Spinalonga Fort

Spinalonga, a coastal fortress in the Gulf of Elounda, northeastern Crete, has been in relatively good condition since its Venetian construction began in 1574. Its modern fame rests less on its military past than on its role as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957, one of the last in Europe; the final resident, a priest, departed in 1962. Strategically, it guarded Venetian trade routes, and the cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli claimed the Venetians severed it from the mainland in 1526. Fortification works ran from 1579 to 1586, with engineer Genese Bressani designing blockhouses and a coastal ring, later strengthened by hilltop defences in 1584. During the Cretan War it sheltered Greek rebels, and it remained Venetian until 1715, when the Ottomans took it, the last such stronghold to fall. Ottoman families later sought refuge there, and after their departure in 1903, the colony began. The name derives from Latin "spina" and "lunga", or possibly from "stin Elounda". Today it is uninhabited, accessible by daily boats, with pebble beaches and shallow waters.