The history of Corfu is the history of Greece.
Corfu was founded as a colony of Corinth in the 7th Century B.C. and was the site of the largest naval battle to date at that time (665 B.C.). Conquered by Corinth, it remained under tis control; its rebellion from Corinth was one of the proximate causes of the Peloponnesian War.
(Ruins of the Ancient Agora)
The island was eventually controlled by one of Alexander the Great's successors until it, like the entire Balkans, eventually became a Roman possesion
(Roman Ruins)
The Roman Republic became the Roman Empire and the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. In 551 A.D. Corfu was raided by the Ostrogoths but remained under the control of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire.
(The Old Fortress)
From the 11th Century A.D. on, the island became the battleground of Normans, Local Despots, Italian city states, and the Byzantine Empire until in 1386 A.D. control passed to the Venetian Empire. The city became a key lynchpin in the defense against the Ottoman Empire, surviving not less than four major assaults.
In 1797 the city passed to Napoleon after his conquest of Venice but only remained there for a brief time (1814), when it passed to the British as a protectorate.
(Gardens of the British Residence)
(Residence of the British Governor, now a museum)
In 1864, the British Protectorate was transferred to the Kingdom of Geece.
(Is this Italy? Greece? Could you tell?)
(View of the Old Fortress)
The Ionian Sea was so clean and clear.
The two pictures below are of a gate into the Old City, dating at least from the 1600's.
Orthodox Church:
The Corfu City Opera house, built during the Venetian period.
Wow. Very different look and feel from the rest of what you've showed us. But considering it's history, that makes it all the more interesting.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, it was very different - although interestingly, it was reflective of a number of cities that the Venetians held during their empire. At least one other we went to looked a lot the same (although smaller, of course).
DeleteBuildings often silently tell tales. Compare and contrast your neighborhood vs these buildings?
ReplyDeleteNotice the solid stone-concrete construction and bars on windows and doors? I know of you used side looking radar on them plenty of them still have spent bullets and shell fragments plastered over in them.
Some homes have been "slighted" to use the old English term about reducing a real castle into a home to add larger windows and less formidable and secure doors.
But then again, we often admire those massive often ornate doors, but do we ask the reasoning for such an expensive and stout door?
Some see the beauty of the velvet glove; some see the armored fist inside.
This was certainly built as a fortress, given the time. Although a more recent issue is that it is impossible to make any renovations, so the city has a constant maintenance problem.
DeleteMine was not a clear comment, even the previous monastery article clearly had serious defensive structures that were later "slighted" as in old English manner. Walls taken down, lowered, retrofitted larger windows as our Host mentioned the lighting from medieval window slits is indeed terrible.
DeleteThe photos of Homes also had very solid construction and doors to match, many bars to discourage casual window climbers.
In my years overseas aside from the very American style High End Stores they mostly had serious doors, often steel roll down shutters and so on. At least at first look. I noticed after heading back to the barracks from the Gaus house many had those roll down steel shutters also.
They still have memories of real warfare and civil disruptions, to keep those details maintained so well. In the then West Germany in the 70's they had Turkish Immigrant moped gangs and minor riots quickly stopped by the vigorous German Police squad actions.
Compare and contrast history of a high trust America vs well remembered street disruptions-combat Europe.
Even our brick and concrete buildings mostly have large, unprotected glass doors and such.
I remember the first time they installed anti-vehicle-ramming bollards in front of Court Buildings in Baltimore. And how Johns Hopkins Hospital got backlash for installing security fencing around the downtown campus I was working in in the 90's.
Architecture is honest about local conditions, like shop and robs in bad neighborhoods paying large money for bullet proof Lexan and pass through sales stations.
Not just in 3rd world countries do they have backyard walls with spikes and such.
Architecture is honest about local conditions. Pretty murals in better neighborhoods, many pretty plantings that "Happen" to have serious thorns in them.
One thing that stood out when we were in Costa Rica was virtually every business in the capitol had the aforementioned roll up doors. And not that we were tempted to do so, but the comment was made that our section of the city was "safe", but probably not a great idea to go much beyond that.
DeleteQuite the selection of photos there TB. As Michael stated there's a reason for such a gate. How many homes built in the last hundred years have a reinforced door and frame along with door, jam and hinge shields? You had good weather to visit that town.
ReplyDeleteNot many, Nylon12 - Although I will say that if our visit to The White Tower in Thessaloniki was indicative, the changes are not all bad - the medieval style window slits made for terrible lighting.
DeleteThe weather was perfect - really, except for a couple of hot days in Athens at the start, it was ideal.
Very nice - thank you for the photos. Were the native inhabitants friendly, or annoyed from tourists visiting their city ?
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome!
DeleteOn the whole, I would say people were friendly. The population of the city (per Wikipedia) is around 32,000, so likely there were as many tourists there as there were people that lived there. The shop keepers were notably happy to see us - The Plague was not kind to anyone in the tourist industry.