Spinalonga is a fortress that began life as a peninsula. In 1526 the Venetians cut it loose from Crete’s coast, then spent over a century fortifying the new island. Even its name may be a mishearing: Venetian ears turned the Greek “Stin Olounda”, meaning “at Olounda”, into Spinalonga.

Its second career was grimmer. Cretan authorities exiled the island’s lepers here, partly to frighten off its last Ottoman residents, who promptly left. The patients, known as the Mesquini, “the damned”, built a working community. The last resident, a priest, stayed until 1962.

Victoria Hislop’s novel The Island made the place famous again, inspiring a 23-episode Greek television series, reportedly the country’s most expensive.

VoiceMap’s self-guided audio tours view Spinalonga from Plaka’s bay lookouts and Agios Nikolaos harbour, tracing its shift from Venetian stronghold to leper colony to literary setting.