Hotels Corfu
Numerous tourists like to go to Corfu to see the tourist attractions. Some tourists may require short term accommodation while on a holiday on the island. Some may want to see the beaches, the coastline, the tourist attractions and the scenery and landscapes of the island. Some tourists to the island may want to see the entertainment and culture of the island. Many want to see the historical landmarks. Some may want a hotel that has good access to the culture, entertainment, scenery and sports of the island. Some may want a hotel that has a good reputation and good prices. Some may want a hotel that is large or small.
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian islands, and lies off the coast of Sarandë, Albania, from which it is separated by straits varying in breadth from 3 to 23 km, including one near ancient Butrint and a longer one west of Thesprotia. The island is part of the Corfu Prefecture, and includes twelve of the sixteen municipalities or communes in the prefecture and over Communities of Ereikoussa, Mathraki, Othonoi, and Municipality of Paxoi, which are all separate islands.
The principal town of the island is also named Corfu, or Kérkyra in Greek, as is its municipality. Corfu has been home to the Ionian University.
hotels corfu
The name Corfu is an Italian corruption of the Byzantine (Korypho-), meaning city of the peaks, which is derived from the Greek (Koryphai), meaning Crests or Peaks, denoting the two peaks of Palaio Frourio In shape it is not unlike the sickle (drepane-), to which it was compared by the ancients, the hollow side, with the town and harbour of Corfu in the centre, lying toward the Albanian coast. With the island's area estimated at 227 square miles, it runs approximately 40 miles long, with greatest breadth at around 20 miles. Two high and well-defined ranges divide the island into three districts, of which the northern is mountainous, the central undulating, and the southern low-lying. The more important of the two ranges is that of Pantokrator, the ancient Istone, which stretches east and west from Cape Falacro to Cape Psaromita, and attains its greatest elevation in the summit from which it takes its name. The second culminates in the mountain of Santi Jeca, or Santa Decca, as it is called by misinterpretation of the Greek designation (Hagioi Deka), or the Ten Saints. The whole island, composed as it is of various limestone formations, presents great diversity of surface, and views from more elevated spots are magnificent. Beaches are found in Agios Gordis, the Korission lagoon, Agios Georgios, Marathia, Kassiopi, Sidari, Palaiokastritsa and many others.
Corfu's coastline spans 217 kilometres including capes; its highest point is Mount Pantokrator (906 metres); and the second Stravoskiadi, at 849 metres. The full extent of capes and promentories take in Agia Aikaterini, Drastis to the north, Lefkimmi and Asprokavos to the southeast, and Megachoro to the south. Two islands are also to be found at a middle point of Gouvia and Corfu Bay, which extends across much of the eastern shore of the island; are known as Lazareto and Ptychia. Camping areas can be found in Palaiokastritsa, Agrillia, with four in the northern part, Pyrgi, Roda, 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 and is called Kontrafossa. The old city, having grown up within fortifications, where every metre of ground was precious, is a labyrinth of narrow streets paved with cobblestones, sometimes tortuous but colourful and clean. These streets are known as "kantounia", and the older amongst them sometimes follow the gentle irregularities of the ground; while many are too narrow for vehicular traffic. A promenade rises by the seashore towards the bay of Garitsa, together with an esplanade between the town and the citadel known as Spianada with "Liston" to its west side, where restaurants and bistros abound.
The old citadel (Palaio Frourio literally: Old Fortress is an old Venetian fortress built on an artificial islet with fortifications surrounding its entire perimeter, although some sections, particularly on the east side, are slowly being eroded and falling into the sea. Nonetheless, the interior has been restored and is in use for cultural events, such as concerts and Sound and Light Productions, when historical events are recreated using sound and light special effects.
Just to the north of "Kato Plateia" lie the "Palaia Anaktora a large complex of buildings of Roman architectural style used in the past to house the King of Greece, and prior to that the British Governors of the Island. Today they are open to the public and form a complex of halls and buildings housing art exhibits, including a Museum of Chinese Art, unique across Southern Europe in its scope and in the richness of its Chinese and Asian exhibits. The gardens of the Palaces, complete with old Venetian stone aquariums, exotic trees and flowers, overlook the bay through old Venetian fortifications and turrets, and the local sea baths are at the foot of the fortifications surrounding the gardens. A café on the grounds includes its own art gallery, with exhibitions of both local and international artists, known locally as the Art Café. From the same spot, the viewer can observe ships passing through the narrow channel of the historic Vido islan to the north, on their way to Corfu harbour , with high speed retractable aerofoil ferries from Igoumenitsa also cutting across the panorama. A wrought-iron aerial staircase is also to be found, closed to garden visitors, descending to the sea from the gardens, and used by the Greek Royal Family as a shortcut to the baths. Rewriting history, locals now refer to the old Royal Gardens as the "Garden of the People".
Lazaretto Island, formerly known as Aghios Dimitrios, is located two nautical miles northeast of Corfu; the island has an area of 17.5 acres and comes under the administration of the Greek National Tourist Organization. During Venetian rule in the early 16th century, a monastery was built on the islet and a leprosarium established later in the century, after which the island was named. In 1798, during the French occupation, the islet was occupied by the Russo-Turkish fleet, who ran it as as a military hospital. During the British occupation, in 1814, the leprosarium was once again opened after renovations, and following Enosis in 1864 the leprosarium again saw occasional use.
Othoni is the westernmost settlement and island in all Greece; Erikoussa is the northernmost of the Ionian Islands, and all areas lie below the 40° N. About a quarter of the villages' names end with -ades, while some villages outside Corfu also include names ending in -ades, especially those in the prefecture of Ioannina on mainland Greece, exactly opposite the southern end of Corfu. Villages at the southern end, and on the Paxoi islands, also feature names ending with -atika or -eika, notably Gramateika.
In several parts of the old city houses from the Venetian era are to be found. The old city's architectural character is strongly influenced by the Venetian style, coming as it did under Venetian rule for a long period; its small and ancient sidestreets, and the old buildings' trademark arches are particularly reminiscent of Venice. Of the thirty-seven Greek churches, the most important are the city's cathedral, the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Cav (he- Panagia Spe-lio-tissa)); Saint Spyridon church, wherein lies the preserved body of the patron saint of the island; and finally the suburban church of St Jason and St Sosipater, reputedly the oldest in the island, and named after the two saints probably the first to preach Christianity to the Corfiots.
The new citadel or Neo Frourio is a huge complex of fortifications dominating the northeastern part of the city; the huge walls of the fortress dominate the landscape as one makes the trip from Neo Limani to the town, taking the road that passes through the fishmarket.
Near the old Venetian Citadel a large square called Spianada is also to be found, divided by a street in two parts: "Ano Plateia" (literally: "Upper square") and "Kato Plateia".
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. This opposition came to a head in the early part of the 7th century BC, when their fleets fought the first naval battle recorded in Greek history (about 664 BC). These hostilities ended in the conquest of Corcyra by the Corinthian tyrant Periander who induced his new subjects to join in the colonization of Apollonia and Anactorium. The island soon regained its independence and henceforth devoted itself to a purely mercantile policy. During the Persian invasion of 480 BC it manned the second largest Greek fleet (60 ships), but took no active part in the war. In 435 BC it was again involved in a quarrel with Corinth and sought assistance from Athens (see Battle of Sybota). This new alliance was one of the chief immediate causes of the Peloponnesian War, in which Corcyra was of considerable use to the Athenians as a naval station, but did not render much assistance with its fleet. The island was nearly lost to Athens by two attempts of the oligarchic faction to effect a revolution; on each occasion the popular party ultimately won the day and took a most bloody revenge on its opponents (427 BC and 425 BC). During the Sicilian campaigns of Athens Corcyra served as a supply base; after a third abortive rising of the oligarchs in 410 BC it practically withdrew from the war. In 375 BC it again joined the Athenian alliance; two years later it was besieged by a Lacedaemonian force, but in spite of the devastation of its flourishing countryside held out successfully until relieved. In the Hellenistic period Corcyra was exposed to attack from several sides.
In 303 BC after a vain siege by Cassander, the island was occupied for a short time by the Lacedaemonian general Cleonymos, then regained its independence and later it was attacked and conquered by Agathocles. He offered Corfu as dowry to his daughter Lanassa on her marriage to Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. The island then became a member of the Epirotic alliance. It was then perhaps that the settlement of Cassiope was founded to serve as a base for the King of Epirus' expeditions. The island remained in the Epirotic alliance until 255 BC when it became independent after the death of Alexander, last King of Epirus. It subsequently fell into the hands of Illyrian corsairs, until in 229 BC it was delivered by the Romans, who retained it as a naval station and gave it the rank of a free state. In 31 BC it served Octavian (Augustus) as a base against Mark Antony.
Kerkyra remained in Venetian hands from 1401 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 powerful Venetian fortifications of the island as well as the strength of some old Byzantine fortifications in Angelokastro, Kassiopi, Gardiki and others, was another strong factor that enabled Corfu to remain the last bastion of free, uninterrupted Greek Christian civilization in the southern Balkans after the fall of Constantinople. Will Durant, a French historian, claims that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was the only part of Greece never conquered by the moslem Turks.
Corfu contains a few very important remains of antiquity. The site of the ancient city of Corcyra (Kerkyra) is well ascertained, about 1.5 miles (2 km) to the south-east of Corfu, upon the narrow piece of ground between the sea-lake of Halikiopoulo and the Bay of Castrades, in each of which it had a port. The circular tomb of Menekrates, with its well-known inscription, is on the Bay of Castrades. Under the hill of Ascension are the remains of a temple, popularly called of Poseidon, a very simple dome structure, which still in its mutilated state presents some peculiarities of architecture. Of Cassiope, the only other city of ancient importance, the name is still preserved by the village of Cassiopi, and there are some rude remains of building on the site; but the temple of Zeus Cassius for which it was celebrated has totally disappeared. Throughout the island numerous monasteries and other buildings of Venetian erection are to be found, of which the best known are Paleokastritsa, San Salvador and Peleka.
Villages in the city of Corfu include ; Agios Athanasios, Agios Mathaios, Ano Korakiana, Kanálion Corfu city, Kavos Lefkimmi , Lefkimmi Lefkimmi, Pagi Gyros, Potamós.
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