Qualla: Skorpios

Skorpios: Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tomisti, CC BY-SA 4.0. The island was nearly barren when Aristotle Onassis bought it in 1963. He imported more than 200 varieties of trees to cover its 83 hectares with dense forest. He brought sand from Salamis Island to create East Beach. He docked his legendary yacht, the Christina O, in a purpose-built harbor on the north side. By the time the world's press arrived by boat on October 20, 1968, to watch Onassis marry Jacqueline Kennedy in a small chapel on the island, Skorpios had become something that money and determination can occasionally achieve: a place that feels inevitable.

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Image: Tomisti | CC BY-SA 4.0

Skorpios: An Island Made, Not Found

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AlMare, Public domain. Skorpios sits just east of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea, irregularly shaped, running roughly north to south. At 83.2 hectares — about 205 acres — it is small enough to walk across in an hour, large enough to sustain the illusion of a private world. When Onassis acquired it, the isla...

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Image: AlMare | Public domain

Skorpios: October 20, 1968

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JorgosS, CC BY 3.0. The wedding of Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy shocked much of the world. She was the widow of an assassinated American president, five years out of her Washington life, still in her thirties. He was a 62-year-old Greek shipping billionaire, previously divorced, known fo...

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Image: JorgosS | CC BY 3.0

Skorpios: The Family That Stayed

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tomisti, CC BY-SA 4.0. Onassis died in 1975. He is buried on Skorpios, beneath the cypresses near the chapel. His son Alexander, who died in 1973 following a plane crash, is buried beside him. His daughter Christina, who inherited the island upon her father's death and died in 1988, is buried there too...

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Image: Tomisti | CC BY-SA 4.0

Skorpios: What Onassis Left Behind

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Costas78, CC BY-SA 3.0. The trees are the most enduring thing. Over 200 species now cover hillsides that were bare scrub sixty years ago. The harbor is still there. The three residences stand. The island holds its shape as a private world, even as its ownership has shifted and its future is being redesi...

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Image: Costas78 | CC BY-SA 3.0