During the
Medieval Ages the obscurity took the island. Those were years when the pirates
took control of most part of the Mediterranean. That was the reason why the
capital was transferred near the actual Aghios Nektarios in the interior of
the island. In this called Paliachora was located the capital from the 9th
century to the 19th century when it returned to the Aegina's port. At that
time the pirates' attacks had disappeared; for example, in 1537 the island
was destroyed by Barbarossa, and the few inhabitants that remained turned
themselves into pirates.
The 19th century
started with the return of the capital to the port and in this beginning of
the century the island was a base to the rebel fighters against the Turks
and a secure place to the refugees. The Revolutionary Assembly of the Greeks
elected Aegina as the first capital of the free Greece (1827-1829) under the
presidency of Ioannis Capodistrias, who continued operating from this island,
even after the capital was translated to Nafplion, until his assassination
here in 1831. These years brought a prosperous cultural, political, economical…
life to the island. For example, the first Greek independent coin was minted
here in 1829.
With the removal
of the capital again the hard days came to the island. The later years of
the 19th century were obscure with the inhabitants dedicated to shipping,
fishing and agriculture activity. The economic balance was so fragile that
during the Second World War a terrible starvation took place, 2000 islanders
died. The economic salvation first came through the importation of the Pistachio
tree. One of the effects of this new crop was an increase of the lands' prices.
This made that the tourism slowly appeared, we have to wait until 1960s so
as to find the first tourists and they were more intellectuals and artists
than mass tourist. The last took some years more to appear in Aegina.
