Spinalonga – The Island off Crete.
The island of Spinalonga (actual name Kalidon) lies just off the coast of the village of Plaka, near Elounda, Agios Nicholaos, in Crete. The name Spinalonga is Venetian meaning ‘Long Thorn’. It came to note in the year 1579 when the occupying Venetians created a fortress on the island. Some years later when the Ottoman…