Λευκάδα
Lefkada is an oddity. Historically part of the mainland Lefkada became an island when Corinthian colonists dug a canal in the 7th century BC in order to avoid circumnavigating the island. Today, the island is connected to the mainland by two bridges - a 25m pontoon and a longer bridge passing through the fishery lagoon close to the island's capital.
Lefkada was an important strategic base for centuries - the connection to the mainland is guarded by a series of fortress ranging from the ancient to the medieval with the climax being the 14th century fortress of Santa Maura - the Venetian name for the island. The island was first settled by Corinthian Greeks and was later overrun by the Romans. When the Empire split Lefkada became part of the Eastern Empire - which later became Byzantium. The island fell under western frankish rule in the troubled times around the first fall of Constantinople in 1204. The island was too close to the mainland to resist Turkish rule and it is the only one of the Ionians that was held by the Ottoman Turks - the island fell in 1497. The Venetians took control two centuries later only to lose it to the French in 1797. The British established a protectorate here during the Napoleonic era in 1810. The islands joined mainland Greece in 1864 after a vote of the Ionian Senate.