Kythira (/kɪˈθɪərə, ˈkɪθɪrə/ kih-THEER-ə, KITH-irr-ə; Greek: Κύθηρα [ˈciθira]), also transliterated as Cythera, Kythera and Kithira,[a] is an island in Greece lying opposite the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula.

The island is strategically located between the Greek mainland and Crete, and from ancient times until the mid-19th century was a crossroads of merchants, sailors, and conquerors.

Christianity is attested from the fourth century AD, the time of Constantine; according to her legend, Saint Elessa came from Laconia to convert the island.

When Saint Theodore of Cythera led a resettlement after the Byzantine reconquest of Crete in 962, he found the island occupied only by wandering bands of hunters.

When the Byzantine Empire was divided among the conquerors of the Fourth Crusade, the Republic of Venice took her share, three eighths of the whole, as the Greek islands, Kythira among them.

One can easily accept the stories of locals by noticing the number of monasteries embedded in the rocky hillsides to avoid destruction by the pirates.

[9] When Napoleon put an end to the Venetian Republic in 1797, Kythira was among the islands incorporated in that most distant department of France, called Mer-Égée.

Kythira shared a common destiny with the other Ionian islands during the turbulent Napoleonic era, and is still regarded as one of them; it was counted as one of the Cyclades in antiquity.

After a long period of turbulence in the colony, which even eminent Commissioners as William Ewart Gladstone who served in the role for three weeks in the winter of 1859 failed to resolve, the British discussion whether they were a waste of money or a vital overseas possession ended with the cession of the Ionian Islands, including Kythira, to the new King George I of Greece, who was brother-in-law to the Prince of Wales.

Kythira has a land area of 279.593 square kilometres (107.95 sq mi); it is located at the southwestern exit from the Aegean Sea, behind Cape Malea.

[10] The rugged terrain is a result of prevailing winds from the surrounding seas which have shaped its shores into steep rocky cliffs with deep bays.

While the island had reached a peak population of about 14,500 in 1864, that has steadily declined mostly due to emigration, both internal (to major urban centres of Greece) and external (to Australia, the United States, Germany) in the first half of the 20th century.

Since the late 20th century, the Kythirean economy has largely focused and, in the process, has become dependent on tourism, which provides the majority of the island's income, despite the fact that Kythira is not one of the most popular tourist destinations in Greece.

Dependence on tourism has resulted in increased building activity in many of the island's villages, mostly for commercial purposes (hotels and hospitality facilities, shops etc.

Minor sources of revenue are thyme honey, famous within Greece for its rich flavor, as well as some small-scale cultivation of vegetables and fruit and animal husbandry that is, nevertheless, increasingly restricted to local consumption.

The hospital's construction was made possible through the contributions of Greek Americans, including Mixalis Semitekolos, also known as Mike Semet, who was a prominent figure in the New York City restaurant industry in the early 20th century.

Semitekolos, an immigrant from Kythera, raised funds for the hospital by participating in a pan-Kytherian fundraising campaign in the United States in the early 1950s.

It remains the only hospital on the island to this day, providing essential medical services to the residents of Kythira and the surrounding areas.

In 1933, efforts were made to construct a port in the village of Agia Pelagia, yet financial and governmental problems meant that it was only decades later that one was built.

Around that time the new port of Diakofti, the site originally chosen by the British colonial administration in the 19th century, was constructed along with a modern wider road, aiming to support larger cargo and passenger vessels.