Σπιναλόγκα, το νησί των λεπρών - Spinalonga, the island of lepers

Η Σπιναλόγκα είναι ένα μικρό νησί, μόλις 85 στρεμμάτων, στην είσοδο του κόλπου της Ελούντας στον Νομό Λασιθίου. Πάνω στα πετρώδη και άνυδρα εδάφη της γράφτηκαν μερικές από τις πιο μαύρες σελίδες πόνου, δυστυχίας και απαξίωσης της ανθρώπινης ζωής.

Οι απόκληροι της ζωής
Το νησί έρχεται και πάλι στην επικαιρότητα, από την τηλεοπτική σειρά “Το νησί” που βασίζεται στο ομώνυμο βιβλίο της Βικτώριας Χίσλοπ. Το 1715 κατελήφθη από τους Τούρκους, ενώ στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα υπολογίζεται ότι κατοικούνταν από περισσότερες των 200 οικογενειών. Το 1903, όμως, έμελλε ο χαρακτήρας του νησιού να αλλάξει δραματικά, όταν ο ύπατος αρμοστής της Κρητικής Πολιτείας πρίγκιπας Γεώργιος αποφάσισε να το μετατρέψει σε λεπροκομείο, μεταφέροντας τους ασθενείς που ζούσαν στην περιοχή “Μεσκινιά” έξω από το Ηράκλειο, επειδή αποτελούσαν, όπως πίστευαν εκείνη την εποχή, εστία μόλυνσης για τις γύρω περιοχές.
Στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα, η λέπρα (ή νόσος του Χάνσεν, ή “λώβη”) βρισκόταν σε ιδιαίτερη έξαρση και οι ασθενείς λόγω της αποκρουστικής τους όψης προκαλούσαν τρόμο στους τοπικούς πληθυσμούς. Επίσης, εκτός από τον ασθενή, στιγματιζόταν και ολόκληρη η οικογένειά του και καταδικαζόταν σε απομόνωση, ενώ αποκαλούσαν τα μέλη της “λεπρόσογο”. Η κρατική μέριμνα ήταν παντελώς ανύπαρκτη και οι ασθενείς διαγράφονταν ακόμη και από τα δημοτολόγια, ζώντας αποκλειστικά από την ελεημοσύνη των συνανθρώπων τους.

English
Spinalonga is a small island, just 85 acres, at the entrance to the Gulf of Elounda in the Prefecture of Lasithi. On its stony and arid lands were written some of the darkest pages of pain, misery and degradation of human life.

Spinalonga is a small island, just 85 acres, at the entrance of the bay of Elounda in the Prefecture of Lassithi. On its stony and arid soils were written some of the blackest pages of pain, misery and depreciation of human life.

The Outcasts of Life
The island is back in the news, from the TV series “The Island” based on the book of the same name by Victoria Hislop. In 1715 it was occupied by the Turks, while at the end of the 19th century it is estimated that more than 200 families were inhabited. In 1903, however, the character of the island was to change dramatically, when the High Commissioner of the Cretan State, Prince George, decided to turn it into a leperhouse, transporting the patients who lived in the area of “Meskinia” outside Heraklion, because they were, as they believed, at that time, a source of infection for the surrounding areas.

At the beginning of the 20th century, leprosy (or Hansen disease, or “loss”) was in particular flare-up and patients because of their repulsive appearance were causing terror in local populations. Also, in addition to the patient, his entire family was stigmatized and sentenced to solitary confinement while calling its members “prosodos”. State care was completely non-existent and patients were even erased from the demobooks, living exclusively from the alms of their fellow human beings.

The new leper's prison
In the first decades of the 20th century when the leperhouse operated in Spinalonga, people did not know that most of the population had natural immunity against the disease and the risk of transmission of leprosy was very small, since the basic hygiene conditions were observed. Thus, an islet near the shore, for the easy transport of food and supplies, was the ideal solution for the isolation of patients and the supposed protection of the healthy population. In addition, the housing of patients was easy and inexpensive, since there were many empty houses, after the departure of its Muslim inhabitants.
The transfer of the lepers, however, also served a second hidden purpose: the removal of the last Turkish families from Spinalonga, which refused to withdraw from the control area of the Cretan State. With the installation of lepers on the island, the remaining Muslim residents abandoned it without a second thought. On December 14, 1904, the first 251 lepers from all over Crete were transferred to the leprospario of Spinalonga, which took the name “Agios Panteleimon”, the first 251 lepers from all over Crete. Then, after 1913, patients were gradually transferred from the rest of Greece, but also from foreign countries, increasing the number of patients to more than one thousand. Spinalonga was transformed at that time into an “International Leprosarium”, without any substantial organization, with characteristics of a real slum.

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