Salakos

Salakos (Greek: Σάλακος) is a village of 500 people on the west side of Rhodes Island. It is 40 km from the capital Rhodes town and 7 km from the North West coast. The village is located on the hills of Mount Prophitis Ilias. Inhabitants are mainly employed in farming, livestock rearing and tourism.

The village is located next to a natural spring named Nimfi (Nymph), for the mythological deity who protected springs and running water. There is one tourist hotel and other local accommodation, and several tavernas. The village is famous for its walnuts, numerous sightseeing walks, and its stone-paved and shady square, with fresh spring running water and ficus trees (Rhodian ficus/retusa nitida, planted March 3, 1951). There was also a flourishing chair-making industry but this has now diminished.

In 1422, the large rural area (casale) of Salakos was granted in fief to Antonio of the Genoese Cattaneo family.

The village was involved in the Easter 1919 protests against Italian occupation of the Dodecanese, when the schoolmistress was arrested as she led her pupils out of the central church singing the Greek National Anthem. The mayor intervened and she was at once released, but her pupils continued singing nationalist songs prompting the Italian garrison commander to draw his sidearm, whereupon the townsfolk rushed him. The situation was defused when the mayor persuaded the crowd to return the gun, and in reprisal some prominent locals were imprisoned.

On the wall of the Italian-era police station and library there is a plaque acknowledging the food and aid provided by the Red Cross to local inhabitants in 1945. Below the village is the natural mineral water bottling plant of NYMFI AE, an important local employer.