File:Dante’s Gate in Spinalonga fort.jpg

English: Dante’s Gate in Spinalonga fort: From 1903 to 1957, Spinalonga was turned into a Leper Colony. Lepers on Crete – and later across the whole of Crete - were rounded up and sent to the Island.

When you disembark from the boat onto the island, the path from the jetty almost immediately reaches a opening in the old fortress wall, which leads into a long low tunnel, known as Dante’s Gate. The name comes from Dante’s Inferno, and his description of the gate to hell - inscribed with the words “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”. And so – as you disembark and almost immediately plunge into this small low stone tunnel, you sense the fear and trepidation of those arriving as lepers to be locked away on the island.

The island of Spinalonga is located at the eastern section of Crete, near the town of Elounda. The name of the island, Spinalonga, is Venetian, meaning "long thorn".

As a part of the their extensive web of fortifications against the Turkish danger, the Venetians constructed the fortress on Spinalonga in 1579 and provided it with no less than 35 canons. In 1584, realising that the coastal fortifications were easy to conquer by the enemies attacking from the vicinal hills, the Venetians decided to strengthen their defence by constructing new fortifications at the top of the hill. The Venetian fire would thus have bigger throw, rendering Spinalonga an impregnable sea fortress, one of the most important in the Mediterranean basin.

Following the Turkish occupation of Crete in 1669, only the fortresses of Gramvousa, Souda and Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands; they would remain so for almost half a century. Many Christians found refuge in these fortresses to escape persecution. In 1715, during the Eighth Ottoman–Venetian War, the last remaining Venetian outposts on Crete, including Spinalonga, capitulated in exchange for safe departure of their garrisons.

In spite of all this wonderful history Spinalonga is not most famous for it's fortress and it has a much more gloomy claim to fame. From 1903 to 1957 the island was used as a leper colony. It is notable for being one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. This was a place where people with the disease leprosy were forced to live out their lives away from all human contact until the day they died. The last inhabitant, a priest, left the island in 1962 (this was to maintain the religious tradition of the Greek Orthodox church, in which a buried person has to be commemorated 40 days, 6 months, 1, 3 and 5 years after their death).

The island has an aura that is both macabre and poignant. It is now a ghost town, with many of the buildings falling into disrepair, ruins of old Venetian bastions, and the cemetery, final resting place of many sufferers of the disease.