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 Above: Spinalonga Island. Originally the region was depopulated in the middle of the 7th century because of the raids of Arab Pirates. It remained deserted until the 15th century upon the arrival of the Venetians. With the emerging Turkish threat, and pirate raids, the Venetians fortified the island. The Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli reported that Spinalonga was not always an island, but was once linked with the adjacent Peninsula Spinalonga. He mentioned that in 1526 the Venetians cut down a portion of the peninsula to create the island. In 1715, the Ottoman Turks finally captured Spinalonga, years after conquering Crete in 1669. The Cretans took back Crete by 1878 from the Turks, but the Turks stayed on Spinalonga until leaving in 1903. The island was subsequently used as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957, one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. The last inhabitant, a priest, left the island in 1962.
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