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Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It lies off the coast of Albania, from which it is separated by straits varying in breadth from less than 3 to about 23 km (2 to 15 mi), including one near Butrint and a longer ... more »
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Airports Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It lies off the coast of Albania, from which it is separated by straits varying in breadth from less than 3 to about 23 km (2 to 15 mi), including one near Butrint and a longer one west of Thesprotia.
The island is part of the Corfu Prefecture. The principal town of the island is also named Corfu, or Kerkyra in Greek. Corfu is home to the Ionian University.
The island is steeped in History and it is perennially connected to the history of Greece starting from Greek mythology.
The coastline is about 217 km including capes. The highest point is Mount Pantokrator, the second is Stravoskiadi (849 m). Capes and promentories include Agia Aikaterini, and Drastis to the north, Lefkimmi and Asprokavos to the southeast and Megachoro to the south. There is an island in the middle of Gouvia Bay which extends across much of the eastern shore of the island; it is called Ptychia. Camping grounds can be found in Palaiokastritsa, Agrillos, two in the northern part, Pyrgi, Gouvia and Messonghi.
The town 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 salt-water ditch at the bottom, that serves also as a kind of marina. The old city having grown up within fortifications, where every foot of ground was precious, is a labyrinth of narrow streets paved with cobblestones, sometimes tortuous but mostly pleasant, colourful and sparkling clean.
Quite apart from their more malevolent invaders, the Corfiotes have a long history of hospitality to foreign residents and visitors, typified in the twentienth century by Gerald Durrell's childhood reminiscence My Family and Other Animals. Some Italian culture and cookery have been absorbed, and are particulaly evident during August when Italian holidaymakers visit en masse. The North East coast has largely been developed by a few British holiday companies, with large expensive holiday villas which are used as homes during the two-thirds of the year out of season. The north and east coasts have most of the package holiday resorts, and with some exceptions the interior has relatively little tourist trade. This had had the effect of a massive transfer of resources, because traditionally the best farmland was away from the rocky shore, the salt and the pirates, but from the 1970s the inferior seaside land suddenly became the most desireable and highly valuable holiday property sites. Many Corfiotes now make more from the frantic four month holiday season than from their traditional agriculture. At the other end of the market, and also the other end of the island, the southern resort of Kavos provides the notoriously robust facilities particularly attractive to young holidaymakers, along similar lines to resorts such as Faliraki in Rhodes
According to the local tradition Corcyra was the Homeric island of Scheria, and its earliest inhabitants the Phaeacians. At a date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse it was peopled by settlers from Corinth, but it appears to have previously received a stream of emigrants from Eretria. The splendid commercial position of Corcyra on the highway between Greece and the West favoured its rapid growth and, influenced perhaps by the presence of non-Corinthian settlers, its people, quite contrary to the usual practice of Corinthian colonies, maintained an independent and even hostile attitude towards the mother city.
Kerkyra remained in Venetian hands till 1797, though several times assailed by Turkish naval and land forces and subjected to four notable sieges in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716, in which the great natural strength of the city and its defenders asserted itself time after time. The effectiveness of the Venetian fortifications of the island was another great factor that enabled Corfu to remain the last bastion of free, uninterrupted Greek civilization after the fall of Constantinople.
There were many attempts by the Turks to take the island starting as early as 1431 when Turkish troops under Ali Bey landed on the island, tried to take the castle and raided the surrounding area, but were repulsed.
This was the first great siege by the Turks. It started on the 29th August 1537 with 25,000 soldiers from the Turkish fleet landing and pillaging the island and taking 20,000 hostages as slaves. Despite the destruction wrought on the countryside, the castle held out in spite of repeated attempts over twelve days to take it, and the Turks left the island unsuccessful because of poor logistics and an epidemic that decimated their ranks.
The Venetian feudal families pursued a mild but somewhat enervating policy towards the natives, who began to merge their nationality in that of the Latins and adopted for the island the new name of Corfu. The Corfiotes were encouraged to enrich themselves by the cultivation of the olive, but were debarred from entering into commercial competition with Venice. The island served as a refuge for Greek scholars, and in 1732 became the home of the first academy of modern Greece, but no serious impulse to Greek thought came from this quarter.
During the First World War, the island served as a refuge for the Serbian army that retreated there by the allied forces ships from the homeland occupied by the Austrians. During their stay, a large portion of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and different diseases. Most of their remains were buried at the sea near the island of Vido, a small island at the mouth of Corfu port, and a monument of thanks to the Greek Nation has been erected at Vido by the grateful Serbs; consequently, the waters around Vido island are known by the Serbian people as the Blue Graveyard (in Serbian, Plava Grobnica).
In the Second World War, the Italian Army bombarded the city, devastating most of the area. After the Battle of Greece was over, Corfu came under Italian control. Upon the fall of Italian fascism in 1943, the Nazis took control of the island. Corfu's mayor at the time, Kollas, was a known collaborator and various anti-semitic laws were passed by the Nazis that now formed the occupation government of the island. In early June 1944, while the Allies bombed Corfu as a diversion from the Normandy landings, the Gestapo rounded up the Jews of the city, temporarily incarcerated them at the old fort (Palaio Frourio), and on the 10th of June sent them to Auschwitz where very few survived. Approximately two hundred out of a total population of 1900 escaped. Many among the local population at the time provided shelter and refuge to those 200 Jews that managed to escape the Nazis. A prominent section of the old town is to this day called Evraiki with about 65 members is an integral part of Evraiki.
On the island The island is linked by two highways, GR-24 in the northwest and GR-25 in the south.
* Greek National Road 24, Cen., NW, Corfu - Palaiokastritsa * Greek National Road 25, Cen., S, SE, Corfu - Lefkimi
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Ferry Services 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 Russian, retractable airfoil, hydrodynamic flow, high speed ferries called Flying Dolphins to Igoumenitsa and to Sarandë in neighboring Albania. There is also a small port of Lefkimmi at the southern tip of the island on Cape Kavos, that offers a ferry service to the mainland.
By air The Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport, named after John Capodistria distinguished Corfiot European diplomat and first Governor of Greece, is located around 3 kilometres south of Kerkyra just half a kilometre north of Pontikonisi. The approach and landing, in a northeasterly direction, affords the flying passengers a spectacular aerial view of Pontikonisi and Vlaheraina Monastery as well as the hills of Kanoni as the runway used for landing is actually a few hundred meters away from these spectacular landmarks. The airport offers domestic flights with Olympic Airlines (OA 600, 602 and 606) and Aegean Airlines (A3 402, 404 and 406). Air Sea Lines, a Greek seaplane operator offers scheduled flights from Corfu to Paxoi, Ioannina and Patras.
Corfu airport is also connected to EU countries through scheduled and chartered flights.
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Corfiots are great lovers of music. In the past, people used to join in the singing of the cantades, impromptu choral songs in two, three or four voices, usually accompanied by a guitar. The bands (Philharmonic orchestras, which also provide free instruction in music, are still popular and still attract young recruits. Nowadays, given the rigours of modern life that has not spared Corfu society, cantades (deriving from the italian cantare meaning to sing) are only performed by professional singers, mainly as tourist attractions. Corfu Town is home to three famous, top notch marching brass bands, the dark red-uniformed Philharmonic Society of Corfu or Old Philharmonic or Palia, the blue-uniformed Mantzaros Philharmonic and the bright red and black-uniformed Capodistria Philharmonic. The bands give regular weekend promenade concerts and take part in the yearly Holy Week ceremonies.
There is considerable but friendly rivalry between them, and they rigorously adhere to their respective repertoires. On Holy Friday from the early afternoon the philharmonics, separated into squads, accompany the epitaph of the town's churches. Late in the afternoon the squads come together to form the whole band in order to accompany the epitaph of the metropolitan church. The funeral marches that the bands play differ depending on the band. The Old Philharmonic plays Albinoni's Adagio, the Mantzaros plays Verdi's Marcia Funebre from Don Carlo, and the Capodistria plays Chopin's Funeral March and Mariani's Sventura.
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Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
