Lakki (), known as Portolago (Πόρτο Λάγο) until 1947, is a community on the Greek island of

Leros Leros (), also called Lero (from the Italian language), is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by a nine-hour ferry ride or by a 45-min ...

, in the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

, at the head of Lakki Bay. The population was 2,093 at the 2021 census. 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

During Ottoman times, the area was known as Lakki and had just a few fishing huts. Following the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish (, "Tripolitanian War", , "War of Libya"), also known as the Turco-Italian War, was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captur ...

in 1912, the Dodecanese became part of Italy. As one of the largest bays in the Aegean, the Italians saw its potential as a naval base to expand their military presence in the eastern Mediterranean. In the 1920s and 30s, an entire town was built from scratch by the architects Armando Bernabiti and Rodolfo Petracco. The resulting town was named Portolago, allegedly after

Mario Lago Mario Lago (1878, in Savona – 1950, in Capri) was an Italian people, 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 cha ...

, the Governor of the Italian colony from 1922 to 1936, although some sources say the Italians had already named the bay Portolago due to its resemblance to a lake and the arrival of a Governor called Lago was purely a coincidence. Etymologically the toponym is in fact derived from the word

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

λάκκος (''lắkkos'') which meant generally "a pond"Cognate with Latin lacus and English

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

evidently referring to the natural shape of the harbour, from which derived the ancient Λακκίον (Lakkíon) and, after the

apocope In phonology, apocope () is the omission (elision) or loss of a sound or sounds at the end of a word. While it most commonly refers to the loss of a final vowel, it can also describe the deletion of final consonants or even entire syllables. ...

, the nowadays Greek toponym, already anchored semantically at the same meaning. Portolago has been described as "the only true rationalist town outside of Italy."Alex Sakalis
The strange beauty of Greece's weirdest town
BBC Culture/BBC Designed, 31 January 2018 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 (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

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 usu ...

, 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 takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

ramp. The island garrison included about 6500 men. It was the

home port A vessel's home port is the port at which it is based, which may not be the same as its port of registry shown on its registration documents and lettered on the stern of the ship's hull. In the cruise industry the term "home port" is also oft ...

for two

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

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 (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...

Notes

External links

Photos of the Fascist architecture of Portolago
{{Authority control Leros Planned communities in Greece Italian fascist architecture Naval installations Populated places in Kalymnos (regional unit) Dodecanese under Italian rule