The Sponge Capital of the World
According to Visit St. Pete Clearwater, the county tourism office, Tarpon Springs was founded in the early 1900s by Greek sponge divers who came to harvest the natural sea sponges growing in the waters off the Anclote River. Their descendants stayed. The city now has the largest Greek community per capita in the United States, and people still call it the Sponge Capital of the World.
The Sponge Docks line Dodecanese Boulevard, a walkable strip where bouzouki music drifts out of the doorways. Boats still take visitors out on short sponging expeditions with a diver in traditional gear, and afterward you can pick up a sponge or two at the shops along the street. The Greektown Historic District and the Tarpon Springs Historical Museum fill in the rest of the story.
Then there is lunch. The county guide sends visitors to Mykonos for flaming saganaki cheese, gyros and grilled octopus, to Hellas for dolmades, moussaka and a bakery case of baklava, melomakarona and diples, and to Mama's Greek Cuisine for spanakopita. On the water, Rusty Bellies serves local stone crab and scallops while the sponge boats pass. Tarpon Springs Distillery makes ouzo, and Sponge City Brewing pours beer a few steps away.
Three miles offshore, Anclote Key Preserve State Park covers more than 400 acres of islands, white sand and an old lighthouse. It is reached only by boat, and some of the tours leave right from the docks.
Epiphany at Spring Bayou
Every January 6, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral marks Epiphany, the feast of Christ's baptism. After the morning liturgy a procession of clergy and faithful walks to Spring Bayou. The Archbishop blesses the waters, a dove is released, and a cross is thrown into the bayou. Young Orthodox men aged 16 to 18 dive in after it, and the one who brings it up is considered blessed for the year.
The cathedral says the community has held the cross dive for close to a century. One past retriever, Nikitas Lulias, came up with the cross in 1974 and later became Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain. At the end of the service the faithful take home sanctified water and set it aside for the year, to use as a blessing in times of illness or trouble.
