A day trip to the island, which is mentioned below, caused us emotions caused by the history of this place, and above all, by the cruel fate of leprosy patients, who were nowhere treated as people. Sent to Spinalonga, they were never to return.
After the invention of the cure for leprosy, some patients recovered, but still were not accepted by the "healthy" society of Crete and Greece in general.
Mrs. Edyta, a certified guide in Greece, shared her knowledge about north-eastern Crete with us in an interesting way, and about Spinalonga in particular.
“Spinalonga - an island located east of the coast of Crete. The name of the island means "long thorn" in Italian. Although the islet is in the shape of an egg, not a spike, the name appealed to the Cretans, and it remained so.
In 1579, the Venetians built a fortress on the island on the site of the old acropolis. The Venetians lost the island in 1715 as a result of the Turkish conquest of Crete. In the years 1903-1957 on the island there was one of the last leprosarium in Europe. As many as 1500-2500 people could pass through the leper colony on the island. Currently, the island is uninhabited.
This little islet off the coast of Crete today is a picturesque attraction for tourists arriving by boat to spend a nice day. However, the history of this rocky patch of land is full of suffering, tears and death, because it was here that people suffering from leprosy were isolated - a disease against which medicine was helpless not so long ago, and society treated the unfortunates ruthlessly with it.
The last leper colony in Europe was not liquidated until 1957."
It took a little over an hour to explore the island, which is about 1 km in circumference, and to view the remains of the leprosy retreat site. The knowledge of the terrible fate of people rejected by their own society remained in us for a long time.
