Vandalism Exposes the Urgent Need to Protect Leros Wartime Heritage

43-year-old Markos Spanos, a photographer who works in the IT Department of The Municipality of Leros, has an interesting hobby. Born in New York to Lerians who immigrated to America, he returned at the age of 11. In recent years he has been voluntarily guiding foreign and Greek visitors to the architectural ruins and the great war history of the island. Chronologically, this period spans from the Italian occupation to the iconic Battle of Leros, the last great Nazi triumph.

The buildings were also later used to house political prisoners, mental hospital patients, as well as immigrants from the great crisis of 2015 and beyond. Apart from the city of Lakki (created entirely in 1930 with private and public buildings of Italian rationalism and art deco that today serve residential and commercial needs) all the rest of the reserve is in a dilapidated state. Not particularly interesting are the artillery stations scattered on many heights, but also their barracks - barracks - in which the members of the guard stayed.

One of them stands out from the other 25. It has impressive frescoes, probably by the hand of the painter Otto Meister. Born in Dresden in 1892, he studied Fine Arts, became a set designer and in 1934 was forbidden by the Nazis to exhibit. However, the irony of fate brought them this way, so that he served in Leros in the Second World War and left two fresco copies of works by Peter Bregel as well as a series of others in which the figure of his wife is probably the protagonist. They are all in the barracks building on the hill of Turtoura, near the Diapori area. It was one of the places where Spanos often went, and on his last visit he found himself in front of an unpleasant surprise. Someone with a wheel tried to remove part of one of the murals on the theme of this woman and a dog, a work inspired by Milo by Ten Ten. The perpetrator did it amateurishly, the piece he removed fell and broke and so he gave up. The act took place at the end of July or in the middle of August.

The subject was highlighted by the photographer and revealed the great neglect affecting the architectural and historical heritage of Leros. "The problem is not only the inevitable wear and tear of time but also the fact that the remote buildings are ballast for goats and sheep as they offer an easy solution for shepherds who protect their animals from cold and heat. They are full of impurities. If the ceiling doesn't fall on your head, you will catch fleas", he emphasizes in the column. Spanos has noticed another change. As Leros has been on the rise as a destination in recent years, it has been discovered by a number of military history lovers and collectors along with curious travelers. It could be that one of them wanted to take part of the mural, he explains. The issue is that while an honorable effort was made in 2005 during the mayorship of Timotheus Kottakis, as routes were opened and paintings were preserved in various buildings (Meister's and others), bars and padlocks were put in, over time they were taken out by strangers and today everything is a bare vine.

The same mayor is back in office, succeeding another municipal authority. He believes that it is very difficult for anyone to limit the breeders and the only solution is photovoltaic panels that will provide power to security cameras, he tells "K". But he admits that these too can easily be undone one night in the wilderness. It is important, however, that the enormous wealth for the island, which could bring a surplus value now that tourism is on the rise, remains masochistically unexploited and without a central plan from the state. In a self-respecting country all the Italian buildings (some are declared heritage sites) would have been preserved, hosting museums, hotels, study centres and institutes and even wellness centres. They would generate value added jobs, income and traffic all year round. But we prefer goats, vandals and thieves. At least some Lerians or people who chose the island to become permanent residents are fighting for memory and salvation. Like Thessaloniki's Ioanna Asmeniadou who has made a series of very interesting documentaries.

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