Alonnisos ( ), also transliterated as Alonissos, is a

Greek island Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by ...

in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

. After Skiathos and Skopelos it is the third member of the Northern

Sporades The (Northern) Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea,"Skyros - Britannica Concise" (description), Britannica Concise, 2006, webpageEB-Skyrosnotes "including Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros, and Al ...

. It is (2 nm) east of the island of Skopelos. Alonnisos is also the name of a village on the island, as well as the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

that encompasses the island and the village. The village of Alonnisos is located on the southern part of the island. It is locally known as Chora and signposted as The Old Village. The main port of the island is located in the southeast and is called Patitiri. There are ferry, catamaran ("flying cat") and hydrofoil ("flying dolphin") services from Patitiri to

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

, Agios Konstantinos, and

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

on the mainland and to the islands of Skiathos, Skopelos and

Skyros Skyros (, ), in some historical contexts Romanization of Greek, Latinized Scyros (, ), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as ...

. The bay at the southern end of the island is also called Alonnisos. The Municipality of Alonnisos includes the nearby islands of Adelfoi, Gioura, Kyra Panagia (Pelagos), Peristera, Piperi, Psathoura and Skantzoura.

History

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and until the 19th century, the island was known as Liadromia (). It was renamed in 1838, as it was – mistakenly according to later research – identified with Halonnesus of Antiquity. In reality, the present island of Alonnisos was known as Icus or Ikos () to the Ancient Greeks. Under that name, it is mentioned as having been colonised by Cnossians. The fleet of Attalus and the Rhodians sailed past Scyrus to Icus. Phanodemus wrote an account of the island.

Geography

The island at its widest is from northwest to southeast and at its longest is from southwest to northeast. The area of the island is . The island is mostly limestone. It is located east of mainland Greece and Magnesia, northeast of

Euboea Euboea ( ; , ), also known by its modern spelling Evia ( ; , ), is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by ...

and northwest of the island of Skyros.

The island

Agriculture is widespread on Alonnisos, predominantly mixed farming and vineyards. The main products are

almonds The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the sh ...

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

figs The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

and

olives The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

Pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

trees are abundant on the island. While fishing is a popular profession on the island, tourism is now the main industry. Housing traditionally consists of closely constructed houses with stone walls, which, until 1965, were centered on the capital. A small fortress protected against enemies and pirates. The island and the village were heavily damaged in the 1965

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

. Many inhabitants returned not to the village of Alonnisos, but to Patitiri. The old village has been restored in recent years, with rebuilt houses now utilised for tourism. The beaches around the island consist of pebbles. The ecosystem in the north side of the island is in good condition. The Mediterranean monk seal (''Monachus monachus'') is common around the island, and in 1992 the Alonnisos Marine Park was created to protect these seals and other animals. In July 2021, Kostis, a monk seal that was the mascot of the island, was killed, apparently by a spearfisher.

Communities and subdivisions

The Municipality includes several other islands with small resident populations. The total land area of the municipality is . The 2021 census population was 3,138 inhabitants, of whom only 33 persons lived on the other islands.

Alonnisos Island

* Ágios Pétros (Άγιος Πέτρος) *Alónnisos (Αλόννησος) * Chrysi Milia (Χρυσή Μηλιά) * Gérakas (Γέρακας) * Isiomata (Ισιώματα) * Kalamákia (Καλαμάκια) *Marpounta (Μαρπούντα) - abandoned * Mourtero (Μουρτερό) * Patitiri (Πατητήρι) *

Steni Vala Steni Vala (Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ...

(Στενή Βάλα) * Votsi (Βότση)

Other islands

* Adelfoi (Αδελφοί) * Gioura (Γιούρα) * Kokkinonisi (Κοκκινονήσι) * Kyra Panagia (Κυρά Παναγιά) * Manolas (Μανωλάς) * Peristera (Περιστέρα) * Piperi (Πιπέρι) * Psathoura (Ψαθούρα) * Skantzoura (Σκάντζουρα)

Historical population

References

External links

Official website

National Marine Park of Alonnisos Northern Sporades

VivaSporades.com

Alonnisos.net website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Thessaly Populated places in the Sporades Mediterranean port cities and towns in Greece Landforms of the Sporades Islands of Thessaly Territories of the Republic of Venice