The years have passed, cultures have changed, peoples have mixed, and the rulers of the time have ordered, as usual, with the rod, while ordinary people sometimes complied and sometimes rebelled. Minoans, Achaeans, Dorians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Saracens, Genoese, Venetians, locals, Ottomans, as well as Hansen's disease patients from Crete and the rest of Greece were hosted in these barren lands of Spinalonga, watering it with pain but also hope for life.

Today, we stand in awe of the works that remain - walls, bastions, churches, houses, streets, and various buildings - which transport us to those times and record the history of the island. However, the stories of ordinary people, their sorrows, tears and sighs, their sacrifices and struggles for life, the small joys and hopes were not written anywhere, nor were they etched indelibly on the stones of the island.

The Leprosy Hospital remains a bitter, painful memory. The Ottoman past is clearly evident. What impresses, however, is the Venetian element. The once impregnable fortress of Spinalonga, proud, there at the entrance of the Gulf of Korfu, inspires awe and admiration, showcasing the various cultures that influenced it.

A unique heritage, bathed in the dazzling light reflecting on the blue sea, under the sunny sky of Mirabello... of all of Crete!