Greek island now taboo: tourists are no longer wanted

Created: 07/01/2022, 09:35

By: Franziska Kaindl

Chrissi Island is known for its juniper trees.

© Imago

The Cretan regional administration has banned tourists from visiting a popular holiday island.

Nature on the island should be given the chance to recover.

Dreamlike sandy beaches, juniper trees and cedar forests: The holiday idyll on

has long attracted many tourists - even though the island is uninhabited and can only be reached by boat.

Chrissi Island near Crete (Greece): Access for visitors is now prohibited

The island is located about 15 kilometers south of the port city of Ierapetra on Crete and is only about seven kilometers long and two kilometers wide.

Despite this, it was

.

Some of them even built huts or makeshift taverns in the summer months to settle down for a while.

But that should now be over: The Cretan regional administration has now declared the island, which is a nature reserve anyway, a taboo zone, as the German Press Agency (dpa) reports, citing a statement from the authorities.

Video: The most beautiful Greek islands

Nature destroyed: Greek holiday island should have time to relax

According to the regional administration, nature on the island has now been destroyed.

The so-called "Chrissi cedars" are particularly affected - some of the trees are 100 years old, but

.

The tourists who stayed on the island over the summer would have tapped the groundwater, which the plants then lacked.

Some visitors also penetrated into the interior of the island and destroyed the necessary young plants in the process.

Even goats are said to have been taken to the island - the animals also didn't leave much of the flora left.

Editor's note

This text first appeared on May 19, 2022.

He was of particular interest to many readers.

That's why we're offering it again.

In order to give nature time to relax and to prevent people from settling on the island again, there is now a ban on entry.

Visitors are only allowed to approach the island by boat and swim ashore - "landing" is prohibited.