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Location

Pierros Hotel is located on the west side of Laganas Bay, Zakynthos, Greece, just next to the sandy seaside.. The spot is quiet, though in walking distance from the center of Laganas. The hills behind the hotels are full of olive trees quite nice for afternoon walks!

Laganas (Greek: Λαγανάς) is a village and a former municipality on the island of Zakynthos, Ionian Islands,Greece.The central and eastern part of the municipal unit are flat, but there are hills up to 450 m elevation in the west. A large part of Laganas is a national park, established for the protection of turtles.

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Zakynthos  or Zante is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands.   Zakynthos is a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and its only municipality.
It covers an area of 410 km2 (158 sq mi) and its coastline is roughly 123 km (76 mi) in length.
The name, like all similar names ending in -nthos, is pre-Mycenaean or Pelasgian in origin. In Greek mythology the island was said to be named after Zakynthos, the son of a legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus.
Zakynthos is a tourist destination, with an international airport served by many charter flights from northern Europe. The island’s nickname is To fioro tou Levante (Italian: Il fiore di Levante, English: The flower of the East), given by the Venetians.

History:
Zakynthos was inhabited from the Neolithic Age, as some archaeological excavations have proved. The ancient Greek poet Homer mentioned the island in the Iliad and the Odyssey, stating that the first inhabitants of it were the son of  King Dardanos of Troy called Zakynthos and his men. In mythology the island was then conquered by King Arkesios of Kefalonia, and then by Odysseus from Ithaca.

The Athenian military commander Tolmides concluded an alliance with Zakynthus during the First Peloponnesian War sometime between 459 and 446 BC.
The importance of this alliance for Athens was that it provided them with a source of tar. Tar is a more effective protector of ship planking than pitch (which is made from pine trees). The Athenian trireme fleet needed protection from rot, decay and the teredo, so this new source of tar was valuable to them. The tar was dredged up from the bottom of a lake (now known as Lake Keri) using leafy myrtle branches tied to the ends of poles

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During the Middle Ages, the island was part of the Byzantine theme of Cephallenia. After 1185 it became part of the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos under the Kingdom of Naples until its last Count Leonardo III Tocco was defeated by the Ottomans in 1479. The Turkish rule lasted only until 22 April 1484, when it was swapped with the Turks by Venetian secretary Giovanni Dario, negotiator of the treaty of Constantinople (1479), against neighboring Cephalonia and an annual tribute of 500 ducats.From then on Zakynthos remained an overseas colony of the Venetian Republic until its very end in 1797, following the fate of the Ionian islands, completed by the capture of
Cephalonia in 1500 and Lefkas in 1684 from the Turks.

Venetian rule protected the island from Ottoman domination but in its place it put a feudal oligarchy. The cultural influence of Venice  (and of Venetian on local dialect) was considerable. The wealthy made a habit of sending their sons to Italy to be educated.
Good examples are Dionysios Solomos, a native of Zakynthos and Greece’s national poet, and Ugo Foscolo, also native of Zakynthos and a national Italian poet. However, both the Greek language and Orthodox faith survived intact. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, it was one of the largest exporters of currants in the world together with Cephalonia.

The Treaty of Campoformio dismantling the Venetian Republic awarded the Ionian Islands to France. General Antoine Gentili, leading a French expeditionary force with boats captured in Venice, took control of the islands on 26 June 1797. From 1797 to 1798, the island was part of the French department Mer-Egee.
A Russo-Turkish fleet captured the island on 23 October 1798. From 1800 to 1807, it was part of the Septinsular Republic, nominally under sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire but protected by Russia. In 1800–01, Britain attempted to take control of the Ionian islands from Zakynthos after a revolt, under the leadership of James Callander Campbell but these intentions stopped after the Peace of Amiens.

After a second period under French control (1807–09) following the Treaty of Tilsit, it was conquered by Great Britain on 16 October 1809, and was part of the British protectorate of the United States of the Ionian Islands from 1815 to 1864.

In 1864, Zakynthos, together with all the other Ionian Islands, became a full member of the Greek state.

During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Mayor Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos refused Nazi orders to turn in a list of the members of the town’s Jewish community for deportation to the death camps. Instead they hid the town’s 275 Jews in rural villages. Every Jew of Zakynthos survived the war. Statues of the Bishop and the Mayor commemorate their heroism on the site of the town’s historic synagogue, destroyed in the earthquake of 1953. In 1978, Yad Vashem,
the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel, honoured Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Karrer with the title of “Righteous among the Nations”, an honor given to non-Jews who, at personal risk, saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Sights
The most famous landmark of the island is the Navagio beach. It is a cove on the northwest shore, isolated by high cliffs and accessible only by boat. The beach and sea floor are made of white pebbles, and surrounded by turquoise waters. It is named after a shipwreck (MV Panagiotis), which sunk on the shore around 1980. The ridge area from Anafonitria has a small observation deck which overlooks the shipwreck, and there is a monastery nearby.
The unique and stunning visuals of the location are a favourite for BASE jumpers, and each year a major event in the BASE calendar is held at Navagio, around the end of August.

Numerous natural “Blue Caves”, are cut into cliffs around Cape Skinari, and accessible only by small boats. Sunrays reflect through blue sea water from white stones of cave bottoms and walls, creating visual lighting effects.[15] Keri is located in the far south of the island. It is a mountain village and has a lighthouse in the south. It includes a panorama of the southern part of the Ionian Sea. The whole western shore from Keri to Skinari contains
numerous interesting rock formations, including arches.

Northern and eastern shores feature numerous wide sandy beaches, some of which attract tourists in summer months. The largest resort is Laganas, whose beach stretches around 10 kilometres (6 miles). Small Xigia beach in the north is noted for its underwater springs rich in sulphur, giving a distinct odour. Marathonissi islet (also known as “Turtle Island”) near Limni Keriou contains tropical vegetation, turquoise waters, beaches, and sea caves.
Bochali hill above the Zakynthos town contains a small Venetian castle and offers panoramic views of the town. Located next to Bochali, Strani hill is the place where Dionysios Solomos wrote the Greek national anthem.