Elaphonisos boasts a brilliant and rare prehistoric civilization, the world’s oldest submerged city, Pavlopetri, several Early Helladic settlements, and, in general, a unique cultural and natural environment.
Even the most recent prehistoric and classical civilizations of Elafonisos are adorned with monuments and magnificent temples, carriage-free streets, and more.
Her mythological and historical journey is linked to Aphrodite of Kythira and Smigopelagi, Glaucus, Seilenos, the Graces, the Odyssey, the Phoenicians, the Cilicians, Paris and Helen of Troy, the Peloponnesian War and the Athenian occupation, Thucydides, the Romans, Byzantium, the castles, and the vigles, piracy, Don Quixote, the Venetian-Turkish naval battles, the Portolans, the rescue of T. Kolokotronis and L. Katsonis, the admiralty of A. Miaoulis, the naval bases of the War of Independence, Cochrane, Kapodistrias, the decision made at Sarakiniko-Elafonisos regarding the Battle of Navarino and the liberation of Greece, and much more.
Over the past thousand years of foreign rule, Elafonisos—following its destruction by the Saracens in the mid-9th century—came under the control of M. Venieris in 1207, in 1316 to Leontas Kasimatis, in 1364 to the Venetians, in 1385 to the Venieris family, in the 16th century to the Venetians, in 1715 to the Turks, and in 1797 to the French under the Treaty of Campoformio. In 1800, the Treaty of Constantinople recognized the Septinsular State, which included Elafonisos among the Ionian Islands, as explicitly stated in the resolution of the Legislative Assembly on January 22, 1804.
In 1807, Elafonisos fell back into French hands, and in 1809, it fell into British hands.
The liberation of the first inhabited island of the Ionian Islands—Elafonisos—on July 6, 1850, and the role played by Mani in this historic event.
In 1828, Kapodistrias carried out the de facto annexation of Elafonisos to Greece.
An Anglo-Greek conflict ensued, which culminated (along with a series of other events) in 1849–1850. The British blockaded Greek ports (events known as the Parker Affair), and the issue was taken up by the French National Assembly and by Russia, which, through Persiani, declared that it was protecting (together with France) the islands of Elafonisos and Sapientz. Finally, on July 6, 1850, Foreign Minister Andreas Lontos signed a treaty with England, under which Elafonisos and Sapienza were permanently incorporated into Greece.
In fact, it was the first inhabited island in the Ionian Islands to be liberated from the British... and also the first island in the Kythira archipelago to gain its independence.
Mani also made a significant contribution to the liberation of Elafonisos, because Tzanetakis (from the renowned Grigorakis family) founded the settlement of Elafonisos in 1837. It should be noted that during that same period, the island belonged to the British, and it was primarily on this basis that Greek governments laid claim to Elafonisos.
Elaphonisos and the Smigopelagos Cultural Association of the region celebrated this historic anniversary of Elaphonisos’s union with Greece for the first time on July 6, 2003, after 153 full years, pursuant to Presidential Decree 54/2003.
The cultural and social significance of the anniversary
The Historical Anniversary of Elafonisos is a celebration of the roots of the Ionian, Mani, and Laconia, a paean to the Nereid Cradle of the Minoan, Cycladic, and Mycenaean civilizations; a foretaste and prelude to victory for the maritime, island-crowned, and inter-island culture of the South; a compass for the unknown cyan-veined, multi-pathways of the South and a geocultural harbinger for an Island-Crowned Confederacy of the Carved and White-Thoraced Batiks, of Smigopelagi Elafonisos and the Sea-Gazing Kythira and Antikythira.
Dr. Konstantinos Mentis, son of Sp. Author, University Professor, Historical Researcher President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Scientists of Elafonisos
