The abandoned leper colony of Chios is to be renovated and become a focal point in the history of the Greek island.
Just a few kilometers north of the modern town of Chios a row of abandoned buildings, which for centuries served as a leper colony, will be restored more than 67 years since the asylum was abandoned.
The derelict buildings offer a sometimes macabre, often poignant insight into their history.
If it were not for the smashed doors, the stripped beds that lie rusting, and rotting floorboards, one would be mistaken to think that these buildings were abandoned relatively recently.
Yet, the last patient left the asylum door in 1957, the year when all of Greece’s leper colonies were shut down following the discovery of the drug against leprosy. The most famous leper colony in Greece is on the islet of Spinalonga off Crete. The Greek Culture Ministry announced recently that Spinalonga will be restored to create exhibition spaces.
The leper colony on Chios operated continuously for six centuries for patients who were brought there either from Chios or from the islands of the Aegean and regions of Asia Minor. In the years after liberation from the Ottoman Empire, it was referred to as the “cleanest” and the most “well-run institution”, which provided comfort and full medical care to its patients.
Leper colony on Chios among the first in Europe
The colony, called Lovokomeio since in Greek the word lova means wound, opened in 1378 as the first leper colony in Greece and one of the first in Europe.
It was intended to isolate those suffering from leprosy and other contagious skin diseases from the rest of society, to avoid infecting others.
The origins of leprosy, now known to be caused by a bacterium, were then unknown, adding to the stigma placed on its sufferers.
The colony at Chios started to decline during the 19th century when the island was the center of fierce fighting in the Greek War of Independence. The Chios massacre of 1822 was perhaps the worst atrocity committed by the Ottomans against the Greeks during the Greek War of Independence.
Approximately three-quarters of the population of 120,000 were killed, enslaved, or died of disease after thousands of Turkish troops landed on the eastern Aegean island to end a rebellion against Ottoman rule.
By the middle of the century, Chios was largely deserted, and the situation was worsened by an 1881 earthquake, which killed nearly 8,000 people.
Recently the local authority of Chios announced an international architectural competition for its promotion, reconstruction, and utilization of the site.
Related: How Did the Greeks Settle the Island of Chios Anyway?
