Jump to content

File:Dante’s Gate in Spinalonga fort.jpg

Page contents not supported in other languages.
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Original file (1,000 × 750 pixels, file size: 406 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Description
English: Dante’s Gate in Spinalonga fort: From 1903 to 1957, Spinalonga was turned into a Leper Colony. Lepers on Crete – and later across the whole of Crete - were rounded up and sent to the Island.

When you disembark from the boat onto the island, the path from the jetty almost immediately reaches a opening in the old fortress wall, which leads into a long low tunnel, known as Dante’s Gate. The name comes from Dante’s Inferno, and his description of the gate to hell - inscribed with the words “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”. And so – as you disembark and almost immediately plunge into this small low stone tunnel, you sense the fear and trepidation of those arriving as lepers to be locked away on the island.

The island of Spinalonga is located at the eastern section of Crete, near the town of Elounda. The name of the island, Spinalonga, is Venetian, meaning "long thorn".

As a part of the their extensive web of fortifications against the Turkish danger, the Venetians constructed the fortress on Spinalonga in 1579 and provided it with no less than 35 canons. In 1584, realising that the coastal fortifications were easy to conquer by the enemies attacking from the vicinal hills, the Venetians decided to strengthen their defence by constructing new fortifications at the top of the hill. The Venetian fire would thus have bigger throw, rendering Spinalonga an impregnable sea fortress, one of the most important in the Mediterranean basin.

Following the Turkish occupation of Crete in 1669, only the fortresses of Gramvousa, Souda and Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands; they would remain so for almost half a century. Many Christians found refuge in these fortresses to escape persecution. In 1715, during the Eighth Ottoman–Venetian War, the last remaining Venetian outposts on Crete, including Spinalonga, capitulated in exchange for safe departure of their garrisons.

In spite of all this wonderful history Spinalonga is not most famous for it's fortress and it has a much more gloomy claim to fame. From 1903 to 1957 the island was used as a leper colony. It is notable for being one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. This was a place where people with the disease leprosy were forced to live out their lives away from all human contact until the day they died. The last inhabitant, a priest, left the island in 1962 (this was to maintain the religious tradition of the Greek Orthodox church, in which a buried person has to be commemorated 40 days, 6 months, 1, 3 and 5 years after their death).

The island has an aura that is both macabre and poignant. It is now a ghost town, with many of the buildings falling into disrepair, ruins of old Venetian bastions, and the cemetery, final resting place of many sufferers of the disease.
Date
Source originally posted to Flickr as Dante’s Gate
Author Robin & Bazylek
Permission
(Reusing this file)
This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 23 May 2010, 10:28 by Dorieo. On that date, it was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the license indicated.
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

1 October 2009

image/jpeg

f7bc5a7ad5de6e20d05ae29c3c3103f5557fa68e

415,784 byte

750 pixel

1,000 pixel

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current10:28, 23 May 2010Thumbnail for version as of 10:28, 23 May 20101,000 × 750 (406 KB)Flickr upload botUploaded from http://flickr.com/photo/27672140@N03/4195886702 using Flickr upload bot

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata