Folegandros (also Pholegandros; el, Φολέγανδρος) is a small

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

island in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

that, together with Sikinos,

Ios iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Anafi Anafi or Anaphe ( el, Ανάφη; grc, Ἀνάφη) is a Greek island community in the Cyclades. In 2011, it had a population of 271. Its land area is . It lies east of the island of Thíra (Santorini). Anafi is part of the Thira regional un ...

and Santorini, forms the southern part of the

Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...

. Its surface area is and it has 765 inhabitants. It has three small villages, Chora, Karavostasis, and Ano Meria, which are connected by a paved road. Folegandros is part of the Thira regional unit.

Mythology

According to

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

, it was said to have derived its name from a son of Minos.

History

Little is known about the ancient history of Folegandros. Its inhabitants were

Dorians The Dorians (; el, Δωριεῖς, ''Dōrieîs'', singular , ''Dōrieús'') were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with the Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionian ...

. Later it came under

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

rule. The island contained a ''

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

'' (city-state) called Pholegandros, which was sited at the modern Chora and a member of the Delian League where it appears on Athenian tribute lists between 425/4 and 416/15 BCE. The island was called the iron Pholegandros by

Aratus Aratus (; grc-gre, Ἄρατος ὁ Σολεύς; c. 315 BC/310 BC240) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' ( grc-gre, Φαινόμενα, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; la, Phaenomena), the ...

on account of its ruggedness, and is also noted by ancient geographers Strabo and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

, who calls it Pholekandros ( grc, Φολέκανδρος). The island was conquered in 1207 by the Venetian

Marco Sanudo Marco Sanudo (c. 1153 – between 1220 and 1230, most probably 1227) was the creator and first Duke of the Duchy of the Archipelago, after the Fourth Crusade. Maternal nephew of Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo, he was a participant in the Fourth C ...

and remained under the rule of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

until 1566, when it was taken by the Ottoman Turks. The Greeks reclaimed it in the 19th century during the Greek war of independence. During the 20th century it has been used as a place of exile for political prisoners, especially during the

4th of August regime The 4th of August Regime ( el, Καθεστώς της 4ης Αυγούστου, Kathestós tis tetártis Avgoústou), commonly also known as the Metaxas regime (, ''Kathestós Metaxá''), was a totalitarian regime under the leadership of Gener ...

Geography

Folegandros' landscape is varied, and includes tall cliffs and a large cave. The "capital" of the island, Chora, is built on the edge of a 200-metre high cliff. The port of Folegandros is the small village of Karavostasis. The Ano Meria village contains a small but interesting Ecological and Folklore Museum. Among the notable beaches on Folegandros is Katergo, accessible only by foot or by boat from Karavostasis. Katergo beach is used by

naturists Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...

Gallery

File:Apopsi Choras Folegandrou.JPG, View of Chora File:Folegandros-7.jpg, Chora seen from the church of Panagia File:Folegandros-5.jpg, House of the island File:Folegandros-kastro.jpg, Inside the "Kastro" of Chora File:Φολέγανδρος.jpg

References

External links

Municipality of Folegandros

Beaches in Folegandros
{{Authority control Islands of Greece Cyclades Municipalities of the South Aegean Populated places in Thira (regional unit) Landforms of Thira (regional unit) Islands of the South Aegean Members of the Delian League Locations in Greek mythology Populated places in the ancient Aegean islands