Kalymnos Island, Greece

General Information from Kalymnos

Kalymnos has an area of 111.14 sq. Km and has a population of 16,179 inhabitants, according to the 2011 census, making it one of the most populous islands in Greece.

History from Kalymnos

Kalymnos has been inhabited since the Neolithic times. The earliest inhabitants of the island were the Kares, which is evidenced by the Karikian ruins in the ancient metropolis of Kastella, near present-day Stimenia.

Later, the Phoenicians inhabited it, as evidenced by the ruins of Emporio.

Chronology

• In the period 1150 BC. - 800 BC, Kalymnos was colonized by the Dorians.
• At the end of the Archaic period and at the beginning of the Classical period, Kalymnos became a sovereign state.
• In the early 5th century BC, during the Persian Wars, the island was occupied by the Persians and Senior Queen Artemisia                     .
• In 477 BC. he is released and becomes a member of the Athenian Alliance, along with Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Rhodes and pays tax to the Alliance Fund, located in Delos.
• In 357 BC Kalymnos ceases to be free and submits to the rule of Bodrum King Mausolus.
• After about 15 years, Kalymnos revolts, regains its freedom and becomes an ally of the Athenians,
• In classical times, it had a remarkable cultural boom, and the remnants of that era are, to this day, the remains of the temple of the Calypso Apollo.
• Later, it was conquered by the Romans.
• In Byzantine times it was the subject of Samos.
• In the 10th c. it was destroyed by the Turks.
• In the 14th c. (1306), was occupied by the Knights of St. John. They rebuilt the castle walls that existed on the island from the 10th century, enlarged it, and then became the island's residential center until the early 18th century.
• In 1522 he was subjugated to the Turks, to Sultan Suleiman I. Within the Ottoman administration, they were granted autonomy, only obliged to pay a flat-rate tax, which was called "machtou".
• In 1912, the island was occupied by the Italians.
• In May 1914, as the persecutions on the opposite coast of Asia Minor had intensified against the Greek element, many of the Asia Minors had fled to the islands, including Kalymnos.
• In the last months of 1918, after the end of the First World War on Turkey, the return of refugees to Asia Minor began. Specifically, with the truce of Moudros (1918) and the Greek army's landing to Smyrna (1919), several refugees who had remained in the Dodecanese returned temporarily to Asia Minor, as it turned out.
• After the Asia Minor Disaster, many Asia Minor families settled, almost definitively, in Kalymnos and the rest of the Dodecanese.
• The Italian domination lasted until World War II, when the island came under Greek jurisdiction in 1946, along with the rest of the Dodecanese.
• On March 7, 1948, the island was officially incorporated with Greece.
• The more recent history of Kalymnos was related to the fishing, processing and trading of the sponge.

The more recent history of Kalymnos was related to the fishing, processing and trading of the sponge.