Lakki ( el, Λακκί), population 1990, also known by its former name Portolago (Πόρτο Λάγο), is a community on the Greek island of

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 ...

, in the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; el, Δωδεκάνησα, ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey's Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited ...

, at the head of Lakki Bay. The area was built up as the main base of the Italian Royal Navy in the Dodecanese starting in 1923. The town of Portolago was founded in the 1930s, under Italian rule, as a new model town, most of whose inhabitants were from the Italian military. After Leros was transferred to Greece in 1947, it was renamed Lakki.

History

Like the rest of the Dodecanese, Leros was ruled by Italy from 1912-1943. The Italian authorities founded the town of Portolago in the 1930s as a new model town, named after Mario Lago, the Governor of the Italian colony from 1922 to 1936. It is one of the best examples of Italian Rationalist and

Fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

architecture, with buildings by and .Fascismo - Architettura - Arte / Arte fascista web site
/ref>Alex Sakalis
The strange beauty of Greece's weirdest town
BBC Culture/BBC Designed, 31 January 2018
Fascismo - Architettura - Arte / Arte fascista web site

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until Fall of the Fascist re ...

was said to have a mansion for himself near town. The buildings include: * Casa del Balilla (House of the Fascist Youth) (1933), Bernabiti * Covered market (1934–1936), Petracco * Elementary school and creche (1934–1936), Petracco * City Hall and Casa del Fascio (Fascist Party headquarters) (1935–1938), Bernabiti * Cinema/Theater (1936–1938), Bernabiti * Church of Saint Francis (now of Saint Nicholas) (1935–1939), Bernabiti

Naval base

Portolago was built up as the main base of the Italian Royal Navy in the Dodecanese starting in 1923, as the harbor of

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 ...

was too small. The bay is deep, and about 3.5 km long and over 1 km wide, making it a suitable location for a

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that u ...

, in fact one of the best in the eastern Mediterranean. Under Italian rule, Portolago Bay (as it was then called) was heavily fortified. There was a double boom across the narrow entrance, and several batteries of guns covering it.Charles W. Koburger, ''Wine-dark, Blood Red Sea: Naval Warfare in the Aegean, 1941-1946'', 1999
p. 29
/ref> The naval base included multiple buildings and naval installations. There was no air strip, but there was a

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

ramp. The island garrison included about 6500 men. It was the home port for two

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed ...

s, two small

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

s, and four

submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

External links

Photos of the Fascist architecture of Portolago

Notes

{{Authority control Leros Planned cities in Greece Italian fascist architecture Naval installations Populated places in Kalymnos (regional unit) Dodecanese under Italian rule