Italian colonists were settled in the Dodecanese Islands of 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 ...

in the 1930s by the Fascist Italian government of Benito Mussolini, Italy having been in occupation of the Islands since the Italian-Turkish War of 1911. By 1940, the number of Italians settled in the Dodecanese was almost 8,000, concentrated mainly in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

. In 1947, after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the islands came into the possession of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

: as a consequence most of the Italians were forced to emigrate and all of the Italian schools were closed. However, their architectural legacy is still evident, especially in Rhodes and

Leros Leros ( el, Λέρος) is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies (171 nautical miles) from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by an 9-hour ferry ride or by a 45-minute flig ...

History

The

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

occupied the Dodecanese Islands in the

during the Italian-Turkish War of 1911. In the 1919 Venizelos-Tittoni Agreement, Italy promised to cede the overwhelmingly Greek-inhabited islands, except Rhodes, to

, but this treaty was never implemented due to the Greek catastrophe in Asia Minor. With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the Dodecanese was formally annexed by Italy, as the ''Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo''. In the 1930s, Mussolini embarked on a program of Italianization, intending to make the island a modern transportation hub that would facilitate the spread of Italian culture in

and the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. The Fascist program coincided with the construction of infrastructure and the establishment of the Dodecanese Cadastre. The concrete-dominated architectural style of this period has consequently been largely demolished or remodeled, apart from the example of the

town of Lakki (founded by the Italians as ''Portolago''), which remains an example of Italian

Rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy ...

. From 1923 to 1936, governor

Mario Lago Mario Lago (1878, in Savona – 1950, in Capri) was an Italian statesman and diplomat. Biography Originally from the town of Peveragno, Lago was Governor of the Italian Aegean Islands from 1922 to 1936. His term of office is characterized by a ...

was able to integrate the Greek, Turkish and Ladino Jewish communities of the island of Rhodes with the Italian colonists. Offices of the Prefecture of the Dodecanese 01

Offices of the Prefecture of the Dodecanese 01

In the 1936 Italian census of the Dodecanese islands, the total population was 129,135, of which 7,015 were Italians. Nearly 80% of the Italian colonists lived in the island of

. Approximately 40,000 Italian soldiers and sailors were on military duty in the Dodecanese islands in 1940. Fascist quadrumvir

Cesare Maria De Vecchi Cesare Maria De Vecchi, 1st Conte di Val Cismon (14 November 1884 – 23 June 1959) was an Italian soldier, colonial administrator and Fascist politician. Biography De Vecchi was born in Casale Monferrato on 14 November 1884. After graduating ...

was appointed as governor of the

Italian Aegean Islands The Italian Islands of the Aegean ( it, Isole italiane dell'Egeo; el, Ἰταλικαὶ Νῆσοι Αἰγαίου Πελάγους) were an archipelago of fourteen islands (the Dodecanese, except Kastellorizo) in the southeastern Aegean Sea, ...

in 1936. De Vecchi promoted a more forceful program of Italianization, which lasted until Italy's entry in World War II in 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Italy joined the

Axis Powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

, and used the Dodecanese as a naval staging area for its invasion of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

in 1940. After the

surrender of Italy The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brigad ...

in September 1943, the islands briefly became a battleground between the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and the Italians (the Dodecanese Campaign). The Germans prevailed, and although they were driven out of mainland Greece in 1944, the Dodecanese remained occupied until the end of the war in 1945, during which time nearly the entire Jewish population of 6,000 was deported and killed. Only 1200 of these Ladino-speaking Jews survived by escaping to the nearby coast of Turkey. In the

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

in 1947, the islands were ceded to Greece.

Disappearance of the Italian community

For the nearly 8,000 Italian colonists, after the Italian defeat in

, started a process of return to Italy and successive disappearance. The Dodecanese officially passed from Italy to Greece in 1947, and in that year all the Italian schools were closed. Some of the Italian colonists remained in Rhodes and were quickly assimilated. Currently, only a few dozen old colonists remain, but the influence of their legacy is evident in the relative diffusion of the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about ...

mainly in

and Leros.

Architectural legacy

The citadel of Rhodes city is a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

thanks in great part to the large-scale restoration work carried out by the Italian authorities. The

Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, also known as the Kastello ( gr, Καστέλο, from it, Castello, "castle"), is a medieval castle in the city of Rhodes, on the island of Rhodes in Greece. It is one of the few examples ...

formed the centerpiece of this project, after being largely destroyed by an ammunition explosion in 1856. In the 1920s, the Italians demolished the houses that were built in and around the city walls during the Ottoman period. They also turned the Jewish and Ottoman cemeteries into a green zone surrounding the Medieval Town. The Italians preserved what was left from the Knights' period, and destroyed all other Ottoman buildings that weren't of importance. Furthermore, in those years an "Institute for the study of the History and Culture of the Dodecanese region" was established, and major infrastructure work was done to modernize Rhodes. Buildings like the Aquarium were built, mainly in

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. Indeed, in all the Dodecanese islands remains a huge architectural legacy from the Italian colonists. Here are some examples: * The ''Grande Albergo delle Rose'' (now "Casino Rodos") built by

Florestano Di Fausto Florestano Di Fausto (16 July 1890 – 11 January 1965) was an Italian architect, engineer and politician who is best known for his building designs in the Italian overseas territories around the Mediterranean. He is considered the most important ...

and Michele Platania in 1927, with a mix of Arab, Byzantine and Venetian styles. * The ''Casa del Fascio'' of Rhodes, built in 1939 in typical fascist style. It serves now as the City Hall. * The ''Catholic church of San Giovanni'', built in 1925 by Rodolfo Petracco, as a reconstruction of the medieval cathedral church of the Knights of St. John. * The ''Teatro Puccini'' of the city of Rhodes, now called "National Theater", built in 1937 with 1,200 seats. * The ''Palazzo del Governatore'' in downtown Rhodes, built in 1927 in Venetian style. It now houses the offices of the Prefecture of the Dodecanese. * The ''Villaggio rurale San Benedetto'', now Kolympia village, built in 1938 as a planned model village with all modern services. * The ''Community of Portolago'' (now Lakki) in the island of Leros, built in 1938 in typical Italian Deco style.

Notes

Bibliography

* Antonicelli, Franco. ''Trent'anni di storia italiana 1915 - 1945''. Mondadori. Torino, 1961. * Clogg, Richard. ''A Concise History of Greece''. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 2002. * Doumanis, Nicholas. ''Italians as "Good" Colonizers: Speaking Subalterns and the Politics of Memory in the Dodecanese,'' in

Ruth Ben-Ghiat Ruth Ben-Ghiat is an American historian and cultural critic. She is a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders. Ben-Ghiat is professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. Biography Born in the United States to an Israeli ...

and Mia Fuller, ''Italian Colonialism''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2005. . * Manicone, Gino. ''Italiani in Egeo'' La Monastica. Casamari, 1989. * Pignataro, Luca. ''Le Isole Italiane dell'Egeo dall'8 settembre 1943 al termine della seconda guerra mondiale'' in "Clio. Rivista internazionale di studi storici", 3 (2001) * Pignataro, Luca. ''Il tramonto del Dodecaneso italiano 1945-1950'' in "Clio. Rivista internazionale di studi storici", 4 (2001) *Pignataro, Luca ''Ombre sul Dodecaneso italiano'' in "Nuova Storia Contemporanea" 3 (2008) *Pignataro, Luca ''Il Dodecaneso italiano'', con appendice fotografica, in "Nuova Storia Contemporanea" 2 (2010)

External links

Website about the history of Italian Dodecanese

Photos of the Palace of the Grand Master (of the Knights of St. John) in the city of Rhodes, rebuilt by the Italians in the 1930s
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Colonists In The Dodecanese