Scorpios
Skorpios is one of the most beautiful islands in the world. It owes its name to its shape, it looks like a land scorpion to me. It became world famous when it was bought in 1963 by the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who created his earthly paradise there.
The retreat of Onassis was connected with his own life: with Maria Callas, Greta Garbo, with his second marriage with Jackie Kennedy – former first lady of America – which took place on the island (on October 20, 1968) and with his children, Alexandros and Christina, who today rest with him in the mausoleum of the church of Panagitsa.
Scorpio saw insurmountable glories. Unforgettable celebrity parties, with countless paparazzi risking even their lives for an exclusive photo.
In 2013, Onassis’ granddaughter, Athena, sells (leases for 100 years) the island to the Russian tycoon, “potash king”, Dmitry Rybolovlev and a new era begins…
The story of Scorpios
The first signs of life can be found around 625 BC, where Corinthians settled on the island of Lefkada, whose artifacts have been found in Scorpios.
Later, the area is conquered by Romans, while during the 12th century the historical evidence wants the island to have been occupied by Pirates. At that time, the entire sea area around Scorpio becomes one of the most dangerous for navigation, however, the pirates also leave an important memory on the island, It is a tower built on the island’s promontory with the name “Kastri”.
According to what the historian Panos G. Rontogiannis, after the era of the pirates and shortly after the beginning of the Venetian rule in the area, the island remains uninhabited.
Skorpios became a private island for the first time at the time when the entire surrounding area was dominated by the Venetians. A notarial deed of 1755 reveals that a private individual, named Antonio Trevisan, owns lands in Skorpios, which he rents for exploitation to Giannis and Stathis Prosalentis.
Years later, the ownership of the island passes to the family named Settini, coming from Venice. Another purchase and sale document that has been found proves that in 1892, the owners of Skorpios, Antonios, Fragiekla, Maria, Nikolaos, Petros, Kelikia and John Settini, decide to transfer Skorpios to the Lefkada merchant magnates, the Mavroids brothers.
The big merchants buy the Scorpion as a gift to the beautiful Corfu noblewoman Maria Moustoxidis, niece of Aristotle Valaoritis, who enters their family as a bride. The Mavroides family made changes and carried out a lot of work when they bought Skorpios from the Settini, even pouring a lot of money into the island. They built a beautiful mansion to live in, as well as housing for the workers, laid out roads, cultivated vineyards and fruit trees. They also built a small church, the predecessor of the church built later by Aristotle Onassis, where the tombs of the Onassis are to this day.
Several members of the Mavroides family will soon pass away, leaving one and only heir to take over the island: Theodosis Moustoxidis. He was a man of the spirit, with brilliant for the time studies in Paris and Geneva, while he also composed many important texts, most of them in French.
In 1938, Theodosis Moustoxidis came to Greece with his second wife, the French woman Nancy, and they settled permanently in Skorpios. However, he will quickly realize that this life does not suit him and, through a contract signed in 1941, he will sell Scorpio to a Greco-Italian trading company with the name Societa Amonica commercial Italo-Greca. The company was based in Rome and the president was Count Guido Ioannis Violanti Campalto and bought Scorpio for 15 million drachmas. Theodosis Moustoxidis then collected the money and lived a long life in Athens, at a time when the Greeks were starving.
In 1943, the ownership of the island passes again to the Moustoxidis family, as it makes use of the Enemy Acts and Escrow of Enemy Property Act, in which case the contract with the trading company is considered invalid. Subsequently, Theodosis Moustoxidis proceeds to take out a series of agricultural loans from the Agricultural Bank of Greece, putting Skorpios as a mortgage. The serious financial problems he will face later will lead him to divide Scorpio into 14 pieces and place an advertisement in the newspapers, which announces that he is selling the pieces of land on the island at insignificant prices.
A few months later, specifically on October 15, 1953, Skorpios, together with the islet of Kastri, where the pirates’ tower was located, but also everything else that includes the island, was transferred by Theodosis Moustoxidis to the Philippa family of Lefkada for 740 million. possession of drachmas. According to the information, the brave payment was made by the Greek-American relative of the family, George Philippas, also known as “Truman”.
In addition to the purchase of the island, the Philippa family undertakes to pay off the entire amount of the mortgage to the Agricultural Bank. This amount was equivalent to 17.5 million. possession drachmas. The Philippa family settled on the island after acquiring it, with the aim of agricultural exploitation.
Nevertheless, the fact that the ownership of the island belongs to the Philippa family does not prevent the Lefkadians from organizing celebrations, visits and excursions, taking advantage of the unsurpassed natural beauty of the island, which does not go unnoticed by the residents of Lefkada.
The acquisition of the island by the Philippa family is of pivotal importance for its subsequent course. The donor of the purchase price, George Truman, is said to have been, at a young age, one of the island’s workers when it was owned by the Mavroides family. Philippas, however, did not like agricultural work, so shortly afterwards he left Greece and went to America in search of a better life.
George Philippas lived his whole life in America and he really managed to succeed and make a lot of money. His emergence as a powerful businessman brought him into the circles of the most prominent of the time. There, as it is said, he met Aristotle Onassis. Aristotle Onassis saw the Scorpion on one of his trips to the Ionian, with his legendary yacht, Christina. He had openly expressed his desire to buy an island in the Ionian and it was clear that the beauty of the Scorpion had enchanted him.
Onassis finally convinces “Truman” to sell him the Scorpio, and the sale takes place between the two men in Chicago in 1963. With the passing of the ownership of the island into the hands of the Greek Croisus, Scorpio completely changed his face. Aristotle Onassis brought power generators to the island and secured a water supply from neighboring Lefkada.
He brought all kinds of flowers and plants, even tropical birds, and opened a road to make the island accessible by car. He also built a helipad, as well as a marina. Characteristic is the pink villa built by the businessman, as well as suites to accommodate his guests. The transformation of the island took a total of five years to complete.
The acquisition of Scorpio by the Greek tycoon led the island to live its most brilliant era. A glamor of another era, which carried an innocence.
The sequel is known…
The fate of the island, which was neglected after the sudden death of Christina Onassis, while it then passed to the only heir of the Onassis family, Aristotle’s granddaughter, Athena. Athena Onassis’ indifference to anything her famous grandfather built was evident from quite early on. The wealthy heiress had her own aspirations for life, having lived a life far away from Greece and mainly involved with horses and riding. Regarding the rich inheritance she received from Aristotle and her mother, Christina, Athena Onassis has, in recent years, made several moves to sell many properties and belongings of the family.
One of these moves was the concession, on a long-term lease, of the Scorpio to the Russian businessman, Dmitry Rybolovlev, who secured it for the mythical sum of 100 million. euros, as a gift to his daughter, Ekaterina.
In fact, as it had become known, Athena found a loophole in the sale of the Scorpion, as in his will, Aristotle Onassis strictly states that the Scorpion cannot be resold to anyone who does not belong to the Onassis family, while, in a different case, he can only to be granted to the State. For this reason, Athena Onassis granted the island of Aristotle in the form of a long-term lease to Rybolovlev.
Sources
- P. G. Rontogiannis: “History of Lefkada Island”
- General Archives of the State – Archives of Lefkada
- Panagiotis Th. Kouniakis, “The island of Lefkas from ancient times to ours – customs, traditions, evolution and actions of its political men”, 1928.
- Society of Lefkada Studies, Theodosios M. Moustoxidis 1893-1971, Kleareti Dipla – Malamou 1886-1977, Honorary event, Athens, May 20, 2005, Athens 2007.
- GAZETTE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GREECE, a.f. 379, in Athens on November 10, 1940.
- GAZETTE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GREECE, a.f. 379, in Athens on November 10, 1940.
- Panagiotis Filippas, “The former owners of Skorpios were Drymonians”, Drymonas Lefkada Newspaper, a.f. 43, 2002
- Malafouris Babis – “Greeks of America 1528-1948”, ed. New York, 1948.
- https://mylefkada.eu
- https://www.mononews.gr/
- https://aromalefkadas.gr/