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88-530: Spinalonga ( Greek : Σπιναλόγκα ) is an island in the Gulf of Elounda , north-eastern Crete , in the municipality of Agios Nikolaos , Lasithi , next to the town of Plaka in the area of Kalydon . It is near the Spinalonga peninsula ("large Spinalonga") – which often causes confusion as the same name is used for both. The island was maintained as a fortress for centuries under Venetian rule . It later became

176-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

264-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

352-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

440-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

528-490: A local legend of a romance between the characters Spiros and Longa. During the leper colony era (1904-1957), the island had the local nickname "the island of the living dead". Spinalonga is a rocky island situated at the northern mouth of the gulf of Elounda. Around 750m of water separates it from the village of Plaka on the Cretan mainland to the west. To the south a narrow strip of water separates it from Kolokitha island, while

616-411: A radius of 200m from the shoreline. Spinalonga was considered a place of isolation for the infected, and not intended for treatment. Conditions on the island were squalid, and there were several instances of unrest. There was little sense of community until the 1930s, with the lepers in a state of grim survivalism, focused on food, gambling and alcohol. There was some difficulty finding volunteers to bury

704-584: A refuge for Muslim families fearing persecution, and finally a leper colony in the early 20th century. It has been uninhabited since 1962; though it has undergone some restoration work in the years since. Today it is the second most visited tourist site in Crete, and sixth in Greece overall. According to Venetian documents, the name of the island originated in the Greek expression στην Ελούντα stin Elounda (meaning "to Elounda "). The Venetians could not understand

792-403: A sense of community among the residents. They would congregate on the sunny, wind protected eastern part of the island to play backgammon and checkers. Concerts were performed by lepers with musical skills. They also cultivated parts of the island, and grew fig trees. Remoundakis was able to lobby the Greek government for permission for the lepers to marry one another and maintain businesses. A café

880-553: A small number of traffickers remained until 1903. The Cretan state declared in 1903 that mandatory isolation of leprosy patients would take place on Spinalonga. In this regard the Cretan government was influenced by the work of Edvard Ehlers , a Danish dermatologist and advocate for seclusion theory. This led to the forced displacement of the remaining Muslims. The first 251 lepers arrived in October 1904, and thereafter continued to arrive occasionally, sometimes while restrained. Leprosy

968-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

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1056-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1144-466: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki ,

1232-407: Is much less hospitable and is located due north of Imeri Gramvousa. It has also been named False Gramvousa . In ancient times the larger island was known as Korykos , which means leather bag . The island was named "Gramvousa" in honour of Vousa, the wife of a pirate chief and the only inhabitant of the island to evade capture when the pirates were forcibly removed. The fort at Imeri Gramvousa

1320-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

1408-864: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Gramvousa The Gramvousa islands are administered by

1496-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

1584-456: The Axis occupation in 1941. Some staff were present there including three street sweepers with disinfection duties, a priest and a caretaker. There were also staff paid to sanitise items that left the island, which was done with sulphur. This method of sanitisation was in actuality ineffective. Outside of the movement of the staff, travel to the island was prohibited, and fishing was forbidden beyond

1672-674: The Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from

1760-624: The Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are

1848-627: The Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of

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1936-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

2024-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

2112-524: The Peloponnese , journeyed to Crete. On 9 August 1825, led by Dimitrios Kallergis and Emmanouil Antoniadis, this group of Cretans, disguised as Turks, captured the fort at Gramvousa, which became their base. These and subsequent actions revitalized the Cretan insurgency, ushering the so-called "Gramvousa period". Although the Ottomans did not manage to retake the fort, they were successful in blocking

2200-657: The Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of

2288-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

2376-640: The revolution of 1866 more came to the island from all across the Mirabello region, fearing Christian reprisals. During the Cretan revolt of 1878 , only Spinalonga and the fortress at Ierapetra were not taken by the Christian Cretan insurgents. It became a centre for smugglers towards the end of the century. The majority of the inhabitants abandoned the island after the Ottoman defeat in 1898 , though

2464-411: The 1980s some tourists were starting to visit the island. Several plans were proposed for redevelopment as late as the 1990s including as an asylum and as a cultural centre. These did not eventuate; the archeologist Stelios Lekakis considers that fortunate for the preservation of the historic structures. It was made formally accessible to the public in 2000. In Born's view, the Greek government's views on

2552-566: The Cretan revolt of 1878, only the forts at Gramvousa, Ierapetra , Spinalonga , Heraklion , Rethymnon , Izeddin, Hania , and Kissamos could not be captured by the insurgents because they did not have the necessary artillery. There is a lagoon, named the Balos lagoon, between the island and the coast of Crete. There is an islet which forms part of a cape, through the lagoon, called Cape Tigani (which means "frying pan" in Greek). North of Balos, at

2640-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

2728-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

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2816-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

2904-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

2992-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

3080-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

3168-675: The anti-leprosy station of Agia Varvara in Attica in 1957. The last inhabitant of the island was the priest Chrysathos Katsouloyiannakis, who had come to the island from the Toplou monastic community in Siteia . He did not leave until 1962 in order to maintain the Greek Orthodox tradition of commemorating a buried person 40 days, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years after their death. He fell into depression in this time. After his departure,

3256-532: The axis powers. The loss of resupply from the mainland meant that many lepers died of malnutrition. Some swam across to the mainland and were executed by the occupiers. Conditions continued to improve after the war, with hospital access and repairs to fishing boats granted. The Brotherhood was also able to organise electrical power and a cinema for the island. Later, the Brotherhood received a donation from two benefactors in Crete and used it to build new houses for

3344-484: The community. Two buildings were constructed, each containing 24 rooms. New treatments for leprosy were offered on Spinalonga from 1948, which led to a weakening of the isolation rules including short-term discharge permits. By 1952 the Greek government was pushing for the abolition of all leper hospitals in favour of a central facility in Athens. Delays to this led to hunger strikes on the island in 1953. The isolation rule

3432-475: The condition that the inhabitants would be safely transferred to Corfu . The Ottomans did not abide by the agreement, instead slaughtering and enslaving the locals. Spinalonga was the last remaining Venetian fortress, and the event removed the last trace of Venetian military presence from the island of Crete. Some Ottoman forces took up residence on the island and the population gradually grew over time. By 1830 there were 80 Muslim families living on Spinalonga. After

3520-490: The dead. Many attempted escape or suicide. They generally lived alone in their own homes and were reliant on the collection of rainwater, and shipments of water and food from the mainland. The inhabitants practiced folk medicine in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms, as there was no hospital or support available for them initially. Beginning in 1925 some conditions did start to improve, as Dr. Grammatikakis arrived and began offering medical care. He would send reports back to

3608-475: The early Venetian period, but little is known of them as there have never been any serious excavation works. The Venetians occupied Crete from 1210, and built a number of fortresses on the island during their rule. Spinalonga was among the last of these. The Venetians began to construct salt-pans in the shallow and salty waters of the gulf in the mid fifteenth century. Subsequently, the region acquired commercial value and became inhabited. This, in combination with

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3696-486: The east is open to the Sea of Crete . It is only 85,000 square meters in size, and largely rocky, with steep cliffs at the northern side of the island. Elsewhere the coastline features pebble beaches that retreat into shallow waters. The highest point is in the centre-south of the island, at an altitude of around 50m. There is some sparse foliage cover including fig trees, cypress, olive and pine. Prickly pears are also present on

3784-561: The emergent Turkish threat, particularly after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the continuous pirate raids, forced the Venetians to fortify the island. The Provveditore generale Jacob Foscarini suggested fortifications for Spinalonga, and a group of engineers were sent to the island in 1574 to survey the topography. In 1578 the Venetians hired the engineer Genese Bressani to plan the island's fortifications. He created blockhouses at

3872-758: The event of a new Ottoman–Venetian war for Crete. On 6 December 1691, during the Morean War (another Ottoman–Venetian war), the Neapolitan Captain de la Giocca betrayed the Venetians by surrendering Gramvousa to the Ottoman Turks for a generous bribe. He lived the rest of his life in Constantinople and was well known by the nickname "Captain Grambousas". Not long after the start of Turkish rule, Cretan insurgents used to gather at

3960-410: The event of a new Venetian-Turkish war for Crete. Many Christians found refuge in these fortresses to escape persecution from the Ottoman Turks. Iakovos Jiritas built a church in 1709 on the island, called Agios Paneteleimon after Saint Panteleimon . It only stood for six years, as it was destroyed during the last Ottoman–Venetian War . In 1715, the island was given to the Ottomans by agreement, under

4048-533: The expression, so they familiarized it using their own language, and called it spina "thorn" longa "long", an expression that was also maintained by the locals. It has also been suggested that Spina longa may be in reference to the spine-like shape of the terrain, as seen from Elounda. During the Ottoman period, Turkish people referred to it as "Spirlonga". This may simply have been down to mispronunciation, though it has also been suggested that this may reference

4136-411: The goal of organising the community to improve conditions. Initially this was simply through cleaning the streets, improving hygiene and whitewashing the buildings. In 1938 it gained permission from the Greek government to demolish a section of the medieval fortifications and build a path around the perimeter of the island, which was accessible for handicapped lepers. The Brotherhood was able to establish

4224-471: The highest points of the northern and southern side of the island, as well as a fortification ring along the coast that countered any hostile disembarkation. In 1579, the Provveditore generale di Candia Luca Michiel, laid the foundation stone of the fortifications, built over the ruins of an acropolis . There are two inscriptions that cite this event, one on the transom of the main gate of the castle and

4312-585: The hill. The new Venetian firepower had longer range, rendering Spinalonga one of the most important sea forts in the Mediterranean basin. It was equipped with 35 cannons. Spinalonga, along with Gramvousa and Souda , remained in Venetian hands after the rest of Crete fell to the Ottomans in the Cretan War (1645–1669) . These three forts defended Venetian trade routes and were also useful bases in

4400-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

4488-466: The island changed in 2005- shifting from a desire to cover up the reputational damage to a desire to embrace the touristic aspect of the island. This is credited to a romanticised, erroneous version of the island's story in Victoria Hislop's novel The Island . The book was translated into 25 languages, sold millions of copies and was adapted for television . The corresponding increase in tourism

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4576-508: The island in 1967. He was the first academic to visit the island after its abandonment. By 1969 he was renting a home in Plaka and visiting the island daily for research, crossing over in an inflatable boat. At this time the leper colony, while deserted, was largely intact. He documented his findings on the island extensively and never took anything from it. He regretted that in later years as many artefacts were ultimately lost to looting. The island

4664-402: The island was left abandoned. The island was left empty for decades after the departure of Katsouloyiannakis, and suffered from looting during the Greek junta period (1967-1974). Access to it was banned on the grounds of a fictional infection risk; the "fairytale" restriction was designed to prevent looters. The ethnographer Maurice Born , doing research on social exclusion began researching

4752-452: The island, though these are not native. They were brought to the island by the French or Venetians. Because of its position, the island was fortified from the ancient period in order to protect the entrance of the port of Olous . These defences fell into ruin over the following centuries. Christians hid among the ruins in the 820s to escape from Saracen invaders . The ruins were present into

4840-410: The island. The Greek government applied to UNESCO in 2014 for the island to be approved as a World Heritage Site . The application referenced the many eras of architecture present, as well as the human tragedy of the leper colony. A third phase of funding in 2018 reinforced the southwestern wall and maintained market buildings, while funding approved in 2023 added accessible exhibition spaces. Today,

4928-405: The land of grief; I lead to the endless pain; I lead towards the damned souls; Leave all hope behind”. The story is sometimes repeated by tour guides, but there is no historical evidence of such an inscription, nor such a moniker for the gate. The only similar inscription known to Maurice Born 's research was one on the northwestern side which read "Boulevard of Pain". The first arrivals settled in

5016-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

5104-470: The lowlands of the island and destroyed the Muslim homes (from the Ottoman era), using the materials for their own construction. A graveyard was maintained for the residents, and a yellow flag flew from the highest point to warn travellers of the presence of leprosy. The island only accepted Cretan lepers until 1913, when Crete was returned to Greece ; Spinalonga accepted lepers from the rest of Greece too until

5192-468: The mainland that led to some further improvements to the island. In 1927, a visit from Charles Nicolle led to the availability of hygranol on Spinalonga. The former mosque structure was repaired and used as a medical unit in 1928. In 1936 a law student and young leper Epaminodas Remoundakis arrived on the island. He founded an organisation called "Brotherhood of the Sick of Spinalonga, Saint Panteleimon" with

5280-576: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

5368-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

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5456-503: The municipality of Kissamos . Imeri Gramvousa ( Greek : Ήμερη Γραμβούσα ), which translates to Tame Gramvousa , hosts the remains of a Venetian fort and the remains of buildings left behind by Cretan insurgents, who were compelled to live as pirates during the Greek War of Independence . Today, Imeri Gramvousa is a popular tourist attraction. Agria Gramvousa ( Greek : Άγρια Γραμβούσα ), which translates to Wild Gramvousa ,

5544-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

5632-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

5720-406: The other on the base of the rampart at the north side of the castle. The defences were largely built using stone from Spinalonga, as well as some stone from Olouda and Kolokitha island. In 1584, the Venetians, realising that the coastal fortifications were easy to conquer by the enemies attacking from the nearby hills, decided to strengthen their defense by constructing new fortifications at the top of

5808-604: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation

5896-467: The spread of the insurgency to the islands' western provinces. The insurgents were besieged in Gramvousa for more than two years and they had to resort to piracy to survive. Gramvousa became a hive of piratical activity that greatly affected Turkish-Egyptian and European shipping in the region. During that period the population of Gramvousa became organised and they built a school and a church. The church

5984-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

6072-460: The three coastal forts which included Gramvousa. With the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence , the fort fell to the insurgents' hands. In 1823, Emmanouil Tombazis , the Greek provisional government's commissioner for Crete, failed to strengthen the defences at Gramvousa when he had the opportunity, soon after his arrival on the island. Towards the summer of 1825, a body of three to four hundred Cretans, who had fought with other Greeks in

6160-482: The uninhabited island is a popular tourist attraction in Crete. The island can easily be accessed from Plaka, Elounda and Agios Nikolaos . Tourist boats depart regularly from all three towns, and the island receives hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. A small snack bar is present near the dock. It is the second most-visited location in Crete (after the Palace of Knossos ), and sixth in Greece overall. Spinalonga

6248-447: The various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

6336-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between

6424-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

6512-415: Was able to acquire further funding from Sandoz in exchange for also filming a documentary on the island. This became the film L'Ordre (1973). The island was declared an archeological site in 1976, and some demolition took place in the late 1970s. Born has stated that the Greek state of the period "...seeking to erase the stain on their reputation, wanted to destroy all evidence of the leper colony." By

6600-566: Was also used as a shooting location for Werner Herzog 's Last Words (1968). Remoundakis continued his activism on behalf of lepers from hospital, aiming to raise awareness of the issue. Born made contact with the surviving former residents and co-wrote a book with Remoundakis in 1972. Born's funding, which was derived from the Paris Institute of the Environment ( French : Institut de l’Environnement ) ran out that year, but he

6688-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

6776-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

6864-423: Was associated with extreme stigma at the time, and families of those who were sent to Spinalonga often avoided mentioning their connection to the place. The names of lepers were struck from the registries of their home towns when they were sent to Spinalonga. Lepers generally arrived at the southern dock. Some sources refer to this entrance as " Dante 's Gate", which allegedly bore an inscription that read "I lead to

6952-503: Was built between 1579 and 1584 during Venetian rule over Crete to defend the island from the Ottoman Turks . The fort remained in Venetian hands throughout the prolonged Cretan War , and in the treaty of 16 September 1669, which surrendered Crete to the Ottomans, Gramvousa, along with the fortresses of Souda and Spinalonga , was retained by Venice. These three forts defended Venetian trade routes and were also strategic bases in

7040-494: Was called Panagia i Kleftrina and was dedicated to the wives of the klephts , namely the pirates. In 1828, the new governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias , sent Alexander Mavrocordatos with British and French ships to Crete to deal with the pirates. This expedition resulted in the destruction of all pirate ships at Gramvousa and the fort came under British control. On 5 January 1828, on Kapodistrias' orders Hatzimichalis Dalianis landed at Gramvousa with 700 men. During

7128-399: Was established and a donated record player would allow patrons to listen to music. A number of children were born on the island, some of whom survived to be delivered to relatives on the mainland. A ban on mirrors was enforced by the Brotherhood, as the lepers did not want to see themselves. World War II had a deleterious effect on conditions on the island, as Greece came under occupation by

7216-440: Was formally dropped in 1955, though Spinalonga continued to operate. The Greek director Líla Kourkoulákou  [ fr ] shot a documentary film on Spinalonga entitled The Island of Silence  [ fr ] . The film was groundbreaking. The fact that it depicted the actual lepers was considered controversial, as it went against the then-prevailing view of Greece in film as "a sunny country with handsome shepherds". It

7304-419: Was lucrative; work by UNESCO in 2016 found that 22% of tourists were visiting because of the media adaptations, while a further 40% had consumed those works. After a problem with tourists desecrating graves, the bones of the deceased were removed and placed in a ossuary next to the cemetery with new plaques in 2013. European Union funding was granted in 2014 to restore 16 structures and improve accessibility on

7392-563: Was on the brink of declaring a total end to local transmission of leprosy. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of

7480-705: Was one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. While historically a devastating condition, modern treatments now exist. Isolation of patients has not been medically necessary since the 1940s, but in many developed countries continued until the 1980s. The remaining leper colonies in Europe generally have a very small population of elderly lepers who contracted the illness before widespread availability of treatment. Surviving colonies include Tichilești in eastern Romania , Fontilles in Spain and Talsi in Latvia. As of 2022, Europe

7568-528: Was screened at the Venice Film Festival , and was the first time a female Greek director had been represented at an international film festival. The controversy contributed to the closure of the island's leper colony. A British expert visited and wrote a report criticising the Greek state for its failure to care for the residents. The film was ultimately not commercially successful when it was released broadly in 1959. The lepers were transferred to

7656-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

7744-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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