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Skopelos

The island was probably inhabited in the Neolithic period. Its ancient name was Peparithos and it refers to the pro-Greek Micro-Asians who settled in the Aegean around the years (2800-2000B.C.). Around the year 1600 B.C. the island was inhabited by the Cretes.

At the extension of the Stafylos seashore, there is peninsula. At the edge of the peninsula the grave of Stafylos has been discovered. His sword is considered to be the most important example of art in the Micenean and Minoan world. Its handle is covered by gold, a worthy sword of an important king,

In the 13th B.C. century the island was seized by the Ilkon King Pelias. The island declined for a long time but from 600 B.C. the exporting of wine and oil of the island brought prosperity. In the classic times the Peparithians were allies with the Athenians, but after the battle of Cheronia 338 B.C. the island was seized by the Macedonians until 146 B.C. when the Romans seized all of Greece.

The name Skopelos appeared for the first time in texts that Ptolemeos had written in the 2nd century A.D. and it is probably due to the many shoals that are around the island. In the 4th century A.D. the island was under Christian rule. After the conquest of Constantinopolis from the Franks, the island was united with the Duke of Naxos and then passed on to the governor of Gizi in the years on the Emperor Michael H'Palaiologou and it was sized until 1453 A.D. where the residents offered their island to the Venetians to escape from the Turks.

In 1538 A.D. the Algerian Pirate Chaerentin Barbarosa came to the island and slaughtered the inhabitants. Around the year 1600 A.D. those who had survived, had found shelter in Evia and Thessalia, returned back to the island. Then the Turkish occupation started. The residents were self-governed and were only obliged to send to the Pasha their taxes and thirty sailors who served one year in the Turkish navy. A Turk never settled on the island.

Skopelos finally entered the Greek government in 1830. In World War II first came the Italians and then the Germans. Then there was the liberation, which brought the civil war, and poverty along with it. A thrust of immigration commenced since 1980 with the development of the tourist industry.

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