A Ilha - Victoria Hislop

Comecei a ler no dia 3 de Março de 2009 e acabei no dia 11 de Março de 2009



Num momento em que tem que tomar uma decisão que pode mudar a sua vida, Alexis Fieldings está determinada a descobrir o passado da sua mãe. Mas Sofia nunca falou sobre ele, apenas contou que cresceu numa pequena aldeia em Creta antes de se mudar para Londres. Quando Alexis decide visitar Creta, a sua mãe dá-lhe uma carta para entregar a uma velha amiga e promete que através dela, Alexis vai ficar a saber mais, vai ficar a saber tudo o que copiuo da wb. Quando chega a Spinalonga, Alexis fica surpreendida ao descobrir que aquela ilha foi uma antiga colónia de leprosos. E então encontra Fotini e finalmente ouve a história que Sofia escondeu toda a vida: a história da sua bisavó Eleni, das suas filhas e de uma família assolada pela tragédia, pela guerra e pela paixão. Alexis descobre o quão intimamente ligada está àquela ilha e como o segredo os une com tanta firmeza.

Que livro maravilhoso! Que história fantástica!!!!

A história de uma família dilacerada constantemente pelo infortúnio, a vida com as suas voltas e reviravoltas, o passado e o presente que se juntam inadvertidamente... incrível! Adorei!!!!



Victoria Hislop (b.Victoria Hamson, 1959, Bromley, Kent[1]) is an award winning British author. She read English at St Hilda's College, Oxford and worked in publishing and as a journalist before becoming an author.
Her first novel The Island, which the Sunday Express hailed as the new Captain Corelli's Mandolin, was a Number 1 Bestseller in the UK, its success in part the result of having been selected by the Richard and Judy Book Club for their 2006 Summer Reads. She married journalist and Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop on 16 April 1988. They have two children and live in Kent.



Plaka é um antigo bairro do centro histórico de Atenas (Grécia), e na actualidade é considerada a zona mais atractiva e colorida da capital grega. O bairro de Plaka fica na base da encosta oriental da Acrópole.



A sua estrutura deriva em grande medida do período de ocupação otomana, no qual foi destruída a urbanização de planta regular - tipicamente greco-latina - que foi substituída por uma urbanização sem planificação, ajustada aos acidentes do relevo, o que deu origem a um bairro de ruas labirínticas, em muitos casos estreitas e em pendente, hoje cheias de tabernas e restaurantes.


The island of Spinalonga (official name: Kalidon) is located at the eastern section of Crete, near the town of Elounda. The name of the island, Spinalonga, is Venetian, meaning "long thorn", and has roots in the period of Venetian occupation. This location is also the setting for Victoria Hislop's bestselling novel The Island and Werner Herzog's experimental short film Last Words.
According to Venetian documents, the name of the island originated in the Greek expression "STIN ELOUNDA" (meaning "to Elounda"). The Venetians could not understand the expression so they familiarized it using their own language, and called it SPINA (thorn) LONGA (long), an expression that was also maintained by the locals. The Venetians were inspired for this expression by the name of an island near Venice called by the same name and which is known today as the island of Giudecca.



The Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli reports that Spinalonga was not always an island, but was once linked with the adjacent peninsula of Kolokitha. He mentions that in 1526, the Venetians cut down a portion of the peninsula and thus created the island. Because of its position the island was fortified from its earliest years in order to protect the entranceway of the port of Ancient Olous.



Olous, and accordingly the wider region, were depopulated at the middle of the 7th century because of the raids of the Arab pirates in the Mediterranean. Olous remained deserted until the middle of the 15th century when the Venetians begun to construct salt-pans in the shallow and salty waters of the gulf. Consequently, the region acquired commercial value and systematically became inhabited. This fact, in combination with the Turkish threat to use gunpowder for warlike purposes, particularly after the occupation of Constantinople in 1453, and the continuous pirate raids, forced the Venetians to fortify the island.



In 1578 the Venetians charged the engineer Genese Bressani to plan the island's fortifications. He created blockhouses at the highest points of the northern and southern side of the island, as well as a fortification ring along the coast of the island that closed out any hostile disembarkation. In 1579, the General Previsor of Crete Luca Michiel put the foundation stone of the fortifications. There are two inscriptions that cite this event: one on the transom of the main gate of the castle and the other on the base of the rampart at the north side of the castle. In 1584, the Venetians, realising that the coastal fortifications were easy to conquer by the enemies attacking from the vicinal hills, decided to strengthen their defence by constructing new fortifications at the top of the hill. The Venetian fire would thus have bigger throw, rendering Spinalonga an impregnable sea fortress, one of the most important in the Mediterranean basin.



In addition, in 1579 the Venetians built a fortress on Spinalonga over the ruins of an acropolis. They kept control of the island until the Ottoman Empire took possession of it in 1715.
Following the Turkish occupation of Crete in 1669, only the fortresses of Gramvousa ,Souda and Spinalonga remained in Venetian hands; they would remain so for almost half a century. Many Christians found refuge in these fortresses to escape persecution. In 1715, the Turks came to terms with the Venetians and occupied the island. At the end of the Turkish occupation the island was the refuge of many Ottoman families that feared the Christian reprisals. After the revolution of 1866 other Ottoman families came to the island from all the region of Mirabello. In 1881 the 1112 Ottomans formed their own community and Later, in 1903, the last Turks left the island.



The island was subsequently used as a leper colony, from 1903 to 1957. It is notable for being one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. The last inhabitant, a priest, left the island in 1962. This was to maintain the religious tradition of the Greek Orthodox church, in which a buried person has to be commemorated 40 days, 6 months, 1, 3 and 5 years after their death. Other leper colonies that have survived Spinalonga include Tichilesti in Eastern Romania, Fontilles in Spain and Talsi in Latvia. As of 2002, few lazarettos remain in Europe.)

There were two entrances to Spinalonga, one being the lepers' entrance, a tunnel known as Dante's Gate. This was so named because the patients did not know what was going to happen to them once they arrived. However, once on the island they received food, water, medical attention and social security payments. Previously, such amenities had been unavailable to Crete's leprosy patients, as they mostly lived in the area's caves, away from civilization.

Today, the unoccupied island is one of the main tourist attractions in Crete. In addition to the abandoned leper colony and the fortress, Spinalonga is known for its small pebble beaches. The island can easily be accessed from Elounda and Agios Nikolaos. Tourist boats depart from both towns on a daily basis. There is no accommodation on Spinalonga, meaning all tours last only a few hours. Boat trips from Elounda take approximately fifteen minutes while trips departing Agios Nikolaos can take nearly one hour.


The book "Island of the Damned" by Victor Zorba - a local expert on the island - is still in print. It relates the true story of the leper colony and, because the author met with the last governor of the colony, contains many exclusive photos and stories of the German occupation.


The book "The Island" by Victoria Hislop is set in Spinalonga and shares the fictional story of a family's ties to the leper colony.