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Traces of a human presence on the island have been found in the area of Partheni and date all the way back to the Neolithic period (8000-3000 B.C.) showing us there was once a settlement there.
The Carians, Leleges and the Phoenicians are thought to have been the island's earliest inhabitants. Later the Lykians appeared and still later the Minoans under Radymanthys at the height of the Minoan civilization when the Cretans were the lords of the sea. During the Trojan War, Leros together with Kalymnos, took part in that titanic struggle under the common name of the Kalydnes islands (12th century B.C.)
With the descent of the Dorians, Leros received Dorian colonists (end of the 11th century B.C.) and then Ionians from Miletus in Asia Minor (7th century B.C.). The ancient geographer and historian Strabo mentions in his "Geography" that: "Milesians came to Icarus and the island of Leros". Herodotus also mentions the growth of civilization there and the development observed on Leros from the influx of the Ionians and from the commercial exchanges as well as the political and cultural relations between Miletus and Leros.
After the Persian Wars (490-479 B.C.) Leros joined the Athenian Alliance. It used democratic Athens as its model and adopted its calendar and the way of organizing its administration and governmental functions. It flourished intellectually and had important men of the arts and letters such as Dimodikos, a satirical poet, and Pherekydis a historian.
At the end of the destructive Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 B.C.) Leros came into the hands of the victorious Spartans. During that period its large harbors were used as bases of operation for the combatants.
There is little information on the subsequent history of Leros. We know that Alexander the Great liberated the island from the Persians. Tombstones and Macedonian names on the coins of the period attest to the passage of the mighty general through the island and the transition from the Classical to the Hellinistic period. In Roman times the great strategic importance of the island was confirmed for yet another time by the writer Plutarch who mentions the Julius Ceasar was held in captivity on the small islet of Farmako, off the NW coast of Leros, during the Roman civil war of 48-31 B.C.
The next great period was the Byzantine when Leros
shared the fate of the other Dodecanesian Island and was incorporated into
the Theme of Samos. During that time the Blessed (Hosios) Christodoulos lived
on Leros.
He
was persecuted for his faith and forced to take refuge on Patmos where he
founded the Monastery of St. John the Divine. During Byzantine times the castle
and the church of the Panayia (VIrgin Mary) was built on Leros as was Paleokastro
in the same area as the Cyclopean walls. In 1087 the transfer of the town
from Panteli to Lepida began where it remained throughout the occupation by
the Franks right up to the Turkish invasion.
In the year 1309 Leros, which until then had belonged
to the District of Kos, was occupied by the Knights of St. John of Rhodes
and were governed by this religious order from 1314 to 1523. Nevertheless,
the wounds inflicted by the pirate raids and Turkish incursions meant that
from 1455 on the island bled white. The culture, the wealth and the population
of Leros went into decline while the island itself suffered disgrace, having
been abandoned by the central authorities, and was used primarily as a place
of exile.
In the end the Turks became the dominant power in the Aegean and plundered and ruled the islands and after signing an agreement in 1522 with Grand Master of the Knights of St. John became the true sovereigns of the islands. In 1523 Leros to fell to the Turks after a siege but managed to retain some of its autonomy, paying only a tribute to the Sultan.
In 1648 during the first stage of the Turko-Venetian War (1644-1669) the venetian admiral Foscolo Leonardo held Leros temporarily.
In 1821, Leros made good use of the benefits its autonomy gave it and took an active part in the greek revolt against Turkish rule. The Greek rebels on Leros were led in their struggle by the chieftains Krasouzis, Tourkomanolas and the Chatzimanolis brothers.
In 1830 Leros became a part of Greece along with the rest of the Dodecanese. The leader of Greece John Kapodistrias appointed the Greek perfect and mayor of Leros Markos Reisis governor and the Greek flag was officially raised on the island.
When the London Protocol was signed in 1830 and the Dodoecanese were ceded to Turkey in exchange for Euboea, Leros fell into the hands of the Turks again and despite the privileges and other extenuating circumstances the island still had to bear the weight of a foreign yoke.
During the period of the Balkan War (1910-1913) Italy, who had its eye on the Aegean and Asia Minor, appeared to the islands at first as a savior. On 13 May 1912 a detachment of the Italian army acting in concert with the Greek inhabitants drove Turkish garrison from Leros and raised the Italian flag on the Castle. Warships reached the island and anchored in the large harbor at Lakki and Partheni. They subsequently used the islands as a base of operations and supply and neutralized the Turkish fleet in the Dardanelles on 18 July 1912.
By the time Leros was being used as a naval station by the italian fleet and despite the protests of the Greeks, the Italians took over the Dodecanese through the terms of the treaty Luzanne and remained there until 1943. During this period the Italians created a new town at Lakki of Leros with a properly designed street plan, demolished the old buildings and built large and imposing new ones making use of architectural methods that were ahead of their time, even for Europe.
In 1939 the Italians entered the war on the side of Hitler and in 1940 torpedoed the Greek warship ELLI at Tinos at the instigation of De Vecchi. In 1943 Mussolini fell and the Italians capitulated and turned against Germans. Churchill, who had his eye on the Aegean Islands, sent forces to Leros who then fortified the island and erected a staff headquarters of Merovigli to confront the German fascists.
In September 1943 the destroyer VASSILISA OLGA was sunk and in November 1943 the Germans landed on Leros. After heavy fighting and the bombardment of of Lakki the Germans were driven out and the English held the island until 1947 when Leros was liberated.
On 7 March 1948 the Dodecanese were finally united with mother Greece. During the Greek dictatorship (1967-1974) Leros played the thankless role of a place of exile for political prisoners.
But with the return of democracy, Leros set forth on a course of modernization and progress, productively exploiting the island wealth with improvements in crop cultivation, fishing and tourism.