Kastellorizo

"Castellorizon" is also the name of a song from David Gilmour's album On an Island, based on a night he spent on Kastelorizo in 2006.

Kastelorizo, current official name in Greek is Μεγίστη/Megisti; (Turkish: Meis , Italian: Castelrosso), is a small Greek island and municipality located in the South-Eastern Mediterranean. It lies roughly 1300 metres off the south coast of Turkey, about 110 km east of Rhodes, almost halfway between Rhodes and Antalya.

It has gone by several different names in its history, including Castellorizo, Castelrosso, Meis. The meaning of its current official name Megisti (Μεγίστη) is "Biggest" or "Greatest", but at only 4 square miles (10 km²) in area, it is the smallest of the Dodecanese. The name, however, may refer to the fact that it is the biggest of the small archipelago.

Origin of the name

There are several hypotheses about the origin of the modern name of the island. While there is a wide consensus that "Kastello" comes from the Italian word "castello", meaning "castle", the second part of the name could stem from:

• the word "rosso" (Italian: "red"), either from the reddish colour of the rocks of the island, or from the reddish colour of the castle at sunset, or from the colour of the coat of arms of the Great Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Juan Fernandez de Heredia, which stood above the gate of the castle; or
• a corruption of the word "Rhoge", one of the ancient appellations of the nearby island of Rho. If this is correct, the island's modern name is actually an amalgam of the separate island names 'Castello' and 'Rhoge' (unlikely); or
• "rizon" (Greek: "root"), to signify the "root" of the mountain where the Knight's castle was built (this is unlikely).

• The Greek word “horizon” indicates the line at which point our visual field reaches its limit due to the curvature of the earth. You can imagine how seafarers would see the elevated Castle in the distance and nothing much else in the same direction.

Geography

Satellite picture of Kastelorizo

Kastelorizo is (with the exception of the nearby islet of Stroggýli) the easternmost Greek island and is situated in the Eastern Mediterranean. It lies about 2 miles (3 km) from the Anatolian coastal town of Kaş, more or less half-way between Rhodes and Antalya. It is six kilometres long and three kilometres wide, with a surface of 9.2 km². It has a triangular shape, and is oriented from NE to SW. The island features three capes: Agios Stefanos (north), Nifti (east) and Pounenti (south west); between the first two there is a wide and accommodating bay, the island's main harbour, where one finds the only town on the island. Cape Agios Stefanos, the nearest to Anatolia, is 2250m south of the modern Turkish town of Kaş (Greek: Andífli, the ancient Greek City of Antiphéllos). Cape Nifti lies some greater distance from the Anatolian coast. The island is mountainous, with high and steep coastlines, which become more difficult to access moving west. The soil is composed of limestone, and produces only small amounts of olives, grapes and beans. On the island there is no source of potable water. The Municipality of Megísti includes the populated offshore islands of Ro (pop. 15) and Stroggýli (9) as well as several uninhabited islets. It has a total land area of 11.987 km².

Geology

The island's geology is almost exclusively limestone laid down at the mesozoic/cenozoic boundary. Due to the lack of significant flora covering the island, the landscape shows many features of karstification. There are a number of notable sea caves including the so called Blue Grotto which is much larger than it's namesake in Capri. Exploration undertaken in 2006 by members of the SELAS Caving club of Greece has revealed vertical caves in many parts of the island. The deepest found so far was surveyed to a depth of -60m in March 2006 and will be the subject of further exploration in the future by the same team.

Description of the island

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Church of Agios Nikolaos

The houses of the town are slender and characterised by wooden balconies and windows of the Anatolian type. Behind the waterfront, many houses are still in a ruinous state. At the entrance to the harbour, on the east side, stand the single storey remnants the former Italian governate (palazzina della delegazione), erected in 1926 by the Italian architect Florestano Di Fausto, who also designed some of the more important colonial buildings of the Italian period in Rhodes. Nearby is the island's former mosque which dates from the second half of the eigtheenth century and which has been now restored and re-opened as a museum (2007). From here starts the town's quay, which runs along all three sides of the harbour. The central square —Plateia Ethelondon Kastellórizou—lies at the mid-point of the eastern side, near the vessel dock. On the opposite side of the harbour one has a good view from this vantage of Pera Meria, the western quay, and the monasteries of Profitis Elías and Aghia Triadha, the former now an army base.

Above the quay on the eastern side there is a pathway which leads to the Castle of the Knights (14th century). Of it remain the curtain wall, part of a square tower, the remains of a cylindrical tower at the east corner, and toward the sea another cylindrical tower. A Doric inscription, carved in the rock, attests to the existence of an earlier fortress here during Antiquity. Inside the tower there is a large covered cistern. The castle offers a beautiful view of the town and the Anatolian coast.

Another small but interesting museum, located in the former Ottoman konak, provides a convenient overview of the history of the island. Its diverse collection includes diving suits, ceramics, frescoes, jewels, vases and coins. Beyond the museum, steps lead to the so-calledLycian tomb(4th cent BC), (the only one existing in Greece) carved in the limestone of the mountain, with a Doric Order facade carrying a tympanum with Acroterion. The tomb is similar to those which are to be found in Anatolia, but this one is less ornate.

Ascending the steps on the eastern side of the town, one reaches the suburb of Horafia, where there is a square surrounded by the Church of Agios Yeorgios (1906), with a high dome of Byzantine type, and the Cathedral of Agios Konstandinos and Eleni(1835). It has three naves divided by monolithic granite columns from the temple of Apollo Lykios in Patara (Anatolia). The columns carry ogival arches. Further east is the small bay known as Mandraki, the secondary harbour of the island.

The harbour of Kastelorizo

West of the town, beyond the summit of the island known as Vigla (270 m), stands Paleokastro (old castle), the island's ancient acropolis. This fortified elevation has classical origins (see above, history section): its plan is rectangular and measures 60 x 80 m. In its interior stand an ancient tower, built with square limestone blocks, and large water cisterns. Carved on the base of the castle there is also a Doric inscription, dating back to the 4th or 3rd centuries BC, with references to Megiste (the ancient name of Kastelorizo) and its dependence on Rhodes. On the east side there are remnants of a gateway, or Propylaea.

The most celebrated attraction of the island is the Blue Cave, on its SE coast, named by the inhabitants phokialí (Greek for seal's refuge). Being 40-50 m long, 25-30 m wide, and 20-25 m high, it is much larger than the world famous Grotta Azzurra on Capri, Italy. The light of the sun, refracted through the sea, is reflected in the interior of the Grotto, thereby producing a dazzling blue colour. The Cave can be visited only by boat and, since the entrance is barely one metre high above sea level, only under calm sea conditions: the best time of the day to visit is early in the morning, when the sun is still low.

Archipelago between Turkey and Kastelorizo

There are many islets in this area;Volos, near Kalkan (in Greek Kalamaki), Ochendra, Furnachia, Prassonisi, Rho, Tragonera, Marathi, Strongili, Dhassia, Alimentaria, Kekova, besides many rocks and cliffs. The most important among these islets is Kekova (also named Caravola), not inhabited, which has an area of 4.5 km² and faces the Turkish village of Kaleköy (Simena in antiquity). All these islets were subject to dispute between Italy and Turkey until 1932. According to Convention between Italy and Turkey, 1932, all these islets - with the exception of Rho and Strongili - were ceded to Turkey.

History

Kastelorizo at dawn

The island was colonised by Dorian Greeks, who named it Megiste. Inscriptions found at the foot of the Knight's castle confirm that during the Hellenistic period the island was ruled by Rhodes, and formed part of its Peraia. The Rhodians sent an overseer, or epistatis, to monitor events on the island.

During the period of the Byzantine Empire, Kastelorizo was part of the 'Eparchy of the Islands', the capital of which was Rhodes. In 1306 the island was taken over by the Knights of St. John Hospitaller of Jerusalem, headed by Folques de Villaret. They were on their way from Cyprus to Rhodes, which was conquered three years later, becoming the centre of their Crusader State. They restored the castle, which was thereafter used as prison for disobedient knights. In 1440 the island was occupied by Sultan Djemal-el-din of Egypt, who destroyed the castle. Ten years later it was conquered by Alfonso V of Aragon, king of Naples, who in 1461 rebuilt the castle and despatched a governor. Naples reained possession of it until 1512, when it was conquered by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I.

On September 22 1659 during the war over Crete, the island was conquered by Venice and the castle was destroyed again, but the Ottomans were able to regain it again soon after. Between 1828 and 1833 Kastelórizo joined the Greek insurgents, but after the end of the Greek War of Independence it came back in possession of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1912, during the Libyan war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire, the inhabitants asked General Ameglio, chief of the Italian occupation forces in Rhodes, for their island to be annexed to Italy. This was refused, and on 1 March 1913 the local population imprisoned the Turkish governor and his Ottoman garrison and proclaimed a provisional government. In August of the same year, the Greek government sent from Samos an provisional governor supported by gendarmes. But they, too, were expelled by the inhabitants on 20 October 1915. On 28 December 1915, the French navy led by the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc occupied on the island at the behest of a pro-French local party which feared Turkish reprisals. The French quickly blocked another landing attempted on the same day by a Greek contingent Evzones. Turkish shore batteries responded to the French occupation by shelling the island, in 1917 succeeding in sinking the British seaplane carrierHMS Ben-my-Chree. Due to the Treaty of Sèvres the island was ultimately assigned to Italy: the Italian navy assumed it from the French on 1 March 1921. Kastelórizo under Italy, name Castelrosso was then integrated into the Isole Italiane dell'Egeo.

The 1932 Convention between Italy and Turkey, which defined the sea border between the two powers, assigned all the islets of the small archipelago around Kastelorizo except Rho and Strongili to Turkey. During the 1930s it was a stopover for French and Italian seaplanes. During the Second World War, on 25 February 1941, British Commandos were able to occupy the island, but Italian forces from Rhodes recaptured it some days later. When Italy capitulated to the Allies (8 September 1943), the island was occupied again by Allied forces, and it remained under their occupation for the rest of the war. In July 1944, a fuel dump caught fire and spread to an adjacent ammunition dump, thereby destroying half of the homes on the island.

Kastelorizo was assigned to Greece with the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. In May 1945 it was still under British administration, but only on September 15 1947 effectively came under Greek administration. The island formally joined the Greek State on 7 March 1948 together with the other Dodecanese islands.

The island has become more popular in recent years, by tourists looking for an isolated Dodecanese island, thanks also to the 1992 Best Foreign Language Film-Oscar winning movie "Mediterraneo" (1991) by Gabriele Salvatores. Kastelórizo was the only territory of the European Union where the Solar eclipse of 29 March 2006 was visible in its totality.

Demographics and economy

The population—and the economy—reached its apogee at the end of the nineteenth century with estimated 15,000. At that time Kastelorizo was still the only safe harbour along the route between Makrí (today's Fethiye) and Beirut. Its sailing ships traded products from Anatolia (coal, timber, valonia, pine bark) against Egyptian goods (rice, sugar, coffee, tissues and yarns), and carried Anatolian cereals to Rhodes and Cyprus. On the island there was also a flourishing production of charcoal (much sought after in Alexandria, where it was used for narghile). Fishing industry—mainly sponges—was important too.

At the dawn of the twentieth century the decay of the island's economy set in, accelerated by the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the deportation of the Anatolian Greeks in 1923. In the late 1920s the population of the island had dropped to 3,000, while about 8,000 inhabitants lived abroad, predominantly in Australia, Egypt, Greece and America. At that time the town had 730 inhabited houses, while 675 were already empty, and many ruined.

The population, according to the 2001 census, now stands at 430. Of these, most live in the town of Megísti, with 406 people. The municipality also includes the islands of Rho with 15 persons and Stroggylí, with 9 persons. It is heavily subsidized so as to forestall territorial claims by Turkey. Many of its emigrants remain Australia, where they are known as "Kazzies", especially to the cities of Perth and Sydney.

Traditions

Kastelorizo was famous for the traditions of its inhabitants. Beautiful, rich and magnificent was the women's dress, of at least three different types. It was made with brilliantly coloured fabric , and several necklaces, brooches, pendants and earrings made with ancient Venetian or Byzantines gold coins completed the dress.

The women's festive dress was made of:

• One or more long silky cloaks (ipokámiso). The most external one was closed on the front by six large filigreed gold or silver buttons. These buttons was shaped as a half-sphere which was depressed in the middle. To the lowest one was hung a small chain with a cross;
• A pair of short pants (katofóri) whose lower part was made with good quality garment quilted with gold thread;
• A sleeved jacket (zepuni) made with brilliant coloured silk or velvet, opened at the front;
• Another long underskirt (kavadi), laced with gold thread , also opened at the front;
• A large scarf (zosma) made with three or four silk stripes, quilted with gold or silver thread. It was tied very low on the sides, like a loose belt;
• A large velvet coat (gunna) decorated with gold and silver lace on the hems and on the back, with fur lapels: It was always kept open.
• A woollen cap;
• A quadrangular wrinkled silken shawl (mandili), decorated with relieved flowers and fringed hems, coloured in white, red and deep blue. Folded diagonally, it was fixed above the cap, with its longest angle fallen on the back almost to the ground, while the side edges were folded on the front or put above the shoulders.

The socks were made with multicoloured wool or silk: the shoes were shaped like tipped slippers, and were made of velvet or silk. They were laced with gold or silver thread and shorter than the foot. The other types of dress were similar, but not so garish and without fur decorations. The girl dress was simpler. Also different was the dress of single and engaged girls, and the one of married women and widowers.

Old customs and superstitions

The engagement, which was decided by the parents, and the wedding, which lasted 15 days, occurred through prescribed and curious ceremonies, having a symbolic and poetic meaning. The wedding was celebrated on Sunday, in the church of Agios Kostantinos, and an announcement on the main square invited the whole city to participate. Also the baptism and the funeral (with the crying women (preficae) and the dish with oil and wine crushed on the coffin) had a well established ritual.

On December 31 and on New Year, groups of children carrying small paperboard boats adorned with ribbons and small flags went around visiting houses, stores and coffee shops, singing good wishes songs and receiving coins and wheat cakes, while the old people exchanged visits. On the morning of Agios Basilios day, coming back from mass, the men customarily throw with force a pomegranate against the walls of their home, wishing for abundance and happiness for their family . The more seeds spread around the rooms, the more luck the family would have in the coming year.

During the feast of Agios Elias—on February 16—the men jumped in the sea several times, and wore the wet clothes the whole day. Those who did not want to participate, were forced to do so too.

On Easter, the mass of Resurrection took place in the open, at midnight, the faithful bearing candles. As soon as the bells started ringing, the young people let off firecrackers, and the people said to each other the ritual words "Christ resurrected". Then everyone entered the church and took from the hand of the priest the holy fire, then went home to light the fire in the fireplace. On Easter Monday the whole population gathered in the main square, and they remained there the whole day eating, drinking and singing. Single girls had to stay at home, but they were allowed to stay in the entrance, where they sang and played with swings.

On May 1, at dawn, all the girls of the island, in groups, each one carrying a jar, went to get water out of town, but they were not allowed to speak a single word during the route. This water (Amilito Neró, "water of silence") was supposed to bring good luck to the family. Everyone washed him/herself with it in that day, and every utensil and wall of the house was splashed with it. When a girl became engaged, she filled a crystal carafe with it and brought it to the future mother-in-law, who gave her in return a special cake and an odd number of gold coins.

When a child fell seriously ill, a sorceress was invited to her/his home. She drew cross signs on the body of the child with a thurible filled with embers and branches of olive tree which had been gathered in the church on Palm Sunday, pronouncing the following words: "Christ came: then he laid down his stick and chased away the snake and the bad neighbour from our home". After this exorcism, the sorceress threw the content of the thurible in a bucket filled with water, and then counted the pieces of wood which did not burn. This number was said to be equal to the number of persons who were supposed to have enchanted the sick child. The enchantment of the child was sure, if the olive leaves burned with a loud crackling.

When a man was going to emigrate, gentle wishful songs were sung to him by his fellows.

Postage stamps

See : Postage stamps of Kastellórizo

Notes

• Pappas, NG, Castellorizo: An Illustrated History of the Island and its Conquerors, 1994, Halstead Press, Sydney

• Report of SELAS Caving Club expedition to Kastelorizo

External links

• Official website Template:El icon
• WorldStatesmen - Greece
• The Greeks of the Northern Territory of Australia
• Template:Geolinks-cityscale