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HISTORY

modern TIMES

During Byzantine times and down to the early 13th century, information about the history of Antiparos is scarce. One thing we know is that during all this time, and until the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the island suffered a lot from pirates coming from Algeria, Crete, the region of Mani in the Peloponnese, the Ionian island of Cephalonia and other places. Their frequent raids are testified both by the fluctuation in the number of its inhabitants, who went so far as to abandon the island completely at times, and by the remains of defensive works erected in various periods by the lords of Antiparos for the protection of the population.

In 1207 Antiparos is seized by Venetian nobleman Marco I Sanudo, nephew of the Doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo, who took part in the Fourth Crusade and was one of those responsible for its deviation from its original objective, a deviation which resulted in the occupation and sacking of the Byzantine Empire. With the blessings of Venice, Marco Sanudo seized the Cyclades, the Sporades and other Aegean islands, and founded the Duchy of the Aegean Sea with its seat in Naxos. Antiparos remained under the House of Sanudo down to the second half of the 14th century, when it passed to the House of Sommaripa through the marriage of Maria Sanudo, lady of Andros, Naxos and Antiparos, to Gaspari Sommaripa.

In the beginning of the 15th century Antiparos was densely populated, since it is known that it had the obligation to provide the galleys of the duke of Naxos with 30 oarsmen each year. Later, though, owing to pirate raids, it was almost completely abandoned.  In 1480 the island passed to Domenico Pisani and, along with Ios and Anafi, formed part of the possessions of the Venetian family of the Pisani. In 1537 Antiparos and the rest of the Cyclades falls to the hands of the Ottomans and the formidable pirate Khayr al-Din Barbarossa. Antiparos remained under Ottoman occupation down to 1770, when the Russian fleet of the Orlov brothers sailed into the island. In the years 1770-1774 Paros and Antiparos are ruled by the Russians, passing again to the Turks until the War of Independence in 1821.