Zakynthos Greece

Although it looks small, Zakynthos Greece is actually the third largest Ionian island with 123 kilometers of coastline. The island, also referred to as the Flower of the East (Fioro di Levante), was ruled by the Venetian Republic for three centuries just like most of the other parts of the Ionian coast Greece.

Zakynthos Greece was mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey as an island where the first inhabitants were the son of King Dardanos of Arcadia whose name was Zakynthos and his men. Throughout antiquity, it was invaded by the Kefalonia king and Odysseus himself from Ithaki. Zakynthos participated in the Trojan War and 108 suitors who tried to woo Penelope originated from here.

The island was ruled by the Greeks and the Romans. It avoided the invasion of the Slavs but was controlled by the Byzantines and the Venetians before joining the Union of the Ionian Islands and finally Greece in 1864.