The History of Zakynthos: From Ancient Times to the Modern Age
Zakynthos has been inhabited for at least 40,000 years. It has been conquered, ruled, loved, and nearly destroyed by earthquake. Its poets shaped modern Greek identity and its Jewish community survived the Holocaust through acts of collective defiance. This is the condensed history of an island that has more stories than its modest size suggests.
Ancient and Classical Period
According to Greek mythology, Zakynthos was founded by Zakynthos, son of Dardanus of Troy, who led a colonisation from the Arcadian region of mainland Greece around the 16th century BC. While mythology and archaeology don’t always agree, there is genuine Mycenaean-era evidence of settlement on the island from the Bronze Age.
In the Classical period, Zakynthos was a city-state of some significance. It allied with Athens against Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) — a choice that brought Spartan reprisals. The island later came under Macedonian influence following Alexander’s conquests, and subsequently under Roman control as part of the broader absorption of Greece into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC.
Under Rome, Zakynthos was known for its pitch (tar) springs — particularly those near the modern village of Keri, where natural petroleum seeps were used to waterproof ships. Pliny the Elder mentions these springs in his Naturalis Historia. The same springs still function today at Keri, though at much reduced output.
Byzantine Rule and the Medieval Period
Following the division of the Roman Empire, Zakynthos became part of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. This period left significant religious and cultural traces: the Orthodox Christian tradition embedded deeply in Zakynthos society during these centuries, and several Byzantine churches and monuments survived into the modern era (though fewer after 1953).
The island suffered repeated pirate raids from the 9th century onward, from Arab corsairs operating from bases in Crete and Sicily. The Byzantine period ended with the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century, followed by the Orsini family and various feudal lords of the Frankish crusader states. The island changed hands repeatedly through the late medieval period before arriving at its most defining moment of pre-modern governance.
Venetian Rule (1484-1797)
The Venetian period is the cultural bedrock of modern Zakynthos, and its influence is visible everywhere: in the architecture of Zakynthos Town (before 1953), in the Italianate family names (Lombardo, Calvos, Foscolo), in the island’s cuisine, and in the remarkable literary and artistic tradition that flourished under Venetian patronage.
The Serenissima (Republic of Venice) acquired Zakynthos in 1484 and administered it as part of its Ionian island territories for over three centuries. Unlike many Greek territories under Ottoman rule, the Ionian Islands remained under Venetian (and later British) control, meaning Zakynthos developed along a different cultural axis from mainland Greece. The island’s population could travel, trade, and study in Italian cities. Aristocratic families sent their sons to Padua and Venice for education.
This cross-cultural fertilisation produced the Ionian School of Painting — a distinctive tradition blending Byzantine iconographic conventions with Italian Renaissance techniques that flourished from the 17th-18th centuries. Zakynthos was a centre of this tradition, and the Byzantine Museum holds its finest surviving works.
The Venetians also developed the island economically, expanding olive and currant cultivation. Zakynthian currants — small black raisins — were one of the most valuable exports of the Venetian commercial network in the 18th century.
Dionysios Solomos: The National Poet
No discussion of Zakynthos is complete without Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857), the island’s most famous son and the national poet of Greece. Solomos was born into an aristocratic family in Zakynthos Town, was educated in Italy (Cremona and Venice), and returned to the island steeped in Italian Romanticism and Greek Orthodox culture.
His 1823 poem Hymn to Liberty, written in Zakynthos during the Greek War of Independence, became the Greek national anthem. The first two stanzas constitute the anthem sung today — an extraordinary honour for a poet from an island that at the time was under British, not Ottoman, rule.
Solomos is significant beyond his most famous poem. He chose to write in the vernacular Demotic Greek rather than the classical katharevousa form, a choice that legitimised modern spoken Greek as a literary language and influenced every subsequent Greek writer. His incomplete masterwork The Free Besieged, poems about the siege of Missolonghi, are considered the highest achievement of modern Greek lyric poetry.
His tomb is in the Church of Agios Dionysios in Zakynthos Town. A statue of him stands prominently in Solomos Square — the main square of the rebuilt town. The Solomos Museum, housed near the square, displays manuscripts, personal effects, and portraits.
The French, British, and Greek Periods (1797-1864)
When Napoleon ended the Venetian Republic in 1797, the Ionian Islands passed briefly to France, then to the Russo-Ottoman alliance, then back to France (under the Ionian Republic, a short-lived French client state), and finally to Britain. The United States of the Ionian Islands was a British protectorate from 1815 until 1864, when the islands were ceded to the newly independent Greek state.
The British period left infrastructure (roads, governance structures) and contributed to the already-complex cultural identity of an island that had been Italian-speaking in its upper classes and Greek-speaking in its common people, Orthodox in religion but deeply Italianate in aesthetic sensibility.
The Jewish Community of Zakynthos — A Story of Survival
Among the most remarkable chapters in modern Zakynthos history is the survival of its Jewish community during World War II. In September 1943, following Italy’s armistice with the Allies, German forces occupied Zakynthos. They ordered the mayor, Loukas Karrer, and the Bishop, Chrysostomos, to submit a list of all Jewish residents on the island.
The Bishop and Mayor reportedly returned to German headquarters with a list containing only two names: their own.
The approximately 275 Jewish residents of Zakynthos were hidden by Christian families across the island throughout the occupation. When liberation came, every single Jewish person on Zakynthos survived. This stands in extraordinary contrast to most Greek islands — Corfu’s Jewish community was almost entirely deported to Auschwitz; of around 1,800 Corfiot Jews, only about 200 survived.
Bishop Chrysostomos was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Mayor Karrer has also been honoured posthumously. The story of Zakynthos during the Holocaust is told in several books and has become an emblem of civil courage in Greek cultural memory.
A small Jewish cemetery still exists in Zakynthos Town.
The 1953 Earthquake
On August 12, 1953, a catastrophic earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck the southern Ionian Islands, with a second major shock the following day. Zakynthos was almost entirely destroyed.
The pre-earthquake Zakynthos Town was one of the most beautiful Venetian-influenced cities in the Ionian — a compact grid of neoclassical and baroque buildings, campaniles, and arcaded streets, with a castle overlooking the bay. Almost nothing survived. Over 500 people were killed on Zakynthos (the combined death toll across Kefalonia, Ithaca, and Zakynthos exceeded 800). Nearly every building in Zakynthos Town collapsed.
The reconstruction that followed was rapid but architecturally conservative — the rebuilt town replicated the general plan of the old one but with concrete construction that lacks the visual richness of the original. Photographs of pre-earthquake Zakynthos Town show something genuinely remarkable: a Mediterranean urban fabric comparable to Corfu Town, which survived because it was built on more stable rock.
What was saved: the Byzantine Museum collection (moved to Athens before the earthquake for an exhibition), the Church of Agios Dionysios (rebuilt), and various items preserved by luck or foresight. The castle of Zakynthos survived structurally. The memory of the lost city lives in photographs, paintings, and the accounts of those who saw it.
Navagio: The Shipwreck That Became a Legend
In 1980, a freighter named the MV Panagiotis ran aground in the sheltered cove on the northwest coast, having apparently been involved in cigarette smuggling. The ship was left where it grounded and gradually rusted into the iconic silhouette that is now Zakynthos’ most recognised image — a rusting hulk on white pebbles, surrounded by cliffs and impossibly blue water, accessible only by boat.
The beach had no name before the shipwreck. It became known as Navagio — “Shipwreck Beach.” The ship has been there for over 40 years and is now structurally very deteriorated. The wreck, the cliffs, and the beach constitute one of the most photographed landscapes in Greece.
The MV Panagiotis story also includes the smugglers who escaped, the Greek coast guard chase, and various embellishments added over the years. The true facts are somewhat murkier than the romantic legend — but then, that’s often how the best stories work.
Zakynthos Today
Modern Zakynthos is one of Greece’s busiest tourist destinations, with over 1.5 million visitors annually (pre-pandemic figures). The economy is built primarily on tourism, supplemented by olive oil, wine (the Verdea variety is native), and fishing. The island also produces excellent honey.
The tension between tourism development and environmental protection — centred on the sea turtle nesting grounds — continues to define local politics. Conservation won significant battles with the establishment of the NMPZ, but pressure remains on the beaches and waters of the bay.
The soul of the island, however — expressed in its music (kantades, the local polyphonic song tradition), its food, its Orthodox calendar, and its complex Greek-Italian hybrid identity — remains distinct and worth understanding alongside the beaches.