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).
Visit | Taste | Learn
