicate psyche, it is advisable 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. And it seems that every pebble here is saturated with their moans, tears and complaints about their terrible fate. Some tourists note that they felt suddenly increased heartbeat or 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 make a visit to it a mandatory program of excursions around Crete and its surroundings. 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 an open-air museum as a monument to the victims of a terrible disease, who were abandoned 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 “living” proof of this!

A fortified fortress or a place from which one cannot leave alive

Let's start with history! A piece of land measuring 200 by 400 meters in area, broken off as a result of a devastating earthquake, was empty for some time when it was captured by the Venetians in 1559. What appeared before their eyes were the ruins of ancient fortifications to protect Olus from enemy raids and the Byzantine Church of St. Phocas, 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 construction was completed and the Venetians now had a well-fortified small bastion protecting 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 less than Spinalonde, which later transformed into Spinalonga. Until 1715 it remained Venetian. Then it was captured by the Turks. Taking 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 in a geographically “convenient” 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 their “familiar” landmass.

Then the Greek government came up with the following idea - to send all the lepers to Spinalonga. The decision was made in 1903, and 251 patients were transported to the island. Yes, the way back was forbidden 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, without a means of subsistence, without medicines that would somehow alleviate 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 about the unfortunate people on the island, who were simply due to the same political events condemned to a slow death. Moreover, their number has gradually increased since 1913, when Crete became Greek. Now lepers were taken to a leper colony on the high seas not only from Greece, but from other European countries.

How many suicides have been committed here?! How many had to suffer day and night from terrible pain, only passing out briefly in their sleep?! Everywhere there are groans, pain, tears of despair, prayers for death. Why many were held by the desire to live - only they know! Thanks to the residents of the village of Plaka, opposite Spinalonga, who secretly brought food and clothing to the sick.

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

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 barely survived from time to time, he began to conduct services. There were almost no parishioners, but little by little they began to appear. With fervent prayers, courage to live among those disfigured by an incurable disease, and the risk of contracting it (people then did not know 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 also changed dramatically thanks to law student Epaminondas Remundakis, who came to see him in 1936. This 21-year-old young man 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 "Brotherhood of Spinalonga Saint Panteleimon Patients". 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;
• They organized house repairs, street cleaning and a small market;
• They built a ring road, a school, a theater, a hairdressing salon, and 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;
• We installed electricity (by the way, better than in Crete).

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

And then miracles - a cure for leprosy was discovered in America! Many were cured and returned home. Those with severe illness were transported from the island to other leper colonies or infectious disease hospitals. Epaminondas Remundakis was placed in one of them near Egaleo (Greece).

The musician's last words

Sightseers arriving on the island of Spinalonga read Dante’s gloomy inscription on the main gate: “Abandon hope, all who enter here.” It turns out that the Italian thinker was wrong - hope does not die if you believe strongly! And even the most terrible place in the world can be for someone strong meaning, as for one person - the last inhabitant of the 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 residents left for the mainland, one flatly refused to leave. He was forced to return home to his relatives. The old man refused to talk, and from now on his communication with the world was... music. When he was dying, he only said: “I won’t say anything... I’m done... I wish so... And these are my last words!”

How to get there?

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

It makes sense to go to the island in the summer, since there are no excursions during the winter months. Besides strong winds They blow this small area of ​​land up and down.

Especially for Liliya-Travel.RU - Anna Lazareva