Ιστορία · History
Layers of an island.
Corfu has been Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, French, and British — sometimes all visible on a single street.
Antiquity · 734 BC – 229 BC
Korkyra of the Phaeacians
Founded as a Corinthian colony, ancient Korkyra grew rich on trade. Homer placed the Phaeacians here — the people who finally carried Odysseus home. The island's first recorded sea battle, against Corinth in 664 BC, is also the first naval battle in Greek history.
Roman & Byzantine · 229 BC – 1204 AD
A Christian outpost
Under Rome and then Byzantium, Corfu became a defensive frontier and a centre of early Christianity. The relics of Saint Spyridon arrived from Constantinople in 1456, smuggled out before the city's fall.
Venetian rule · 1386 – 1797
Four centuries of the Lion
Corfu was the only part of modern Greece never to fall to the Ottomans — thanks largely to the two Venetian fortresses that frame the old town. Venice shaped the architecture, the food, the dialect, and even the surnames; many Corfiot families still carry Italian names.
French & British · 1797 – 1864
Napoleon, then the Union Jack
After Venice fell, Napoleonic France held Corfu briefly, leaving behind the Liston arcade. The British Protectorate (1815–1864) gave the island cricket — still played on the Spianada — ginger beer (tsitsibira), and the Ionian Academy, the first modern Greek university.
Modern Greece · 1864 – today
Union and after
Corfu joined the Greek state in 1864. It survived bombardment in WWII, rebuilt its old town (now a UNESCO World Heritage site), and today balances tourism with a deep, layered identity that remains distinct from the mainland.