Nevertheless, the Minoans were using Kythira as a stop-over point for their travels to the West. For that reason, they created the settlement of Skandia, today called Paleopolis, as well as the sanctuary of Agios Georgios on the top of one of the island’s mountains.
The earliest findings of local pottery are dated to the 3rd millennium BC.
Kythira was mainly under the control of Sparta but also frequently occupied by the Athenians, for it was located in a highly strategic area.
With the decline of Sparta and Athens, the island lost its importance, but continued to be inhabited, according to archaeological findings dating from the Hellenistic and Roman period.
During the Byzantine period, Kythira was the seat of a Bishop of the state. In the 7th century, the Byzantine emperor Constantinos gave the island to the Pope who, in his turn, gave it to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. |
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It is during Venetian domination that
the island was renamed “Tsirigo” and divided into three provinces: Milopotamos, Agios Dimitrios (today called Paliachora) and Kapsali.
Venetians understood the island’s key position and tried to fortify and inhabit it.
The enforced feudal system and the frequent piratical raids made the local people unhappy and provoked a big decrease of population.
In 1537, the capital of Agios Dimitrios was destroyed by the Algerian pirates of Haiderin Barbarossa.
The Venetians governed Kythira until 1797, with one small break during which the island was occupied by the Russians, in alliance with the Turks, an occupation that influenced both language and architecture.
In 1780, the island’s inhabitants rose against the Venetians’ oppression.
On the 28th of June 1797, Kythira went under French occupation, like the rest of the Ionian Islands, who established a democratic regime, giving hope for justice and freedom to the population.
But a year later they were attacked again by Russians, supported by the Turks, who chased the French away from the island.
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With the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Kythira went into French domination until 1809, when it came under English domination
In the 5th of November 1815, the Treaty of Paris established the “united States of the Ionian Islands”, validating the English occupation.
Kythira’s people helped the Greek Revolution against the Turkish Occupation.
Georgios Mormoris and Kosmas Panaretos were two of the best known revolutionary fighters from Kythira.
On the 21st of May 1864, the Ionian Islands were united to the rest of free Greece.
The wave of emigration intensified in the beginning of the 20th century, when people were massively leaving for America and Australia.
During the First World War, Kythira took part in the political movement created by Venizelos, formed an autonomous administration and strengthened the Allied Forces.
The occupation of the Second World War by the Italians and the Germans increased the emigration, which became even stronger after the war.
Today, 60000 individuals leaving in Australia are of Kythirian origin and several thousand Kythirians established in Athens and the city of Piraeus, where they constitute active members of the modern society. |
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