Kefalonia or Cephalonia (), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (Κεφαλληνία), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th-largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region. It was a former Latin Catholic diocese Kefalonia–Zakynthos (Cefalonia–Zante) and short-lived titular see as just Kefalonia. The largest cities of Cephalonia are Argostoli and Lixouri.
Kefalonia has also been suggested as the Homeric Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, rather than the smaller island bearing this name today. Robert Bittlestone, in his book Odysseus Unbound, has suggested that Paliki, now a peninsula of Cephalonia, was a separate island during the late Bronze Age, and it may be this which Homer was referring to when he described Ithaca. A project which started in the summer of 2007 and lasted three years has examined this possibility.
Kefalonia is also referenced in relation to the goddess Britomartis, as the location where she is said to have 'received divine honours from the inhabitants under the name of Laphria'.
A certain Melampus, from Kefalonia, won the Lyre and Song contest at the Pythian Games at Delphi in 582 BC. Pausanias 10.7.4. 200 hoplites from Pale fought alongside other Greeks against the Persians in the decisive battle at Plataea,Herodotus 9.28 and all four Kefalonian cities allied with Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides 2.30 The island was of strategic value to the Athenians, as it lies close to the entry to the Bay of Corinth. The Corinthians attempted, unsuccessfully, to attack Krane in 431 BC, and, 10 years later, Athens settled a group of Spartan deserters on the island.Thucydides 2.33, 5.35 Finally, a group of Kefalonian soldiers were recruited by the Athenian general Demosthenes as part of the ill-fated Sicilian Expedition in 415-413 BC. Thucydides 7.31
According to Strabo, on Mount Ainos there was a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Ainesios. This temple was also mentioned by Hesiod, and German, French and English explorers in the 18th and 19th century found its remnants
The Kefalonian cities once again contributed troops and ships to broader Greek military events, this time Alexander the Great's invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire. In the subsequent centuries, the island was drawn ever close to the Aetolian League. As a result, it was invaded by the Macedonian king Philip V in 218 BC Polybius 5.3 and then by the Roman Republic in 189 BC, who conquered Same after a protracted siege. Livy 38.28-9 From then onwards, Kefalonia lost its strategic importance, and so declined in social and economic terms. Archaeologically, the Roman period is dominated by lavish villas on the coasts, contrasted with little activity in the old towns. The ancient links to Athens seem to have remained strong, as the emperor Hadrian gifted the island to the city during his reign. Cassius Dio 69.16
Following the loss of the bulk of Italy, and the expansion of the Muslims into the Western Mediterranean, the island became a strategically important base of operations for the Byzantine Empire in the area, blocking Muslim raids into the Adriatic and serving as a bridge for expeditions in Italy. Already from the 8th century, it was the centre of the namesake theme of Cephallenia. At the same time, the capital was moved to the Castle of Saint George, a more well-protected site in the island's interior. Mardaites were resettled in Cephalonia to serve as marines, and political prisoners were sometimes exiled there.
The loss of Byzantine Italy in 1071 diminished Cephalonia's importance, and its administration passed from a military strategos to a civilian judge ( krites). Its main city was besieged by the Italo-Normans in 1085, and the Venetians plundered the island in 1126. Cephalonia was captured during the Third Norman invasion of the Balkans in 1185, and it became part of the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos under the Kingdom of Sicily and Venetian suzerainty, until its last Count Leonardo III Tocco was defeated and the island conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1479.
From then on Cephalonia and Ithaca remained part of the Stato da Mar of the Venetian Republic until its very end, following the fate of the Ionian islands, completed by the capture of Lefkas from the Turks in 1684. The Treaty of Campoformio dismantling the Venetian Republic awarded the Ionian Islands to France, a French expeditionary force on ships captured in Venice taking control of the islands in June 1797.
Because of the liberal situation on the island, the Venetian governor Marc'Antonio Giustiniani (1516–1571) printed Hebrew language books and exported them to the whole eastern Mediterranean. In 1596 the Venetians built the Assos Castle, one of Cephalonia's main tourist attractions today. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the island was one of the largest exporters of Zante currant in the world with Zakynthos, and owned a large shipping fleet, even commissioning ships from the Danzig shipyard. Its towns and villages were mostly built high on hilltops, to prevent attacks from raiding parties of pirates that sailed the Ionian Sea during the 1820s.
In the following year, 1798, the French were forced to yield the Ionian Islands to a combined Russian and Turkish fleet. From 1799 to 1807, Cephalonia was part of the Septinsular Republic, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, but protected by Russian Empire.
By the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, the Ionian Islands were ceded back to France, which remained in control of Cephalonia until 1809. In 1809, the British established a blockade on the Ionian Islands as part of their conflict with France, and in September of that year they hoisted the Union Flag above the castle of Zakynthos. Cephalonia and Ithaca soon surrendered, and the British installed provisional governments. The Treaty of Paris in 1815 recognised the United States of the Ionian Islands and decreed that it become a British protectorate. Colonel Charles Philippe de Bosset became provisional governor between 1810 and 1814. During this period he was credited with achieving many public works, including the Drapano Bridge, which later became known as the De Bosset Bridge, over the bay of Argostoli.
A few years later Greek nationalist groups started to form. Although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting the Greeks in the revolution against the Ottoman Empire, it soon started to turn towards the British. By 1848, calls for enosis with Greece were gaining strength and there were rebellions against British rule in Argostoli and Lixouri, which led to some relaxation in the laws and to freedom of the press. Union with Greece was now a declared aim, and in 1849, as revolution was sweeping across Europe, a growing restlessness resulted in another rebellion against the British state, which was suppressed by the island's governor, Sir Henry George Ward when 21 people were hanged, several were shot and hundreds were flogged by the cat-o-nine-tails.
Cephalonia, along with the other islands, were transferred to Greece in 1864 as a gesture of goodwill when the British-supported Prince William of Denmark became King George the First of the Hellenes.
Approximately five thousand of the nine thousand surviving Italian soldiers were executed in reprisal by the German forces. The book Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, which was later made into a film, is based on this event. While the war ended in central Europe in 1945, Cephalonia remained in a state of conflict due to the Greek Civil War. Peace returned to Greece and the island in 1949.
A series of four earthquakes hit the island in August 1953, and caused major destruction, with virtually every house on the island destroyed. The third and most destructive of the quakes took place on 12 August 1953 at 09:24 UTC (11:24 Time zone), with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Moment magnitude scale. Its Epicenter was directly south of the southern tip of Cephalonia, and caused the entire island to be raised higher, where it remains, with evidence in water marks on rocks around the coastline.
The 1953 Ionian earthquake disaster caused huge destruction, with only regions in the north escaping the heaviest tremors and houses there remaining intact. Damage was estimated to run into tens of millions of dollars, equivalent to billions of Modern drachma, but the real damage to the economy occurred when residents left the island. The majority of the population left the island soon after, seeking a new life elsewhere.
In mid-November 2003, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter magnitude scale caused minor damage to business, residential property, and other buildings in and near Argostoli. The damage was around Euro1,000,000.
On the morning of 20 September 2005, an early-morning earthquake shook the south-western part of the island, especially near Lixouri and nearby villages. The earthquake measured 4.9 on the Richter magnitude scale, and its epicentre was located off the island at sea. Service vehicles took care of the area, and no damage was reported. From 24 to 26 January 2006, a major snowstorm blanketed the entire island, causing extensive blackouts. The island was recently struck yet again by another forest fire in the south of the island, beginning of 18 July 2007 during an unusual heatwave, and spreading slowly. Firefighters along with helicopters and planes battled the blaze for some days and the spectacle frightened residents on that area of the island.
In 2011, the eight former municipalities of the island lost their independence to form one united municipality. After losing its role as the capital of the island in the 19th century, Lixouri lost also its role as a seat of a municipality after 500 years. The Technological Educational Institute of the Ionian Islands closed one faculty in Lixouri and one in Argostoli.
In January 2014, an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter magnitude scale left at least seven injured. There are reports of minor injuries and some damage to property," said the Foreign Office, on its website. "The airport remains operational but there may be some disruption to port services."
Archaeological finds go back to 40,000 Before Present. The Mycenaean Greece, from approximately 1500 BC to 1100 BC contains. The archaeological museum in Cephalonia's capital, although small, is of great importance due to its exhibits from this era.
The most important archaeological discovery in Cephalonia (and indeed in Greece) of recent decades is that, in 1991, of the Mycenaean Tholos tomb at the outskirts of Tzanata, near Poros in southeastern Cephalonia (former Municipality of Elios-Pronni) in a setting of olive trees, cypresses, and oaks. The tomb was erected around 1300 BC; kings and highly ranked officials were buried in such tombs during the Mycenaean period. It is the largest tholos tomb yet found in northwestern Greece, and was excavated by archaeologist Lazaros Kolonas. The size of the tomb, the nature of the burial offerings found there, and its well-chosen position point to the existence of an important Mycenaean town in the vicinity.
In late 2006, a Roman grave complex was uncovered as the foundation of a new hotel was being excavated in Fiskardo. The remains date to the period between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD. Archaeologists described it as the most important find of its kind in the Ionian Islands. Inside the complex, five burial sites were found, including a large vaulted tomb and a stone coffin, along with gold earrings and rings, gold leaves that may have been attached to ceremonial clothing, glass and ceramic pots, bronze artefacts decorated with masks, a bronze lock and bronze coins. The tomb had escaped the attention of Grave robbing and remained undisturbed for thousands of years. When the tomb was opened the stone door easily swung on its stone hinges. A Roman theatre was discovered very near the tomb, so well preserved that the metal joints between the seats were still intact.
A dissertation published in 1987 claims that Paul the Apostle, on his way from Palestine to Rome in 59 AD, was shipwrecked and confined for three months not on Malta but on Cephalonia.Loggerhead Turtles In Agnes Seppelfricke: Paulus war nie auf Malta
According to Clement of Alexandria, the island had the largest community of Carpocratians, an early Gnostic Christian sect, because Carpocrates lived on the island.
In more recent times, the population reached 70,000, in 1896, but declined gradually in the 20th century. The great 1953 Ionian earthquake forced many people to leave the island. Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca – excerpt. Robert Bittlestone, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Page relating the account of a local to the 1953 great earthquake. Many of those who left moved to Patras or Athens, or emigrated to America and Australia, following relatives who had left the island decades before. In the same period people from poorer areas of Greece such as Epirus and Thrace came to the island. The population has hovered between 35,000 and 42,000 since then; in the 2011 census, it was 35,801.
Most of the indigenous people of Cephalonia have surnames ending in "-atos", such as the Alexatos (Greek language: Αλεξάτος) families, and almost every settlement on the island has a name ending in "-ata", such as Metaxata, Chavriata, Frangata, Lourdata, Favata, Delaportata and others.
The other major islands are: Petalas Island and Asteris Island, but they are uninhabited.
Cephalonia lies in the heart of an earthquake zone, and dozens of minor, unrecorded tremors occur each year. In 1953, a massive earthquake destroyed almost all of the settlements on the island, leaving only Fiskardo in the north untouched.
Important natural features include Melissani Lake, the Drogarati caves, and the Koutavos Lagoon in Argostoli.
The island has a rich biodiversity, with a substantial number of endemic and rare species. Some areas have been declared a site in the European Union's Natura 2000 network.
Forestry is rare on the island; however its timber output is one of the highest in the Ionian islands, although lower than that of Elia in the Peloponnese. Wildfire were common during the 1990s and the early 2000s, and still pose a major threat to the population.
The European pine marten also inhabits the island.
Over 200 species of birds have been spotted on the island.
Most Greek ship-owner families have their origin in the islands of Andros, Chios or Cephalonia.
Until the 1970s, most Cephalonians lived in rural areas, while today, two-thirds of the population lives in urban areas, with the other third in rural towns and villages close to farmland.
The island has a long winemaking tradition and is home to the dry, white lemony wines made from the Robola grape.J. Robinson Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes pg 158 Oxford University Press 1996
Two cultural attractions, the fishing villages of Fiscardo and Assos kefalonia, and other natural attractions, including Melissani Cave underground lake, Drogarati cave and Myrtos Beach, have helped popularize Cephalonia. The film Captain Corelli's Mandolin (film) (2001), filmed on the island, made Cephalonia more widely known. The film was mainly shot in Argostoli, Sami and on Antisamos Beach.
The Ionian Islands also developed a distinctive culture primarily as they did not experience Ottoman occupation, instead having ties to Venice, and musically drew from Italian influences, and Western Harmonics. This evolved into a unique musical style among the Greeks, the Cantada (Serenade) very similar to the Latin/Spanish/Italian Cantar (to sing). The Cantadas are an example of the Ionian music. Cantadas are still very popular and can be heard even today.
The novelists Nikos Kavvadias (1910–1975) and the Swiss (1917–2010) spent parts of their life on the island. The family of Romanian working class writer Panait Istrati was from the island.
Andreas Laskaratos was a satirical poet and wrote about the society in the town of Lixouri.
Perhaps the best known appearance of Cephalonia in popular culture is in the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin, by the English author Louis de Bernières. The book is believed to have been inspired by the village of Farsa, just outside Argostoli. The love story comprising the theme of the book is set before and after the Acqui Division massacre, during the Second World War. A film adaptation was released in 2001. During filming there was lively debate between the production team, Local government as well as groups of citizens, as to the complex historical details of the island's Anti-fascism resistance. As a result, political references were omitted from the film, and the romantic core of the book was preserved, without entering complex debates about the island's history. In 2005, Riccardo Milani made his TV film, Cefalonia, also about the massacre, with music by Ennio Morricone.
In December 2015 the privatisation of Kefalonia Airport and 13 other regional airports of Greece was finalised with the signing of the agreement between the Fraport/Copelouzos Group joint venture and the state privatisation fund. "We signed the deal today," the head of Greece's privatisation agency HRADF, Stergios Pitsiorlas, told Reuters. According to the agreement, the joint venture will operate the 14 airports (including Kefallinia International Airport) for 40 years as of autumn 2016.
The municipality of Argostoli consists of the following municipal units (former municipalities):
The municipality of Sami consists of the following municipal units:
The municipality of Lixouri coincides with the former municipality Paliki.
The regional unit has an area of 786.575 km2. The Cephalonia regional unit also includes a number of uninhabited islands of the Echinades group. They are administered by the municipal unit of Pylaros. The most significant are as follows:
The 1994 novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, and the 2001 film adaptation of the same name, are primarily set in Cephalonia.
Albert Cohen’s novels also take place in Cephalonia, such as Solal (1930) or Mangeclous.
Venetian rule
French, Ionian state period and British rule
Union with Greece
World War II
Earthquake of 1953
Recent history
Archaeology
Population: historical evolution
68,321 70,077 55,030 58,437 39,793 41,319 34,544 35,801
Ecclesiastical history
Geography
Mountains
Capes
Flora
Fauna
Climate
Economy
Agriculture
Olive oil production
Tourism
Culture
Monasteries and churches
Music
Literature and film
Museums
Higher education
Sport
Baseball
Cycling
Football (soccer)
Waterpolo, water sports
Transportation
Harbours and ports
Roads
Public transportation
Airport
Administration
Praso Πράσο Drakoneres Sofia Σοφία Drakoneres 0.174 Lamprinos Λαμπρινός Drakoneres 0.352 61 m Filippos Φίλιππος Drakoneres 0.046Προσδιορισμός και χαρτογράφηση των ορνιθολογικά ευαίσθητων στα αιολικά πάρκα περιοχών της Ελλάδας, Ελληνική Ορνιθολογική Εταιρεία (Griechische Ornithologische Gesellschaft) PDF Online (1,883 MB), griechisch Pistros Πίστρος Drakoneres 0.114 41 m Kalogiros Καλόγηρος Drakoneres 0.249 Tsakalonisi Τσακαλονήσι Drakoneres 0.1 Girovaris or Gkravaris Γηρόβαρης or Γκράβαρης Modia 24 m Soros Σωρός Modia 0.038 31 m Apasa Άπασα Modia 0.024 17 m Modio or Modi Μοδιό or Μόδι Modia 0.258 66 m Petalas Πεταλάς Ouniades 5.497 251 m
Notable people and residents
Gallery
Reception
In popular culture
See also
Further reading
External links
|
|