And the surviving lepers refused to speak of their experiences. Someone donated a record player, which was kept at one of the cafes, and patrons would listen to music.One of the Brotherhood’s most important rules was a ban on mirrors; no-one wished to see themselves. Inquiry or Booking? In 2013, the bones of the deceased were placed in a proper ossuary next to the cemetery and covered with new concrete plaques.The island was silent save for the rustling of the wind moving through the grass and the faint whiz of passing motorboats. I caught my first glimpse of Spinalonga four years ago from a steep hilltop overlooking the sleepy village of Plaka in north-eastern Crete. The expert compiled a damning report, slamming the island doctor and the government for failing to provide proper medical treatment and housing for the victims.The Greek government, knowing they’d failed to care for the people properly, burned all of their files from the island. Someone donated a record player, which was kept at one of the cafes, and patrons would listen to music,” Born told BBC.Tourists began descending on the island in the 1980s and Spinalonga’s popularity increased when author Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2006. Its hospital was closed in 1973 but remnants of the island’s past can be found in graves belonging to adults and children. I took in the spectacular view of the Bay of Mirabello and inhaled the salty scent of the sea.We passed the lonely Church of St George, built centuries ago by the Venetians, and arrived at a small cemetery. I was accompanied by Maurice Born, ethnologist and co-author and translator of Vies et morts d’un Crétois lépreux (Lives and deaths of a Cretan leper), which he wrote with Epaminondas Remoundakis, a leprosy survivor who advocated for improved living conditions and fair treatment of those living on Spinalonga. Call Us Today! Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen’s disease, was described in the Bible as “repulsive” and “unclean”.

You think of is as a biblical or medieval disease but I had not realised that even a control/cure wasn't found until the mid 20th century. The government, anxious to erase any trace of the colony’s existence, burned all its files. At its peak, the colony comprised nearly 400 inhabitants.Leprosy, which causes disfiguring skin sores and debilitating nerve damage, has long carried with it negative social stigmas. It will help a lot. In 1904, after the Cretans evicted the Turks from Spinalonga, the islet was transformed into a leper colony, where, by 1913, after Crete became part of Greece, anyone afflicted with the disease was sent. The sole doctor assigned to the island only made the trip from Plaka if someone was struck by another illness. Suddenly, people were talking; everyone was an expert.
But then, in the 1980s, they realised that the tourists were coming with the specific purpose of visiting the leper colony,” he explained, laughing at the irony.Another arch opened onto what was the commercial street, a shaded strip with shops (something the lepers were only authorised to have as of the 1930s), a cafe and a small school. Strong winds whipped off the Aegean Sea and across the path like a prisoner freed from handcuffs. The government, thrilled at the author’s rose-tinted portrayal of the colony, let them talk, and a romanticised, erroneous story of life in the leper colony was born.We emerged onto a sunny village street lined with the crumbling remains of Venetian and Turkish homes. They were then deported to Spinalonga, where they never received treatment for their disease. In fact, stigmatisation was often so extreme that since ancient times leprosy has been called the ‘death before death’.Since ancient times leprosy has been called the ‘death before death’Once diagnosed, these victims had their property and financial assets seized, their citizenship rights revoked and their identity wiped clean. In severe cases, sufferers’ limbs became disfigured and deformed.To ensure people with Hansen’s disease did not infect the healthy population, they were removed from their homes and sent to colonies for quarantining, far away from their families and friends.Spinalonga was one of those colonies.


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