37 Facts About Corfu

Corfu eventually fell under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars, and was eventually ceded to Greece by the British government along with the remaining islands of the United States of the Ionian Islands.

Corfu is the origin of the Ionian Academy, the first university of the modern Greek state, and the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfu, the first Greek theatre and opera house of modern Greece.

Corfu is located near the Kefalonia geological fault formation; earthquakes have occurred.

Corfu is a continental island; its fauna is similar to that of the opposite mainland.

At a date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse, Corfu was peopled by settlers from Corinth, probably 730 BC, but it appears to have previously received a stream of emigrants from Eretria.

Related searches

Corfu offered Corfu as dowry to his daughter Lanassa on her marriage to Pyrrhus, King of Epirus.

In 551, during the Gothic War, the Ostrogoths raided the island and destroyed the city of Corfu, then known as Chersoupolis because of its location between Garitsa Bay and Kanoni.

Indeed, traveller reports from throughout the middle Byzantine period make clear that Corfu was "an important staging post for travels between East and West".

Indeed, the medieval name of Corfu first appears in Liutprand of Cremona's account of his 968 embassy to the Byzantine court.

Corfu enjoyed relative peace and safety during the Macedonian dynasty, which allowed the construction of a monumental church to Saints Iason and Sosipatrus outside the city wall of Palaiopolis.

Three times on the space of a century Corfu was the first target and served as a staging area for the Norman invasions of Byzantium.

From 1386, Corfu was controlled by the Republic of Venice, which in 1401 acquired formal sovereignty and retained it until the French Occupation of 1797.

Corfu became central for the propagation of the activities of the Filiki Etaireia among the Greek Diaspora and philhellenic societies across Europe, through nobles like Ioannis Kapodistrias and Dionysios Romas.

Corfu repulsed several Ottoman sieges, before passing under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars.

Will Durant claimed that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was one of the few parts of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans.

Second great siege of Corfu took place in 1716, during the last Ottoman–Venetian War.

The repulse of the Ottomans was widely celebrated in Europe, Corfu being seen as a bastion of Western civilization against the Ottoman tide.

From 1386 to 1797, Corfu was ruled by Venetian nobility; much of the city reflects this era when the island belonged to the Republic of Venice, with multi-storeyed buildings on narrow lanes.

The Old Town of Corfu has clear Venetian influence and is amongst the World Heritage Sites in Greece.

The Cathedral of St James and St Christopher in Corfu City is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Corfu, Zakynthos and Cephalonia.

Corfu became the seat of the British Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.

Corfu was liberated by British troops, specifically the 40th Royal Marine Commando, which landed in Corfu on 14 October 1944, as the Germans were evacuating Greece.

Old Town of Corfu city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

City of Corfu stands on the broad part of a peninsula, whose termination in the Venetian citadel is cut off from it by an artificial fosse formed in a natural gully, with a seawater moat at the bottom, that now serves as a marina and is called the Contrafossa.

Kardaki Temple is an Archaic Doric temple in Corfu, Greece, built around 500 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra, in what is known today as the location Kardaki in the hill of Analipsi in Corfu.

Related searches

Temple of Artemis is an Archaic Greek temple in Corfu, built in around 580 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra, in what is known today as the suburb of Garitsa.

Temple of Hera or Heraion is an archaic temple in Corfu, built around 610 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra, in what is known today as Palaiopolis, and lies within the ground of the Mon Repos estate.

Tomb of Menecrates or Monument of Menecrates is an Archaic cenotaph in Corfu, built around 600 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra.

Castles of Corfu, located at strategic points on the island helped defend the island from many invaders and they were instrumental in repulsing repeated Turkish invasions, making Corfu one of the few places in Greece never to be conquered by the Ottomans.

The phrase "applaudito in Corfu" was a measure of high accolade for an opera performed on the island.

The Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfu was the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece and the place where the first Greek opera, Spyridon Xyndas' The Parliamentary Candidate was performed.

Corfu was the capital city of a Venetian protectorate and it benefited from a unique musical and theatrical heritage.

From 1720, Corfu became the possessor of the first theatre in post-1452 Greece.

Corfu city is home to the three most prestigious bands – in order of seniority:.

Corfu is one of the locations in the legend of Simon and Milo, where Simon falls in love temporarily.

Corfu has ferry services both by traditional ferries to Gaios in the island of Paxoi and as far as Patras and both traditional ferries and advanced retractable airfoil, hydrodynamic-flow, high-speed ferries called "Flying Dolphins" to Igoumenitsa and Sarande in neighbouring Albania.

Corfu is mostly planted with olive groves and vineyards and has been producing olive oil and wine since antiquity.