Leros
Leros
Λέρος | |
---|---|
UTC+3 (EEST) | |
Postal code | 854 00 |
Area code(s) | 22470 |
Vehicle registration | ΚΧ, ΡΟ, ΡΚ |
Website | www.leros.gr |
Leros (
Geography
The municipality has an area of 74.172 km2 (28.638 sq mi).
Transportation
The
Traditional music
Many local songs of Leros are among the most famous in the traditional (nisiotika) music of Greece, the most celebrated being "Pote Tha'nixoume Pania" ("Pos to Trivun to Piperi"), "Mes tou Aegeou ta Nisia" and "Proutzos". Lerikos is the name of the local dance; also noteworthy is the Issos dance. The most loved instruments in the island are tsampouna (τσαμπούνα), lyra (λύρα) and violin.
Food
Leros is famous for its local food and sweets. Traditionally, this was due to the range of seabound trade that connected Leros to most other islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, and parts of Asia Minor and North Africa, guaranteeing fresh produce and a range of recipes and styles that made Leros cuisine unique. In more modern times, the Italian occupation led to Leros adding an Italian style to its cuisine, whereby now many restaurants in Leros provide a unique mix of Lerian, Greek and Italian restaurants, dishes and cooking styles.[citation needed] Some of the more unique offerings of Leros include gavafes, a unique tropical fruit that grows only in Leros, mizithra, a local hard, salty cheese often cured in the sediment of red wine, Kolios Pastos, mackerel cured in sea salt, Lerian Thyme honey, a particularly flavourful honey derived from the thyme-filled hills of Leros, Pougkakia, a Lerian dessert offered at weddings (but commonly available in the many sweets shops in Leros), Patsavouropita (a cake with layers of filo and syrup) and Soumada, a sweet drink made of almonds.[3]
History
Antiquity
Thucydides stressed the special importance of the bays and the harbours of Leros during the Peloponnesian War (431 BC – 404 BC), where Leros supported the democratic Athenians. After the end of the war, Leros came under the sovereignty of the Spartans. The island had a famous sanctuary of the greek goddess Artemis.[4]
It then followed the fate of the rest of the Dodecanese Islands during the years of Alexander the Great and his successors, the Roman years and the Byzantine period. After the division of the Roman Empire, Leros was part of the Byzantine Empire. On the island of Farmaco east from Leros, a few miles from Didyma on the Turkish coast, Julius Caesar was held as a hostage by local pirates for forty days.
Venetian and Ottoman Era
During the
Legend has it that then the island was rescued by the only surviving knight, barely 18 years old. He dressed women and children in the armor of the dead defenders, convincing the Ottomans that the garrison of Leros was still strong. Finally, on 24 December 1522, following the siege of Rhodes, a treaty was signed between Sultan Suleiman and the Grand Master of the Knights, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, and Leros, along with all the Aegean possessions of the Order, passed into Ottoman hands which ruled the island with brief interruptions during a period of four hundred years.
During the Ottoman rule, and along with the other islands, Leros enjoyed a privileged regime, with partial autonomy and self–government. During the
With the Treaty of London, on 3 February 1830, however, which determined the borders of the newly established Greek state, the freed islands of the Eastern Sporades were given over to the Ottoman Empire again. According to the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82-1893, the kaza of Leros had a total population of 6.754, consisting of 6.623 Greeks, 18 Muslims and 113 foreign citizens.[5] In the "Diary of the Prefecture of the Archipelago" of 1886, Leros, along with the islands of Patmos, Lipsos and Fournoi, belonged to the Ottomans. The island's administrative council was made up of both Greeks and Turks.
The Italian Period
In 1912, during the
From 1916 to 1918, the British used Leros as a naval base. In the
The new
During the 31 years that the Italians remained in Leros, they set up a great plan to build and fortify the island, since its strategic position and its large natural harbours (the largest of which, Lakki, is the largest deepwater harbour in the Mediterranean Sea[dubious ]), made it an ideal naval base. The fortification of Leros and the creation of a major naval base ensured that the Italians had control over an area of vital interest to the Allies (the Aegean, the Dardanelles and the Near East). Mussolini, who called Leros "the Corregidor of the Mediterranean", saw the island as a crucial base for the Italian domination of the eastern Aegean Sea.
Portolago/Lakki
In the 1930s a new model town and major naval base, Portolago, was built by the Italian authorities. It is one of the best examples of Italian Rationalist architecture. Mussolini was said to have a mansion for himself in the town.
After Leros was transferred to Greece, it was renamed Lakki.
World War II
From 1940, when Italy entered the
The 1957 novel and subsequent 1961 film The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean was contextually based on the Battle of Leros.
Post-war history
After the Germans evacuated the island, Leros came under British administration until 7 March 1948 when Leros, together with the other Dodecanese Islands, was united with Greece. During the post-war years, the Greek government utilized numerous buildings in Leros for various reasons. In 1959, the mental hospital of Leros was founded in Lepida. During the
During the dictatorship period of Greece (1967-1974), 4,000 political prisoners were exiled in the same spaces of the mental hospital which were used as a concentration camp.[7] In 1989, Leros came to Europe-wide attention as a result of a scandal involving embezzlement of funds and the maltreatment of about 3,000 mental patients at the mental hospital on the island. Funding from the government led to a rapid and substantial improvement in conditions. A June 2009 BBC report suggests these improvements have not all been sustained.[8]
In December 2015, during the
The hotspot of Leros is located near the mental hospital which has been internationally known as "Europe's guilty secret", as coined in an Observer article.[11] In the same space of Lepida (after almost 15 years of implementing deinstitutionalisation programmes financed by EU), about 200 patients are still accommodated in small rehabilitation structures.
Notable people
- gnomic poet
- Pherecydes of Leros
- Totis Filakouris, footballer for Panathinaikos during the years 1965–1975
- Ourania Rebouli, a marathon runner at the 2016 Olympics
- Emmanuel Staravero (1819–1872), Greek bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
References
- ^ a b "Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2021, Μόνιμος Πληθυσμός κατά οικισμό" [Results of the 2021 Population - Housing Census, Permanent population by settlement] (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 29 March 2024.
- ^ "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)" (PDF) (in Greek). National Statistical Service of Greece. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-21.
- ^ "Leros information". Leros.org.uk.
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- The University of Wisconsin Press, p. 130-131
- New York Times. 1970-01-03. p. 7.
- ^ "Blogger".
- ^ "Greek mental care failures exposed". BBC News. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ "Greece push on migration 'hotspots' bears fruit on Leros". Financial Times. 14 February 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
- ^ "Volunteers leave Greek island after attacks on refugees". Al Jazeera. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
- ^ "Volunteers leave Greek island after attacks on refugees". London Observer. 10 September 1989.
- Hans Peter Eisenbach (2009) Fronteinsätze eines Stuka-Fliegers, Mittelmeer und Ostfront 1943–1944. Germany Helios Verlag ISBN 978-3-938208-96-0. 18,50 €uro. The book describes exactly the Stuka missions of I. StG 3 against Leros and Samos and against the Royal Navy in 1944. The book is based on the flight log book of a stuka pilot.
External links
- Official website (in English, Greek, and Italian)
- Leros Airport information