Kýthira

Kythira lies between the Peloponnese and Crete, where ships pass between the Ionian and Aegean seas. In antiquity the island was associated with Aphrodite, whose sanctuary stood near the old city of Scandea. The Venetians called it Cerigo and built a castle above its southern harbour, watching the strait towards Crete. In 1537 the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa sacked the Byzantine town of Paliochora, killing inhabitants and carrying others away into slavery. The castle in the south survived. Venetian rule ended with the fall of the republic in 1797, and Kythira passed through French and Russian hands before the British took it in 1809.