Corfu, or Kerkyra, is an island of Greece, in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of Albania, from which it is separated by a strait varying in breadth from less than 2 to about 15 miles (3 to 25 km) including one near Albania near Butrint and a longer one west of Thesprotia. It has ferry services to the rest of Greece with Igoumenitsa and Gaios in the island of Paxoi and as far as Patras. There is also a small port in Lefkimmi. The coastline and its beaches is about 217 km which includes capes and points. The highest point is Pantokrator, the second is Stravoskiadi (849 m).

It is linked by two highways, GR-24 in the west and GR-25 in the south. The airport is located some kilometres to the south. The runway is next to the ocean. This makes it harder for pilots to land their planes. The airport offers flights with Olympic Airlines (OA 600, 602 and 606) and Aegean Airlines (A3 402, 404 and 406). Corfu now also has a university named University of Corfu. Capes and points include Agia Aikaterini, and Draptis to the north, Lefkimmi and Asprokavos to the southeast and Megachoro to the south. Another island is in the middle of Gouvia Bay which covers the eastern part of the island; it is called Ptychia. Campgrounds are founded in Palaiokastro, Agrillos, two in the northern part, Pyrgi, Gouvia and Messonghi.

Geography

The name Corfu is an Italian corruption of the Byzantine (Korypho), which is derived from the Greek (Koryphai), meaning “Crests.” 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, being turned towards the Albanian coast. Its extreme length is about 40 miles (60 km) and its greatest breadth about 20 miles (30 km). The area is estimated at 227 sq. miles (580 km²). 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 most important of the two ranges is that of San Salvador, probably the ancient Istone, which stretches east and west from Cape St. Angelo to Cape St. Stefano, and attains its greatest elevation of 3300 ft (1000 m) 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, or the Ten Saints. The whole island, composed as it is of various limestone formations, presents great diversity of surface, and the prospects from the more elevated spots are magnificent. Beautiful and sparkling beaches with yellow sands are founded in Agii Gordi, the Korissi lagoon, Agios Georgios, Marathia, Kassiopi, Sidari, Roda, Palaiokastritsa and many others.

Corfu is generally considered the most beautiful of all the Greek isles, but the prevalence of the olive gives some monotony to its colouring. It is worthy of remark that Homer names, as adorning the garden of Alcinous, seven plants only—wild olive, oil olive, pear, pomegranate, apple, fig and vine. Of these the apple and the pear are now very inferior in Corfu; the others thrive well and are accompanied by all the fruit trees known in southern Europe, with addition of the Japanese medlar(or loquat) and, in some spots, the banana. When undisturbed by cultivation, the myrtle, arbutus, bay and ilex form a rich brushwood and the minor flora of the island is extensive.

The town of Corfu stands on the broad part of a peninsula, whose termination in the citadel is cut from it by an artificial fosse formed in a natural gully, with a salt-water ditch at the bottom. Having grown up within fortifications, where every foot of ground was precious, it is mostly, in spite of recent improvements, a labyrinth of narrow, tortuous, up-and-down streets, accommodating themselves to the irregularities of the ground, few of them fit for wheel carriages. There is, however, a handsome esplanade between the town and the citadel, and a promenade by the seashore towards Castrades. In several parts of the town may be found houses of the Venetian time, with some traces of past splendour, but they are few, and are giving place to structures in the modern and more convenient French style. The town is as mundane as Rome, looks like Venice and has the flair of Cuba. Of the thirty-seven Greek churches the most important are the city’s cathedral, the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Cave; Saint Spyridon church, where inside lies the preserved body of the patron saint of the island; and the suburban church of St Jason and St Sosipater, reputed the oldest in the island, named after the two saints who were probably the first to preach Christianity to the Corfiots. The nearby island named Pontikonisi (Greek meaning “mouse island”) has only three trees, and the highest point is about 2 m.

Othoni is the westernmost settlement and island in all of Greece. Erikoussa is the northernmost of the Ionian Islands. All areas lie below the 40° N. About a quarter of the villages ends with -ades and there is some villages that also ends with -ades outside Corfu and are a few in the prefecture of Ioannina. The southern part and on Paxoi have villages ending with -atika and one ending with -eika and is Gramateika.

Economy

Music and festivities Corfiotes are great lovers of music. Most people readily join in the singing of the cantadas, impromptu choral songs in two, three or four voices, usually accompanied by a guitar. Corfu Town is home to three famous, top-quality marching brass bands, the dark red-uniformed Philharmonic Society of Corfu or Old Philharmonic, the blue-uniformed Mantzaros Philharmonic and the bright red and black-uniformed Capodistria Philharmonic. The bands give regular weekend promenade concerts and partake in the yearly Holy Week celebrations. There is considerable but friendly rivalry among them, and their respective repertoires are rigorously adhered to. For example on Good Friday the Old Philharmonic will parade the streets playing 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. Sometimes, though, the three bands coexist, as is the case on Holy Saturday morning, when the Epitaphios of the St. Spiridon Cathedral is paraded, along with the Saint’s relics. At this time the bands play Miccheli’s Calde Lacrime, the Marcia Funebre from Faccio’s opera Amleto, and the Funeral March from Beethoven’s Eroica. The custom dates from the 16th century, when the Venicians banned the traditional Good Friday Epitaphios parade. The defiant Corfiotes held the litany the following morning, and paraded the relics of St. Spiridon as well, so that the Venicians would not dare intervene. The litany is followed by the most spectacular Corfiote celebration by far, the “Early Resurrection”. Balconies in the old town are decked in bright red cloths, and Corfiotes throw large clay pots (the botides) full of water down, so that they smash on the street pavement. This is done in anticipation of the Resurrection of Jesus, which is to be celebrated that same night. During Venetian rule, the Corfiotes developed a fervent appreciation for Italian opera. The Corfu Opera House was a fixture in famous opera singers’ itineraries, and those who were successful there were given the title “applaudito in Corfu”.