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Lefkada
The first traces of life on the island date back to 8000 B.C. Important settlement finds from near Nydri, from around 2000 B.C., bear witness to a unique culture, related to the one on the continental shores opposite. The Cephalonians and Laertes, the father of Odysseus, defeated the Leleges, the first inhabitants. In fact, according to the archaeologist Dorpfeld, Lefkada can lay claim to being the Homeric Ithaca. Until the 7th Century BC Lefkada constituted a peninsula of the western coast of Greece with which it was unified. The Corinthians cut the isthmus and separated it from the opposite shore. During the 7th century B.C. Nirikos, south of the town of Lefkada, was one of the largest Greek towns. The island was present at the Naval Battle of Salamis, at the battle of Plataia, in the Peloponessian War against the Spartans and it also participated in the campaign of Alexander the Great and resisted the Romans in the 3rd century B.C.
During the Byzantine period, the island was incorporated into the
Despotate of Epirus. This was followed by the long period of the Venetian occupation and the struggle against the Turks who conquered the island in 1503 and stayed for 180 years. In 1684 Lefkada returned to Venetian rule and was granted a rudimentary constitution and acquired a state organization. Later it fell into the hands of the French briefly and the Lefkadians were strongly influenced by the liberal ideas of the French Revolution.
The British appeared in 1810. The Lefkadians fought with all the
means at their disposal in the Greek War of Independence of 1821.
The island was unified with Greece in 1864 along with the rest of
the Ionian Islands. It began its economic recovery in 1960 and
during recent years tourism has offered a great deal to its
development. |
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Lefkada
or Lefkadia owes its name to the steep white cliffs on its
southernmost cape, Lefkata. Here is where legend states the poetess
Sappho took her own life because of her love for Phaon, that was let
down. - RAM UNIVERSAL STUDIOS -