Sapienza in Italian means wisdom.On this Greek island, the lush green landscape and crystal blue Caribbean waters will simply carry you away.
A visit to the Messinian Oinousses is a travel experience of a lifetime. It is a wonderful complex that includes three islands: Sapienza, Schiza and Agia Marina. Their exotic beauty, rare natural environment and the presence of wild birds and animals such as partridges, pheasants and Kri- kri(feral goats inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean) are impressive.
South of Methoni, with rare flora and lavish vegetation, Sapienza, the uninhabited Greek island that only a handful of people know about, provides an alternative option for becoming accustomed to an environment of wild natural beauty.
A small island of the Messinian Oinousses, the largest in area (9 square kilometers) after Schiza, the verdant Sapienza has enviable beauty.
Its highest point is 219 meters. Access is by tourist boats departing from Methoni. Since 1986, the Greek island has been declared a “preserved monument of nature” and has been included in the European Ecological Network Natura 2000, along with its neighboring Schiza and the region around Cape Akritas.
Sapienza: A lavish natural landscape that invites you to discover
In the center of the island, you will find a large area with the typical Mediterranean vegetation of evergreen broadleaf trees, which here do not acquire the usual size of a bush, but rather the form of trees, exceeding 10 meters in height.
Dense bushes and perennial holly trees, holm oaks and other Mediterranean plants form the natural decoration of the island. It is the only place in the world, where the holm oaks turn into trees, forming an entire forest known as the “Koumarodasos”, which extends over 240 acres. The originality of the forest lies in the fact that the vegetation in some places has grown to such a height, forming a dense forest, the age of which is estimated at 15,000 years!
Historically, Sapienza was a point of contention, due to its strategic location – at the crossroads between Italy and the Middle East – but also the possibilities it provided as an anchorage point.
In 1209, passed into the hands of the Venetians and centuries later, with the liberation of Greece from the Turks, it came to the Greeks, while it was claimed by the English as part of the Ionian Islands during the period 1847-1850, with the famous “Don Pacifico affair”, during which relations between Greece and Britain were tense.
Arriving at Sapienza, you will anchor at Porto Longo, as the closed bay that welcomes travelers is called. Following the path, you will be guided to the well-known lighthouse, located south of the island: an impressive English structure from 1890. Climbing 75 stone steps and 8 meters high, its top offers mesmerizing views.
In the center of the island, there is a plateau covered in orange-yellow rock, which was formed by the deposition of huge amounts of pollen over thousands of years. The plateau is called Spartolakka and is an extremely important source of information for scientists regarding the dating of the forest and the surrounding area. Southwest of the island there is also the renowned Oinousses well, the deepest point in the Mediterranean (5,121 meters).
On the island of Sapienza, you will swim at Ammos, a beautiful, sheltered beach, located on the north side with easy access. In addition, at the northern end, at shallow depths, shipwrecks have been found; the most important include the columns of the Great Peristyle from Caesarea in Palestine, from the 1st century AD. This location, called Cape Karsi, is of great interest to diving enthusiasts, who wish to discover the unrevealed secrets of the marine world.
