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Corfu

The Island of Melodies

Authors

George Papadellis | SG Head

Eleni Plataniti | SG Team

Panagiotis Papadellis | SG Team

Corfu Town Skyline | Photo by: iStock.com, Poike | 24.11.2017

Once you make a step in Corfu, one of the unique places of Greece, you feel that you arrived in an exotic place. You feel that time stops and turns back to the era of Dukes and Cantadors. It is Corfu of the 400 years of Venetian Empire, which shaped a western-type great architecture and a music based on polyphonic melody. It is the island of ancient Phaeacians of Odyssey. It is the shelter of the queen of Austria Elisabeth (known as Sissy), who, charmed from the beauty of Corfu, receded to the island in 1890, constructed her own mansion (the gorgeous Achillion) in an area of unparalleled beauty and lived there for 8 years until her murder. The island lets visitors surrender in its history through palaces, museums, the temple of Artemida Gorgou, galleries, mansions, fortresses, churches, monasteries, chapels and islets. The visitor of Corfu will meet a lot of green, beautiful plains, astonishing sand beaches, steep and interesting rock formations, small picturesque ports, touristic resorts and magnificent villages with delicious local products like madolato coming from Venetian times and ginger-beer coming from the English domination that ended in 1864.

Corfu (or Kerkyra) is the second largest island in the Ionian Sea and one of the largest islands of Greece. With its small surrounding islands (Erikoussa, Mathraki, Othoni), it forms the northwestern frontier line of Greece. The island's surface is 590 Km2. The principal city is named also Corfu and has a population of 32.095. The island's history is filled with battles and conquests, considering that ancient Kerkyra was one of the three top naval powers of the 5th century in Greece and also that it participated in one of the largest naval battles of all times in Greece, the battle of Syvota. The Paleopolis hosts ruins of ancient Greek temples and other archaeological sites of the ancient city of Corfu. The island anticipated invasions of pirates and of the Ottomans in the Middle Ages, proof of which are the several medieval castles of the island (two of which embrace today's capital city - a unique city like this in Greece).

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From medieval times to the 17th century, the island became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortifications were used by the Venetians to repulse the Ottoman intrusion. Then Corfu fell under British rule and was eventually given to Greece by the British Empire together with the remaining Ionian islands. The final unification with Greece ended in 1864 with the Treaty of London. Corfu is the birthplace of the Ionian Academy, the first university of Greece, and also of the first Greek theater, the New Theater of San Giacomo of Corfu. In 2007, the old town of Corfu was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, a fact that made Corfu on of the top tourist destinations in the world.

Corfu Old Fort | Photo by: Aretial, Corfu Old Fort, cropped by Shiny Greece, CC BY-SA 4.0

The island is divided in three main districts. The mountainous (north), the low mountainous (central) and the flat (south). The climate of Kerkyra is Mediterranean with hot summer. Considering the domination of the Venetians, the architecture of the Old Town has Venetian influence. Same style Venetian period buildings are: the Liston (the multi-level commercial and residential building), the Spianada, the Old Fort, the New Fort, the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, the Mon Repo Palace. Corfu has an old tradition in music, theater and opera, and also in hospitality to foreigners.

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