Lefkada Λευκάδα | |
|---|---|
 View ofLefkada (city) | |
  Lefkada Location within the region  | |
| Coordinates:38°43′N20°39′E / 38.717°N 20.650°E /38.717; 20.650 | |
| Country | Greece |
| Administrative region | Ionian Islands |
| Regional unit | Lefkada |
| Area | |
• Municipality | 333.6 km2 (128.8 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[1] | |
• Municipality | 21,900 |
| • Density | 66/km2 (170/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Website | lefkada |
Lefkada (Greek:Λευκάδα,Lefkáda,[lefˈkaða]), also known asLefkas orLeukas[2] (Ancient Greek andKatharevousa: Λευκάς,Leukás,modern pronunciationLefkás) andLeucadia, is aGreekisland in theIonian Sea on the west coast of Greece, connected to the mainland by a longcauseway andfloating bridge. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality isLefkada.[3] It is situated on the northern part of the island, approximately 25 minutes by automobile away fromAktion National Airport. The island is part of theregional unit of Lefkada.
Lefkada measures 35 kilometres (22 miles) from north to south, and 15 kilometres (9 miles) from east to west. The area of the island is about 302 square kilometres (117 sq mi), the area of the municipality (including the islandsKalamos,Kastos and several smaller islets) is 333.58 km2 (128.80 sq mi).[4] Its highest point is the mountainStavrota, at 1,158 metres (3,799 feet)above sea level,[5] situated in the middle of the island. The east coast section of the island has smallresorts ofLygia,Nikiana andPerigiali, all north ofNidri, the largest resort on the island. It is set in a sheltered location with views across toSkorpios (formerly owned byAristotle Onassis),Meganisi and other small islands, as well as the Greek mainland. The main coastal road from Lefkada to Vasiliki runs through the village, although a bypass has now been completed which skirts the village to the west. There are regular car ferries toKefalonia,Ithaca andMeganissi.
20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Nidri is the resort ofVasiliki, awindsurfing center. There are ferries to Kefalonia and Ithaca from Vasiliki. South of Vasiliki is Cape Lefkada, whereCephalus and theGreek female poetSappho allegedly leapt to their death from the 30 m high cliffs on two separate occasions.[6]
The famous beach ofPorto Katsiki is located on Lefkada's west coast. Lefkada was attached to mainland Greece (see below about Homer's Ithaca being Lefkada). TheCorinthians dug a trench in the 7th century BC on its isthmus.[7]
The southernmost tip of the island is calledCape Dukato, a name sometimes applied to the whole island.
The island has a typicalMediterranean climate with hot summers and cool winters, orCsa according to theKöppen climate classification system.[8]
The island is linked toOdysseus, the hero ofHomer's Odyssey, who ruled it and neighboring islands from Ithaca. TheGerman archaeologistWilhelm Dörpfeld, having performed excavations at various locations of Lefkada, was able to obtain funding to do work on the island by suggesting that Lefkada wasHomer's Ithaca, and thepalace of Odysseus was located west ofNydri on the south coast of Lefkada. There have been suggestions by local tourism officials that several passages in theOdyssey point to Lefkada as a possible model for Homeric Ithaca. The most notable of these passages pushed by the local tourism board describes Ithaca as an island reachable on foot, which was the case for Lefkada since it is not really an island, being connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. According toStrabo, the coast ofAcarnania was called Leucas in earlier times.
The ancient sources call Leucas a Corinthian colony, perhaps with aCorcyraen participation.[9] There was a cult to Apollo Leucatos at the south western cape of the island, where white cliffs stand that may have given its name to the island. This was a site where criminals were thrown (hence "Leucadian trial") in order to judge their guilt or innocence from their injury at the fall.[10] Furthermore, according to legend, it was the jumping spot ofSappho when she committed suicide out of frustrated love and also that ofArtemisia of Caria, and therefore may have some connection toAphrodite.
During thePeloponnesian War, Leucas joined thePeloponnesian League.[11] Later, the town was conquered during the 3rd century BC byAgathocles of Syracuse and was annexed to the Roman Republic in the next century, during their conquest of Greece. The famous navalbattle of Actium was fought not far away, to the north east.
Inmedieval British legend,Brutus of Troy found Lefkada abandoned after pirate attacks, and after offering a sacrifice to a statue ofDiana in the temple of a ruined city there, was granted a vision telling him to go toBritain and found an empire.[12]
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No information survives on the island during the earlyByzantine period,[13] when the town possibly disappeared in the turmoils of theMigration Period.[14] Nevertheless, unlike the Epirote mainland, where widespreadSlavic settlement is attested from the late 6th until mid-8th centuries,[15] only a handful of traces attest to a Slavic settlement in Lefkada.[13]
Information continues to be sparse during the middle Byzantine period. The island is attested as a bishopric at theFourth Council of Constantinople in 879, and was raised to archbishopric under EmperorLeo VI the Wise (r. 886–912).[13] Administratively, it was likely part of theTheme of Cephallenia.[13]Liutprand of Cremona visited the island during his 968 embassy to Constantinople. In 1099 it was raided byDagobert of Pisa, and it is mentioned inal-Idrisi's geography in the mid-12th century.[13]
TheRepublic of Venice was accorded privileges in the island in 1198 and possession of the island in thetreaty of partition of the Byzantine Empire in 1204.[13] Lefkada apparently became part of theDespotate of Epirus, although this is not explicitly attested until 1259.[13]
The nameSanta Maura is first attested for the island and its capital in 1292, when Genoese ships in Byzantine employ raided it.[16] In 1295, theDespot of EpirusNikephoros I Komnenos Doukas ceded the island to his son-in-law, theCount palatine of Cephalonia and ZakynthosJohn I Orsini.[17] Orsini soon after received permission fromCharles II of Naples to build a castle there,[18] which became the core of theCastle of Santa Maura.[17]
The Orsini family lost Lefkada in 1331 toWalter VI of Brienne, who in 1343 ceded thecastrum Sancte Maure and the island to the VenetianGraziano Giorgio.[19][16] In 1360/62,Leonardo I Tocco seized Lefkada, assuming the title of duke (dux Lucate), whence the island is sometimes also referred to as "the Duchy" (el Ducato and variants thereof) in Western sources of the period.[13][20] The local Orthodox archbishop was evicted.[13] AfterAlbanian clans took over much of Epirus in the 1350s and 1360s,[21][22] they launched frequent attacks on the island between 1375 and 1395.[13]Carlo I Tocco (r. 1376–1429) made the island the capital of his domains, which apart from the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos also included much of the Epirote mainland, and enlarged the fortified town.[14]
In 1413, thePrince of Achaea,Centurione II Zaccaria, launched an attack on Lefkada and its castle with Albanian mercenaries, but were defeated with help from theRepublic of Venice.[16] TheOttomans captured most of Epirus[14] and raided the island, leading the Tocci to consider ceding it to the Venetians.[13]
Faced with expanding Ottoman power in the mainland, the Tocci became vassals of the Ottoman sultans.[14] The last of them,Leonardo III Tocco (r. 1448–1479) was helped to maintain his rule through his marriage toMilica Branković, a niece ofthe highly esteemed stepmother of the Ottoman sultanMehmed the Conqueror (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481); but when she died, he married the Aragonese Francesca Marzano. The couple quickly became hated by their Greek subjects due to their oppressive taxation.[23] Lefkada, along with Cephalonia and Zakynthos, was captured by the Ottoman admiralGedik Ahmed Pasha in 1479. Part of the population was deported toConstantinople as part of Mehmed's policy to repopulate his capital.[24]
The Ottomans called the islandLevkada (Ottoman Turkish:لفكادة orلفقادة), with the name Aya Mavra (ايامورة, from GreekΑγία Μαύρα, meaning "Santa Maura") reserved for the castle and capital of the island, where almost the entire population lived.[14] Under Ottoman rule, it was initially akaza of thesanjak ofKarli-Eli, which fromc. 1550 belonged to theEyalet of the Archipelago, subordinated to the chief admiral of theOttoman navy, theKapudan Pasha.[14] Thekaza of Lefkada comprised not only the island, but also part of the adjoining mainland.[24] The Venetians briefly occupied the island in 1502–03 during theSecond Ottoman–Venetian War, but returned it to the Ottomans in the final peace settlement.[17][25] With about a thousand inhabitants inc. 1530, the town of Lefkada was both the largest settlement and the main military installation in thesanjak, with 111 soldiers and 9 artillerymen.[24] As with the rest of thesanjak, at the time the entire population appears to have been Christian, and only the fortress garrisons and administrators were Muslim; thus the only mosques were located inside the fortresses.[24]
A lack of water led to the construction of a 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) longaqueduct from the island's interior to the town in 1564, during the reign of SultanSuleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566). Bringing water to the walled town as well as to the much larger—some 700–800 houses—open town that had grown around it was one of the most important works of Ottoman civil architecture in the western Balkans. On top of the aqueduct was a footpath that provided the only access to the island other than by the sea.[26] In the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat at theBattle of Lepanto, the castle was unsuccessfully besieged by the forces of theHoly League. As a result, it was completely rebuilt and enlarged by theKapudan PashaKılıç Ali Pasha in 1572–1574 into a hexagonal fortress with large towers as artillery platforms.[27]
In the 17th century, Lefkada became a separatesanjak within the Eyalet of the Archipelago, although according toEvliya Çelebi it belonged briefly to theMorea Eyalet in the 15th and 17th centuries.[28] Evliya visited the island in 1670/71 and left a long and accurate description of the fortifications as well as of the town, where Islam had apparently made considerable progress. According to Evliya, the walled town boasted fiveFriday mosques, including an Imperial Mosque (Hünkar Camii), which was a converted church, a minor mosque (masjid), amadrasa, two schools (maktab), a bath (hammam), and five public fountains (çeshme). The walled town with its 200 stone houses was now occupied exclusively by Muslims, while the two suburbs (varosh) to the east and west were built of wood and had a mixed population. The western one was far larger, with 300 houses to 40–50 in the eastern one, and had a wooden mosque andmasjid, atekke, amaktab, twocaravanserais, as well as seven small churches. Evliya remarks that this suburb had many wineshops, which were popular with both the inhabitants and the garrison.[29] Another suburb (theVarosh-i Lefqada) was located on the island itself, with some 700 houses, all of them inhabited by Christian Greeks, who had 20 churches.[30] Evliya's account is corroborated byJacob Spon andGeorge Wheler's account that the town had about 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants, mostly Greeks or Turks.[30]
According to the descriptions of travellers like Evliya, Lefkada was an urban centre of some importance, boasting "two of the largest works of Ottoman civil and military architecture in the Western Balkans", namely the aqueduct built by SultanSuleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566) and theCastle of Santa Maura, which was completely rebuilt byKılıç Ali Pasha in the reign of SultanSelim II (r. 1566–1574).[14]
The island was conquered by the Venetians underFrancesco Morosini following asixteen-day siege in 1684, during the opening stages of theMorean War.[25][30] Morosini evacuated the walled town and demolished both it and the two suburbs directly outside the walls, turning them into the castle'sglacis. Only the island suburb remained, known as "Amaxiki" until the 19th century. With the evicted inhabitants settling there, this became the main town of the island, the predecessor of the modern city of Lefkada. The Venetians also removed all buildings associated with Islam.[30]
The Venetians modernized the castle in the 1710s, removing the last traces of the medieval castle and addingoutworks towards the eastern, mainland side.[30] During theSeventh Ottoman–Venetian War, following theOttoman reconquest of the Morea in 1715, the Venetians initially abandoned Lefkada to focus their resources on the defence ofCorfu. The castle was abandoned and partly demolished, but after theSiege of Corfu ended in a Venetian victory, the island was reoccupied and the fortifications restored.[31]
Venetian rule over the island was uninterrupted, apart from a rebellion of the local Greeks in 1769, until theFall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.[30]
Following the end of the Republic of Venice in 1797, Lefkada, like the otherVenetian Ionian Islands, wasoccupied by the French, who held it until a Russo-Turkish expedition underFyodor Ushakov captured it in 1799.[32] In 1800, theSeptinsular Republic was established, a Russian protectorate underde jure Ottoman suzerainty. The Russian Empire employed troops recruited from fugitiveklephts andarmatoloi in the Ionian Islands, particularly of Lefkada. Among these were captains Anastasios Tselios and Apostolos Levendakis, the latter of whom in 1802 offered to raise a company of 60 fighters on Lefkada to support the Russians.[33]Ali Pasha of Ioannina, who coveted possession of the Ionian Islands, besieged Lefkada in 1807. For this purpose he erected two forts on the mainland shore, theTekke Castle and theSt. George's Castle, but his attacks on the Castle of Santa Maura were successfully repulsed by the local Russian and Greek forces of the Septinsular Republic.[30][34]French rule was restored in 1807 after theTreaty of Tilsit, but in 1810, the Britishcaptured the island.[35][36] In 1815, the United Kingdom set up theUnited States of the Ionian Islands as a protectorate, including Lefkada.
Much of the town, including the Ottoman aqueduct, was destroyed in an earthquake in 1825. After this, the town was rebuilt in wood to prevent similar damage.[37] In 1864 the islands wereceded to Greece.[30] The island then numbered about 24,000 inhabitants.[30]
The first museum in Europe forLafcadio Hearn, who was born on the island and is named after it, was inaugurated in Lefkada on July 4, 2014, as Lafcadio Hearn Historical Center. It contains early editions, rare books and Japanese collectibles. The visitors, through photos, texts and exhibits, can wander in the significant events of Lafcadio Hearn's life, and also in the civilizations of Europe, America and Japan of late 19th and early 20th centuries through the open mind of his lectures, writings and tales. The municipalities of Kumamoto, Matsue, Shinjuku, Yaizu, as well as Toyama University, the Koizumi family, and other people from Japan and Greece contributed to the establishment of the Lafcadio Hearn Historical Center.
The present municipality of Lefkada was formed in the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 7 former municipalities, which became municipal units:[3]
The municipality covers the island of Lefkada and the smaller islands ofKastos andKalamos.
Regional Development department, part ofIonian university based in Lefkada.[38]
The Island of Lefkada and the town ofVasiliki are known as a hotspot for extreme sport lovers. The island has become a favorite spot for windsurfers. Another sport is the 4X4 events and opportunities for offroad activities.[39]
(in chronological order)
These troops were recruited from among the fugitive klephtes and armatoloi residing on the Ionian Islands, particularly Lefkas. Among these men were the Captains Anastasios Tselios and Apostolos Levendakls. Tselios was a member of a prominent family of armatoloi from Xeromeros in southwestern Greece. As early as 1802, he had offered his services to the Septinsular Republic, proposing to raise and command a company of sixty men on Lefkas. ... In April 1806, this kapitanios and his men were among a number of refugee armatoloi on Lefkas. including the kapitanaioi Skylodemos, Stratos, Giannes Kolovelones, Konstantes Poules, Giorgakes — — 72 Varnakiotes and others. By June ...
| Regional unit ofCorfu |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Regional unit ofCephalonia | ||
| Regional unit ofIthaca | ||
| Regional unit ofLefkada | ||
| Regional unit ofZakynthos | ||
| ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
