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Above the entrance to the tunnel where leprosy sufferers came to Spinalonga, there is a quote from Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: “Give up all hope, you who enter”. The words of the Renaissance poet perfectly described what awaited the residents of the colony at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. The Greek authorities condemned them to isolation in extremely hostile conditions and to the grace of the donors.
- Leprosy is a bacterial contagious disease. The infected skin ulcers that heal for many months
- Spinalonga is an island where leprosy patients were sent – first from Crete and later from all over Greece
- It was called the island of the living dead because the sick lived in extremely difficult conditions, they could not leave it
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Leprosy. Why were the sick isolated?
Leprosy was brought to Europe by the troops of Alexander the Great returning from conquests in Africa and Asia around 300 BC The disease, which caused widespread fear and repulsion, was considered a divine curse and a punishment for sins. Even after 1873, when the Norwegian physician Gerhard Hansen saw leprosy bacilli under a microscope and proved that mankind was not struggling with a curse and an infectious disease, little has changed. Lepers were isolated in special colonies – hospitals or leprosariums – situated outside the cities.
They spread in Europe already in the Middle Ages. They were administered by Roman Catholic orders, and they owed the name Lazaret to St. Lazarus, patron of lepers. Some colonies were established in the mountains or unpopulated places, others on main roads, to make it easier to accept donations for their maintenance.
In 1940, in the United States, sulfones were discovered to be such an effective treatment for leprosy that it was not necessary to isolate patients. However, the quarantine in the colonies was not officially lifted until the XNUMXs.
Spinalonga – Cretans create their own colony for lepers
Such a colony for half a century was the barren rock with an area of 85 thousand square kilometers, located near Crete, on the island of Spinalonga. sqm Its original name was Calydon, but the Venetians changed it to Spinalonga from the words spina and longa, meaning long thorn. Another version says that the island was named after a beautiful woman named Longa who lived in the fort there.
The authorities of Crete, supported by the authority of the Danish dermatologist Edvard Ehlers, a defender of the leper isolation theory, decided to establish a colony there for their patients, although the island did not have any infrastructure except for a few abandoned Venetian and Ottoman houses. It was one big slum where even drinking water was a problem.
Initially, most of the lepers from Crete were in Miskinias near Heraklion. However, at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the authorities decided to transfer them to Spinalonga.
In 1901, the Cretan government issued a decree isolating people suffering from leprosy and established the location of the colony. The settlement began in 1903, and by October 1904, 251 people lived there (148 men and 103 women). A handful of Turks living there immediately left their homes, a this place was soon to be called the Island of the Living Dead.
The authorities chose Spinalonga as the seat of the colony because it was also quite remote and easily accessible to ships that were to provide the sick with food, water and medicine.
The new residents were allowed to occupy empty houses because absolutely nothing was built for them. The lucky few managed to purchase the Turks’ headquarters that did not require renovation, the rest had to settle in the ruins. Meanwhile, immediately after the diagnosis of leprosy, the sick were seized of real estate and financial assets, and their names were erased from the registers. After reaching the island, the lepers had the status of people who did not officially exist.
Moreover, their family members had to supply them with food, since the supply ships hired by the authorities made very sporadic trips to Spinalonga. The sick lacked practically everything. Under these circumstances, it was hardly surprising that they considered themselves at least extremely neglected and forgotten. They managed as best they could, relying on the help of outsiders of various origins. It is known that they used the services of smugglers who supplied them with tobacco and alcohol until the 20s.
The monotony of everyday life, drunkenness and illness caused depression and aggression. There were often bitter conflicts on the island. And the worst was yet to come. In 1913, Crete became part of Greece, and lepers from different parts of the country began to be transferred to Spinalonga. New arrivals meant new conflicts. Fights broke out every day and the police could only be summoned by the tolling of church bells. There was even a prison on the island, but it was rarely used.
Spinalonga. A glimmer of hope
The situation of the colony started to improve only after 1930. The hospital was modernized, an infirmary and sanitary facilities were built, the director was appointed, doctors, nurses, caretakers, cleaners and administration were hired. Even a generator of electricity was activated, which provided light to Spinalonga long before electricity was used by most Greeks.
The lepers received grants from the state in the amount of 20-25 drachmas a day, so they could do their shopping. The people from the surrounding islets took advantage of the opportunity to trade and began to provide them with meat, eggs, vegetables and clothes.
Before anyone left the island, they had to decontaminate their personal belongings, including money, in the disinfection room located by the main gate. Water for disinfection was heated in special coke ovens, and the steam was passed through the sulfur beds.
The leper community also began to produce their own food on small plots allocated by the authorities. Shops and service establishments such as a hairdresser and a shoemaker were opened. Soon they were joined by three bars, a bakery and three mini markets. Next to the church of St. Panteleimon (the saint was a martyr and patron of lepers, many of whom were very pious), there was a laundry room where daily washing was carried out in large concrete bowls with heated water.
Finally, help began to be provided to the residents. One of the examples of support was the gift of building a few new houses. A priest also took up residence on the island.
Spinalonga. What was the everyday life of the colony like?
Although it was illegal for the lepers to marry, the priest did marriages by joining many couples. The spouses had children, but in this case the authorities intervened. If the child was infected, he could stay on the island with his family, however, healthy infants were taken from their parents and placed in an orphanage.
The dead were buried in a cemetery consisting of 44 concrete tombs, closed with stone slabs. After four years, when there were no more places for a new body, the exhumation was carried out and the bones were transferred to a concrete tower.
As the years passed, and the fear of contamination decreased, healthy people began to visit the island to meet their loved ones. There is an account of a woman who did not want to part with her beloved husband. To ensure that she could stay in the colony, she decided to get infected with leprosy. She took some fluid from her husband’s open wounds and injected it into her artery. However, not everyone is susceptible to infection, she did not get sick and had to leave.
In 1936, a 21-year-old patient arrived in Spinalonga, who later played a key role in the lives of its inhabitants – Epameinondas Remoundakis. He was a passionate third-year law student at the University of Athens. Under his influence, a theater, a cinema and a school were built on the island. He also started organizing lepers who formed a fraternity of the sick, thus gaining the possibility of effective pressure on the authorities. If they refused their demands – whether it was for medical care or money, the brotherhood went on strike, and the ringing of church bells and black banners hung on the walls of the Venetian citadel indicated that something was going on on the island. In some cases, the strikes lasted more than 10 days. Order was returning after an agreement was made with the chief physician.
During World War II, subsequent occupiers (Italians and Germans) did not dare to free the lepers and were forced to look after them, as the village on the nearest island was displaced. In addition, the coast of the neighboring Elounda was fortified because the Germans assumed that this is where the British invasion would take place. No German ever dared to enter the colony, and the lepers launched an illegal radio station. The chief physician himself received messages from London and Cairo and shared them with the residents.
Spinalonga. Ways to escape from the island
There were two ways to get to Spinalonga. An entrance for the healthy and a tunnel used only by lepers and called the Dante’s Gate. The inscription above the entrance was borrowed from the “Divine Comedy”, where the words:
“Give up all hope, you who enter”
The only way to leave the colony was to obtain a pass. It was awarded only for really important reasons, e.g. a court case for the division of property, sale of real estate, or summons as a witness. Nevertheless, lepers sometimes bribed local fishermen or tried to swim to the shores of the neighboring island themselves. Unfortunately, the swimmers were visible from a distance, and after arriving ashore, the police quickly caught them.
There is a story about a captain who offered a young leper girl, who wanted to visit her family, a place on a boat. Unfortunately, there was an unfortunate accident during the voyage. At one point, the crew felt a strong smell of burning, it turned out that the girl leaned the infected leg against the hot exhaust pipe. The body burned, but she felt nothing because the leprosy had destroyed her nerves.
In turn, a pair of lepers obtained a pass to leave the island for 15 days. They went to their home in northern Greece, where they were to sign documents relating to the division of the property. However, they could not come to an agreement and the man murdered his wife. Then he cut off her head and sent to Spinalonga in a package. Sam escaped, but was captured and brought back to the island.
Spinalonga. End of the colony
The end of the war also brought hope to the lepers to improve their fate. In the years 1945 – 1950 they started growing fruit trees. Local artists came to performances from time to time. Until 1950, a microbiologist, neurologist, pathologist and dentist were brought in. In 1953, the existing generator was replaced with a more advanced one.
Nevertheless, the problem of isolation remained. After numerous strikes, the lepers’ requests to be transferred to a more civilized place were heard. In July 1957, with the discovery of antibiotics, the colony was closed as the last such site in Europe.
While 1933 patients lived in Spinalonga in 954, their number gradually decreased in the 50s. The cured left the island. The last twenty were transferred to the leper hospital in Athens in 1957. The priest did not leave the island until 1962. This was in line with the Greek Orthodox tradition that people who died must be commemorated for 40 days, 6 months, a year, three and five years after death.
The Greek government, knowing that it had not properly cared for the sick, burned all their files. After the colony was closed, the buildings on the island fell into disrepair, and it was only around 1980 that the systematic repair and renovation of old buildings, Venetian fortifications, houses and roads, and the demolition of the hospital began. Work on Spinalonga is still ongoing. The island can be visited, it is one of the tourist attractions of Crete.
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