Corfu

Corfu Town is a short ferry ride from Igoumenitsa, Greece. Pictured is the Venetian Old Fortress.

And the New Fortress

Coming into the harbor on the ferry at night is a pleasant experience.

The Venetians bought Corfu from the Angevins in 1386 and ruled it until Napoleon took Venice in 1797. The Byzantines originally built the Old Fortress, and the Venetians improved upon it to stave off four Ottoman sieges of Corfu.

The Venetian 1000 pound mortar was made in 1684 and had a 500 meter max range.

The Archaeological Museum of Corfu has some excellent pieces, like this statue of Hercules.

Corinth settled colonies on Corfu in the 700s B.C., but over time Greek residents of Corfu wanted independence. Athens assisted Corfu in the naval Battle of Sybota in 433 B.C.; Thucydides, pictured, considered this one of the main causes of the Peloponnesian War.

Dionysus at a symposium from the 500s B.C.

Corfu housed a terracotta figuring worship that primarily made figurines of female deities.

Gorgon crowned the Temple of Artemis built in the 6th century B.C.

The Serbian Museum of Corfu documents the Serbian Army's stay during World War 1. After Austria took over Serbia, the government refused to surrender, and the 400,000 Serbian soldiers and civilians marched through Albania to be evacuated via the Ionian Sea. Only 120,000 made the long trip to Corfu.

You have to eat octopus on Corfu!

The Venetians built the New Fortress after the first Ottoman siege of Corfu in the 1500s.

Saint Spyridon Church is a Greek Orthodox Church that has housed the relics of its eponymous saint since being transported from Constantinople after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

The Museum of Asian Art of Corfu, housed in a palace built during the British occupation of Corfu after the Napoleonic Wars, has an impressive collection of artifacts.

Octopi and Monkeys

Sword coins?

Cultural synthesis isn't always a good thing.

Corfu was part of the United States of the Ionian Islands, a protectorate of the British, until joined with Greece after the Greek War of Independence. Those that served the British and Corfu well were awarded the Order of St. Michael and St. George.