Tag: Town in Corfu

The main entrance to the New Fortress is a highly monumental structure (columns with Tuscan-Doric elements) by Ferrante Vitelli, a great military architect who drew up the plans for the first fortifications of the town. The main gate is decorated with a relief of the winged Lion of St Mark, the symbol of Venice. Read more...

The Venetian authorities planned and built the New Fortress on St Mark’s Hill, to the north-west of town, on the insistent requests of Corfiots for added defenses against the Ottoman Turks. Construction started in 1576. This fortress and its subordinate bastions (together representing a monumental piece of fortification engineering), combined with the Old Fortress, formed the town’s main line of Read more...

The great building of the Venetian barracks housed the Ionian Academy from 1840 onwards. This building was originally designed to house barracks, in combination with the residence of the Military Commander during the Venetian Rule. This was the first university in modern Greece, founded by Lord Frederick North, Earl of Guilford. It was destroyed by German bombing in 1943. It Read more...

A headland jutting out into the waves, where between its two peaks the medieval town of Corypho developed (hence Corfu today), was to be transformed by engineers of the Venetian Republic into a fortress immune to siege. The impregnable walls of the Old Fortress were initially erected by the Byzantines and later reinforced by the Anjous. But it was the Read more...

This most representative neoclassical structure in Corfu Town was constructed by the British, then in possession of the Ionian islands, and formally presented to the Lord Governor in 1824. The tufa stone for its building was transported from Malta along with a large number of Maltese workers. It was designed by the British architect Whitmore as a residence for the Read more...

The Loggia (today’s San Giacomo) was initially built as a lodge for the assemblies of local nobles.Constructed between 1663 and 1693 with Sinies stone, the only town building with dressed masonry. It was transformed into the lyrical theatre of San Giacomo in 1720. Many operas of the European repertory were produced here, many great artists performed; and many premieres of Read more...

UNESCO World Heritage Site The Old Town of Corfu is located in a strategic position at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea, with its roots going back to the 8th century BC. The town is dominated by its fortresses of Venetian origin, designed by renowned Venetian engineers, and used for four centuries to defend the maritime trading interests of the Read more...

Very elegant well-head with relief decoration. Presented to the Community by Antonios Kokkinis, it stands at the centre of one of the most beautiful squares in the old town, in front of the church of the Kremasti at Campiello Read more...

Built by the Corfiot architect I. Chronis. Its neoclassical style facade with the Tuscan-Doric porch recalls the facades of the wings of the Commissioner’s Palace. The unification of the Ionian Islands with Greece was decided by vote in this building. After unification, the building was donated to the British community and turned into an Anglican Church. It suffered major damage Read more...

Small circular monument (rotunda) on the Spianada, in the type of a circular monopteral Ionic temple, built in honour of the first High Commissioner of Corfu, Sir Thomas Maitland. It was the work of the British military engineer G. Whitmore, executed in Maltese stone, with sculptural decoration by the Corfiot sculptor Prosalendis. Built above a cistern of Venetian date, it Read more...