Corfu

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Venetian fort at Corfu (Kérkyra), Greece

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Corfu

island, Greece

Also known as: Corcyra, Kérkira, Kérkyra

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Last Updated: May 17, 2025 • Article History

Modern Greek:: Kérkyra

Ancient (Latin):: Corcyra

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Corfu, island in the Ionian Sea (Modern Greek: Iónio Pélagos), with adjacent small islands making up the dímos (municipality) and pereferiakí enótita (regional unit) of Kérkyra (also called Corfu), Ionian Islands (Iónia Nisiá) periféreia (region), western Greece. Lying just off the coast of Epirus (Ípeiros), it is about 36 miles (58 km) long, while its greatest breadth is about 17 miles (27 km) and its area 229 square miles (593 square km). Of limestone structure, the island is mountainous in the north and low in the south. Its northeastern protrusion, close to the Albanian coast, trends east-west and reaches a peak in Pantokrator Mountain (2,972 feet [906 metres]); the other range, in the island’s centre, is lower.

The island is well watered, fertile, and reputed to have the most attractive countryside of the Greek islands. Olive trees predominate, but figs, oranges, lemons, grapes, and corn (maize) are also cultivated. Exports include olive oil, fruit, grain, and wine; Corfu’s manufactures include soap and textiles.

Modern Corfu (Kérkyra), the chief city, port, and capital of the dímos, lies on a peninsula on the island’s east coast. The twin-peaked old citadel, with fortifications built by the Venetians (1550), was once an islet. The city’s Old Town, with its labyrinth of hilly narrow streets, is a seat of a Greek metropolitan and a Roman Catholic bishop.

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The name Corfu is an Italian corruption of the Greek koryphai (“crests”) and is often a more familiar moniker to visitors than the Modern Greek name. According to legend, the island was Scheria, home of the Phaeacians in Homeric epic. A Corinthian colony established about 734 bce supplanted a settlement of Eretrians from Euboea. Proudly independent and even hostile to its mother city of Corinth, the new colony was reduced (c. 600 bce) by the Corinthian tyrant Periander, but later it regained independence and devoted itself to commerce. Corfu took no active part in the Persian invasion (480 bce) of Greece, but in 435 it sought the assistance of Athens in a quarrel with Corinth, a request that became a primary cause of the Peloponnesian War. Corfu quit the war in 410, but a new alliance with Athens (375) resulted in hostilities with Sparta.

After 303 the island changed hands several times for a quarter century. Seized in 229 bce by the Illyrians, it was delivered by the Romans, who retained it as a naval station and made it a free state. In 31 bce Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) used it as a base against Mark Antony, but his foundation of Nicopolis Actia on the site of his victory caused Corfu to lose a great deal of its prestige.

The island’s favourable position between Greece and Italy attracted powers from east and west. In succession it fell to Goths, Lombards, Saracens, and Normans and was fought over by the kings of Sicily and the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice. In 1204 the island was annexed to the Greek despotate of Epirus but passed back to King Manfred of Sicily (1259) and then (1267) to the Angevins of Naples. Venetian sovereignty was restored in 1401. Upon the dismemberment of the Venetian republic (1797), Corfu was assigned to France, but the French garrison soon was expelled by a Russo-Turkish fleet. Incorporated into the Napoleonic empire (1807), the island became a British protectorate after the emperor’s final defeat (1815). British administration displeased the inhabitants, however, and in 1864 Corfu was ceded, with the other Ionian Islands (Iónia Nisiá), to Greece.

In 1923 Italian forces bombarded and held Corfu briefly, following the murder of an Italian boundary delegation. In World War II the city was again bombed by the Italians and occupied in succession (1941–44) by Italians and Germans. Many of its buildings and other landmarks were destroyed in the fighting of 1943, but the Royal Palace (1816), a former residence of British governors and now a museum, escaped the destruction. The island was restored to Greece in 1944.

The island escaped the great earthquake of 1953, which destroyed large parts of the southern Ionian Islands, and became very popular with tourists. In 2007 the Old Town of the city of Corfu was named a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 1962 a palace built (1890–91) for Elizabeth, empress of Austria, was converted to use as a casino. Pop. (2001) city, 30,140; island, 107,879; mun., 111,081; (2011) city, 24,838; mun., 102,071.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Robert Lewis.

Ionian Islands

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Ionian Islands

islands, Greece

Also known as: Heptanesos, Iónia Nisiá, Iónioi Nísoi

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Ionian Islands, island group off the west coast of Greece, stretching south from the Albanian coast to the southern tip of the Peloponnese (Modern Greek: Pelopónnisos), and often called Heptanesos (“Seven Islands”). The islands are Corfu (Kérkyra), Cephallenia (Kefaloniá), Zacynthus (Zákynthos), Leucas (Lefkáda), Ithaca (Itháki), Cythera (Kýthira), and Paxos (Paxoí), with their minor dependencies. Together they form a periféreia (region) of Greece. Their combined land area is 891 square miles (2,307 square km).

With good rainfall and much arable soil, the Ionian Islands produce timber, fruit, and flax and raise pigs, sheep, and goats. Their exports include currants, wine, cotton, salt, olives, and fish, and the islands are largely self-sufficient in grains. Their harbours are superior to those of the west coast of Greece and more conveniently located for international shipping. The islands are subject to severe earthquakes, which in 1953 caused considerable damage to towns and facilities in Cephallenia, Zante, and Ithaca.

Because of their strategic maritime location between the Greek and Italian mainlands, intervention from outside has affected the islands and their people since Classical times. Leo IV the Wise (c. 890 ce) formed most or all of the islands into a province of the Byzantine Empire as the theme of Cephallenia. The Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard captured Corfu (1081) and Cephallenia, but his death (1085) prevented the establishment of a dynasty. When the Latin empire (1204–61) was established at Constantinople, the Venetians received Corfu; but in 1214 the Greek despotate of Epirus annexed the first Venetian colony, and a long period of Epirote, Sicilian, and Neapolitan-Angevin rule followed until 1386, when Corfu submitted voluntarily to the Venetian republic. In 1479 the Turks captured the islands of Cephallenia, Zacynthus, Leucas, and Ithaca, annexing them to their empire. The Venetians soon counterattacked and retook them during the 15th and 16th centuries.

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The Venetians won the adherence of the principal local families on the islands by the bestowal of titles and appointments. The Roman Catholic church was established there, and the Italians and Greeks intermarried. Greek ceased to be spoken except by the peasantry, who remained faithful to the Greek Orthodox communion. On the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797, the islands were awarded to France, whose rule was quickly ended by a Russo-Turkish force (1798–99). Reclaimed by France in 1807 and made an integral part of the French empire under Napoleon, the islands were placed by the Treaty of Paris (1815) under the exclusive protection of Great Britain.

An Ionian senate and legislative assembly began to function in 1818, but real authority was vested in a British high commissioner. Schools of higher learning and a judiciary were set up, but the inhabitants resented the restrictions imposed by the firm British rule. After 1848 periodic insurrections by the peasantry, notably in Cephallenia, had to be put down with force, and the Ionian parliament voted for immediate union with the new Greek kingdom. In 1864 Britain ceded the islands to Greece as a gesture marking the accession of a new Greek king, George I (the former Prince William George of Glücksburg), son of Christian IX of Denmark. Following their annexation, the prosperity of the islands decreased, partly because of the loss of the special tax and trading privileges granted under the protectorate. The islands were occupied by Italy and, later, Germany during World War II. They were liberated with the rest of Greece in 1944. Pop. (2001) 209,608; (2011) 207,855.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.