I + 16 : Koroni - Waystation for Trade, Pilgrims and the Black Death

Koroni - View from the East on the Venetian Bastions and the Modern Town

Our choice of Porto Kagio for last night was excellent. Whilst wind gusts were whistling in MYRA’s rigging, the sea stayed flat and our boat stable. Perfect sleeping conditions. Gentle rocking, cooling winds. Live could not be more perfect. It would have been far rougher in any other bay. No wonder Lambros Katsionis chose Porto Kagio as his base in 1790.

Porto Kagio last Night at 22.00 h - Not full Moon yet but enough Light to illuminate the Bay

Wind conditions remained unchanged though. The hot Sahara continues to suck air from the north which then turns east due to the Coriolis force. We had to rise early to avoid these strong westerlies. Anchor lifting was at 5 am – we cross from Porto Kagio to Koroni, once Venice’s most important colony on the Peloponnese. Given its importance, the town was governed by a Bailo, a fully-fledged ambassador. It was a vital way station on the way from the Holy Land to Venice. Here, ships could seek shelter when the westerlies got too strong.

Koroni from the Air - the Fortified Venetian Town to the left - the modern Town to the right

Since Byzantine time, the town was fortified. It served as military base, naval station, trading hub and resting place for pilgrims. For three centuries it was run by Venice, then the Turks took over in 1500. By that time, Koroni had lost its importance. The Ottoman had taken Constantinople in 1453, closed the Black Sea trading route, far fewer pilgrims went to the Holy Land.

For a 30 Years (1685) Koroni returned to Venice but was lost again to the Ottoman in 1715 - the Gravure shows the 2 months Siege in 1685

Koroni’s decline though started earlier. In 1347, the plague reached Koroni and killed almost everybody. The town was entirely unprepared. There was no quarantine for incoming ships. The plague spread so fast that people could not come up with counter measures. Within two months, Koroni was a ghost town. The few survivors were starving - nobody prepared any food any longer. Venice had to repopulate the town with new colonists to bring it back to life.

Spread of the Plague from Kyrgyzstan to Europe, Asia and Africa along Trade Routes

Scientists have finally found the origin of the plague by coaming old archives & performing DNA analysis on the plague’s early victims. The deadly disease has its origin in Kyrgyzstan in a small rural mountain community. There, the bacteria causing the Black Death underwent a freak DNA mutation which made it so lethal.

The Villages where the lethal Strain of the Plague Pathogen originates from

The pathogen had always been around. All flees had it but it could not jump to the human species. Suddenly it happened. Researcher found mass graves from 1338/39 in the local villages. The bacteria was as lethal to the first people it encountered than it was 8 years later to the Europeans.

The Purple Graves are all related to the Mass Mortality caused by the Plague in 1338/39

From the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the disease travelled undetected along the silk route to the Black Sea where it arrived in 1347. People fleeing towns struck by the plague spread it further. The Genovese sailors who fled Caffa in the Crimean brought the pathogen to Constantinople from where it travelled to western Europe. It was inevitable that Koroni would be hit.

The Pathogen was carried by this Flea who bit Humans

The disease not only killed people. It killed the knowhow of how to run a business, how to trade, how to sail, how to repair ships, how to defend a town, how to govern one and raise taxes. The plague created a death zone where northing worked anymore and human society fell apart. Without external help or influx of fresh people from the outside a town could not recover. And even when recovery was possible, the Black Death killed Europe's demand for luxury products from the east.

Koroni where we arrived today at 10.45 h after more than 5 hours of Cruising

I do not know how long Koroni took to recover. I estimate around two generations or 50 years. By that time the political pendulum had swung to the Ottoman’s favor who controlled more and more of the Indian trade. Koroni would never be what it was before.

The only Boats anchoring today in Koroni are Sailboats and the local Fishing Boats

When the Russian fleet ventured into the Aegean in 1770, they tried to capture Koroni but the six week long siege failed. Koroni continued its beauty sleep until tourism woke it up in the 1970s.