Leros

As many other Greek islands, Leros went through a lot of different “possessions” before it finally was united with Greece again:

It went from the hands of the Roman Empire, over the Byzantine empire, to the ottoman empire which ruled in Leros for about 400 years. Due to the Greek revolution in 1821 theisland was very shortly Greek but then was given to the ottomans again. During world war one and two Leros was occupied by Italians, then Germans, after that Britain’s and finally got reunited to Greece in 1948. So approximately 700 years after the end of Byzantine rule, the Dodecanese islands were finally incorporated into the Greek State again.

Especially the Italians made a big effort from 1912 until 1943 to Italianize the Dodecanese Islands, by making the Italian language mandatory for inhabitants, and trying to make the locals adopt Italian nationality. 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 made it an ideal naval base.

The island was used as a place of internal exile for political dissenters, with old Italian barracks of the island used as a concentration camp.

Besides this messy but therefore really interesting historical background, the Island of Leros has of course also other interesting facts to talk about: The most famous local dance is called Lerikos and many local songs of Leros belong to the most famous among the traditional (nisiotika) music of Greece.

The sea town Lakki has the largest deep water harbour in the Mediterranijan Sea! It was originally built as a new model town in the 1930s by the Italian authorities. This town is one of the best examples of Italian Rationalist architecture.

Today, around 8000 people are living permanently on Leros whereas this number increases up to 15 000 during the summer months due to tourism. The administrative centre and largest town is Agia Marina, with a population of about 2,500 inhabitants.