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Skiathos Island
Skiathos
has always been called by the same name since the pre-Hellenic
period;
it is
supposed that this name was given to the island by the
Pelasgians, its first inhabitants, because they were impressed
by the great shadow (skia in Greek) of the many trees covering
the island.
Dionysus was the god worshipped on the island and his cult name
was “Skianthos”.
After the death of Alexander the Great, a succession of leader
followed in the entire Greece and in Skiathos during which the
Skiathians suffered very much.
In 197 BC, Skiathos regained its democracy.
The Romans took Greece in 146 BC but they ceded some liberties
to the Skiathians who lived peacefully in the Roman oblivion.
Skiathians asked the Venetians to stay on their island to avoid
Turkish domination, which they did until 1538.
In 1538, the Turk pirate Barbarossa captured Skiathos which came
under the Ottoman domination.
During the early years of the 19th century, the inhabitants of
Skiathos started to develop ship building and exceeded in it.
After
its first settlers, Skiathos was inhabited by Cretans and then
by Mycenaeans, who also occupied the other Sporades.
The fertility and the strategic position of the island attracted
many invaders.
In the 7th-6th century BC, the inhabitants of Chalkis (today
Halkida), in Euboe (Evia) colonized Skiathos; Vine and olive
cultivation for which the island is now famous, was started by
them.
The Chalcidians also created the first fortified town in
Skiathos.
During the Persian Wars, Skiathos was a great help to the
Athenians and its harbour was used as a fleet base.
In 478 BC, the Athenian Delian League welcomed Skiathos as a
member. After the Peloponnesian War (404 BC) Skiathos became
officially autonomous and independent.
The Spartians tried to violate this by re-occupying the island
but the Skiathians, helped by the Athenians, managed to throw
them out and established peace and autonomy in their island for
40 years.
But the years of prosperity in Skiathos ended when the Athenians
transformed it in a military base against Philip II of
Macedonia.
When the Macedonians took Skiathos, they installed a tyrant on
the island where the democracy returned only in 341 BC.
In 88 BC, the king of Pontus, Mithriades VI burned and destroyed
Skiathos in his war
against the Romans.
In 42 BC, Skiathos went back under Athenian domination.
Many pirates’ raids devastated the island during those
years. After 221 AD, Skiathos went back under Roman authority.
During these periods the town of the island grew and developed.
In 325 AD, Christianity appeared on Skiathos and the first
church dedicated to the Holy Trinity was built in 530.
During the Byzantine period, Skiathos was part of the province
of Thessaly and its bishop belonged to the Metropolis of
Larissa.
In the 7th century, Saracen pirates devastated the Island of
the Aegean Sea, and Skiathos did not escape the massacre.
In 1204 Crusaders took the territories of the Byzantine Empire
as well as the Aegean Islands and Skiathos which they gave to
the Venetians.
Skiathos, as well as Skopelos, is ruled by the Ghisi brothers,
with the help of Marco Sanudo (Naxos) against which they will
fight later.
The
Venetian brothers built a castle on Skiathos known today as
Bourtzi, located in the main port.
The Ghisi remained rulers of Skiathos until 1276. Then other
Venetians took the Island which stayed under their authority
until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
The War of Independence find them well prepared and the
Skiathians took part in many revolutionary action against the
Turks.
Kleftes (revolutionary brigands) and Armatoloi (local militias)
sought refuge in Skiathos,
among them was also the famous revolutionary hero Kolokotronis;
the island was an active member of the Philiki Etairia
(revolutionary secret organization) and became free in 1830 with
the rest of Greece.
After the revolution, the town of Kastro was abandoned and
Skiathians moved to the port where the town expended. Boat
building started again.
The Town of Skiathos was greatly damaged by German bombs during
the Nazi occupation of Greece.
On the 14th of September 1943, the Nazis sank a submarine
drawing Skiathians heroes and on the 23rd of August 1944 they
burn the island and executed seven young Skiathians;
those dates are commemorate today and is one of the most
important dates in the history of the island.
In the years of the Nazi occupation, Kastro became a refuge for
Greek revolutionaries, British, Australians and New Zealanders.
After the war, the economic and social life of Skiathos
developed rapidly.
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