Skopelos History

The ancient name of Skopelos, Peparithos, with the ending "thos", refers to the pre-Hellenic period and is therefore, likely to have been first inhabited by Carians of Asia Minor and then Minoans to have followed. According to the findings which were discovered subsequently, confirm interactions with the Cycladic islands, the Northern Aegean and Asia Minor, but also with Argolida, the centre of the Mycenaean civilization.

Over the centuries, on the island of Skopelos, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans were settled. After the slaughtering by the Turks in 1538 the island remained uninhabited, and when was colonized again, it met many pirate raids over again. Furthermore, during the pre-revolutionary period in Greece, the island constituted the hideout of the militants Nikotsaras and Yiannis Stathas. In 1940 the island was trialed by a terrible phylloxera epidemic, which destroyed forever its eminent vineyards. During the Italian-German occupation, it became a refuge for the Allied Expeditionary Force, while in 1965 a large earthquake caused substantial damage in several historical buildings and in the island's economy.