Day 8 Kefalonia

As with any Greek island, I guess. Kefalonia is steeped in history.

If we cast our minds back and back and back we’ll find an island called ‘Same’. It was gifted to the mythological general, Cephalus,  who helped Amphitrijon gain a great victory over the Taphians and Teleboans. Since then it was known as Cephallenia.

Cephallenia fell to the Ottaman’s in 1479 but Turkish rule only lasted until 1500 when it was the prize of a rare victory of the Spanish-Venetian Army. It remained in their possession until the Treaty of Camopoformio dismantled the Venetian Republic and awarded the Ionian Islands to France in 1797.

In 1807 it came under the protection of Russia as it was intergrated into the Ottoman Empire. A further treaty returned the Ionian Islands to France for a year or two. Then is got caught up in the Napoleonic wars and quickly surrendered to the British. The Treaty of Paris in 1815 recognises the United States of the Ionian Islands and decreed they should come under Britain’s protection.

The people of Cephallenia became disenfranchised with British rule within a single generation and 1848 resistance to Britian had gained such momentum that a couple of years later union with Greece became widely widely known and accepted as a national aim. Cephallenian dreams came true in 1864 with King George’s coronation. A goodwill gesture transferred responsibility over to Greece.

Cephallenia was occupied in the Second World War by both Italian and German forces. It survived, unscathed by the conflict until amnesties with the Italy divided the occupying forces. If you have seen Captain Correlli’s mandolin it is this very incident which the book and movie depict. I’m not in the habit of spoiling your viewing pleasure but surfice to say it does end well for a large portion of the Italian troops.

While the war in Euorpe ended in 1945 peace did not make its way to Cephallenia until the conclusion, in 1949, of the Greek civil war.

To punctuate what is a head spinning 600 years Cephallenia was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1953.

On August 2^nd 1953, at 11.24am, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck. Promptly thereafter, 100,000 people, from a total population of 125, 000, upped and left the island for good, seeking a calmer, safer future for themselves and their families. And to be honest, who could blame them?