Lazaretto Island Corfu

During Venetian rule in the early 16th century, a monastery was built on the islet, and later that same century, a leprosarium was established, after which the island was named.

In 1798, during the French occupation, it was taken over by the Russo-Turkish fleet, which used it as a military hospital. During the British occupation, the leprosarium was reopened after renovations in 1814. After the Union with Greece in 1864, the leprosarium was occasionally used.

During World War II, the Italian occupation authorities established a concentration camp there for prisoners of the Greek National Resistance movement. Today, there still remain the two-story building that served as the headquarters of the Italian army, a small church, and the wall against which those condemned to death were executed.

In the period 1946-1949, during the Greek Civil War, Lazaretto Island was the place where death row inmates were executed under the political climate of that time. About 200 people were executed and buried in anonymous graves around the execution site. The Greek authorities have identified 112 of the executed.

For these reasons, the island has been declared a historic site.

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