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114-440: Sideros first appears in 16th century maps as Cauo S. Sideros, a Venetian name for capes such as San Sidero of Corfu . In Venetian Sidero is the common form of Isidore. Which St. Isidore applies is uncertain. Otherwise Sidero means "iron," and there are many place names that probably mean it. There is, however, no Saint Iron. Sideros is a roughly ovoid quasi-island with a long axis of 3 km (1.9 mi) bearing 65° (from N), and

228-817: A fiefdom , called the Feudum Acinganorum was established, with mainly Romani serfs . From 1386, Corfu was controlled by the Republic of Venice , which in 1401 acquired formal sovereignty and retained it until the French Occupation of 1797. Corfu became central for the propagation of the activities of the Filiki Etaireia among the Greek Diaspora and philhellenic societies across Europe, through nobles like Ioannis Kapodistrias and Dionysios Romas . From medieval times and into

342-581: A base against Mark Antony . Christianity arrived in Corfu early; two disciples of Saint Paul , Jason of Tarsus and Sosipatrus of Patras, taught the Gospel, and according to tradition the city of Corfu and much of the island converted to Christianity. Their relics were housed in the old cathedral (at the site of the current Old Fortress, before a dedicated church was built for them c.  100 AD . During Late Antiquity (late Roman/early Byzantine period),

456-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

570-598: A dowry in 1259. At his death in 1267 it passed to the House of Anjou . Thus, Corfu became a part of the Angevin Kingdom of Albania that was established and ruled by Frankish Charles of Anjou of the royal  Capetian dynasty . Under the latter, the island suffered considerably from the inroads of various adventurers. The island was one of the first places in Europe in which Romani people settled. In about 1360,

684-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

798-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

912-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

1026-434: A short axis of 1.24 km (0.77 mi) bearing 155°. The maximum elevation is 222 m (728 ft) roughly in the center, the highest of the entire cape. Really a peninsula, the island is connected by a N-S isthmus approximately 174.17 m (571.4 ft) by 125.84 m (412.9 ft) with a road over it. The rocky terrain of the isthmus and the boulder terrain of the island make off-road walking difficult, although

1140-573: A ten-month siege for Manuel I Komnenos to recover the island in 1149. In the third invasion in 1185, the island was again captured by William II of Sicily , but was soon regained by Isaac II Angelos . During the break-up of the Byzantine Empire the island was occupied by Genoese privateers (1197–1207), who in turn were expelled by the Venetians. In 1214 it passed to the Greek despots of Epirus , who gave it to Manfred of Sicily as

1254-514: Is 42.8 °C (109.0 °F) on 24 July 2007 while the lowest is −6.0 °C (21.2 °F) on 17 January 2012. Hellenic National Meteorological Service Homer identifies six plants that adorn the garden of Alcinous : wild olive, pear, pomegranate , apple, fig and grape vine . Of these the apple and the pear are very inferior in Corfu; the others thrive, together with all the fruit trees known in Southern Europe , with addition of

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1368-413: Is Kyriamadi Bay (Port Kereamathi). The military base sits upon its north coast, with both an ancient and a modern jetty visible from the air. Facilities, including a helicopter pad, are built into the steep slopes. Photographs are discouraged, so pictures are scarce. About .75 mi (1.21 km) long, the bay varies in depth from about 3 fathoms (18 ft) near the isthmus to 30 fathoms (180 ft) at

1482-422: Is a continental island ; its fauna is similar to that of the opposite mainland. Avifauna is extensive, with around 300 bird species recorded since the 19th century. Species vary in size from the greater flamingo to the goldcrest . Some species have become extinct, such as the rock partridge and the grey partridge , or no longer breed on the island, like the eastern imperial eagle , the white-tailed eagle ,

1596-583: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Corfu Corfu ( / k ɔːr ˈ f ( j ) uː / kor- FEW , -⁠ FOO , US also / ˈ k ɔːr f ( j ) uː / KOR -few, -⁠foo ) or Kerkyra ( Greek : Κέρκυρα , romanized :  Kérkyra , pronounced [ˈcercira] ) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea , of the Ionian Islands , and, including its small satellite islands , forms

1710-580: Is a tourist attraction today. These defeats in the east and the west of the island proved decisive, and the Ottomans abandoned their siege and departed. Two years later they repeated their attempt. Coming from Africa after a victorious campaign, they landed in Corfu and wreaked havoc on rural areas. Following a counterattack by the Venetian-Corfiot forces, the Ottoman troops were forced to leave

1824-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1938-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

2052-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

2166-467: Is classified as a "rock" (vrachos) by the HSGN. The diameter is 50 yd (46 m), which implies an area of 0.001643 km, an approximation, as the rock is not quite "round." The altitude is 5.5 m (18 ft), for which reason it cannot be a reef. It sits in about 35 fathoms (210 ft), 400 yd north of the cape (close inshore), about 1100 yd from the light. This Crete location article

2280-691: Is classified as a reef (yphalos, "under the sea") by the Hydrographic Service of the Greek Navy (HSGN). Diameter is 10 yd (9.1 m). Depth is 1 fathom or less. Location is in the road between Sidero and the Dionysades . The name was assigned by Thomas Spratt in his 1852 survey of Crete aboard HMS Spitfire , under his command. He was proceeding through the passage between Sideros and the Dionysades, he said, with what he thought

2394-574: Is marked by numerous battles and conquests. Ancient Korkyra took part in the Battle of Sybota which was a catalyst for the Peloponnesian War , and, according to Thucydides, the largest naval battle between Greek city states until that time. Thucydides also reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth century BCE Greece, along with Athens and Corinth . Ruins of ancient Greek temples and other archaeological sites of

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2508-629: Is of various limestone formations, presents great diversity of surface. Beaches are found in Agios Gordis, the Korission Lagoon , Agios Georgios, Marathia, Kassiopi, Sidari, Palaiokastritsa and many others. Corfu is located near the Kefalonia geological fault formation; earthquakes have occurred. Corfu's coastline spans 217 km (135 mi) including capes; its highest point is Mount Pantokrator (906 m (2,972 ft)); and

2622-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

2736-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

2850-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

2964-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

3078-859: Is the Mycenaean Greek word ko-ro-ku-ra-i-jo ( "man from Kerkyra") written in Linear B syllabic script, c. 1300 BC. According to Strabo , Corcyra (Κόρκυρα) was the Homeric island of Scheria (Σχερία), and its earliest inhabitants were the Phaeacians (Φαίακες). The island has indeed been identified by some scholars with Scheria , the island of the Phaeacians described in Homer 's Odyssey , though conclusive and irrefutable evidence for this theory has not been found. Apollonius of Rhodes depicts

3192-829: The Adriatic . In November 1815 Corfu came under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars , and in 1864 was ceded to modern Greece by the British government along with the remaining islands of the United States of the Ionian Islands under the Treaty of London . Corfu is the origin of the Ionian Academy , the first university of the modern Greek state, and the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù ,

3306-640: The Balkan whip snake , the Caspian whip snake , the four-lined snake , the Aesculapian snake , the leopard snake , the grass snake , the dice snake , the European cat snake , the eastern Montpellier snake . There are 75 (plus) known species of Corfiot butterfly. Of particular interest are the southern swallowtail , southern festoon , Oberthür's grizzled skipper , Lulworth skipper , eastern orange tip , Krueper's small white , eastern baton blue and

3420-562: The Bonelli's eagle , the griffon vulture and the Egyptian vulture . Around 40 species of mammals live on the island and in the sea around it. Fin whales , sperm whales , Cuvier's beaked whales , common bottlenose dolphins , short-beaked common dolphins , striped dolphins and Risso's dolphins are the regularly present cetaceans. Monk seals appear from time to time without breeding there anymore. Eurasian otters still survive in

3534-526: The Dalmatian algyroides , the common wall lizard , the Balkan wall lizard , the Balkan green lizard , the European green lizard and the snake-eyed skink as also the legless Greek slow worm and the European glass lizard . Of the snakes of Corfu, only the nose-horned viper is potentially dangerous. The harmless snake list includes the European worm snake , the javelin sand boa , the Dahl's whip snake ,

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3648-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

3762-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

3876-570: The Ottoman tide. Today, however, this role is often relatively unknown or ignored, but was celebrated in Juditha triumphans by the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi . Corfu's urban architecture differs from that of other major Greek cities, because of Corfu's unique history. From 1386 to 1797, Corfu was ruled by Venetian nobility; much of the city reflects this era when the island belonged to

3990-508: The Republic of Venice , with multi-storeyed buildings on narrow lanes. The Old Town of Corfu has clear Venetian influence and is amongst the World Heritage Sites in Greece . It was in the Venetian period that the city saw the erection of the first opera house ( Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù ) in Greece. Many Venetian-speaking families settled in Corfu during these centuries; they were called Corfiot Italians , and until

4104-403: The kumquat , loquat and prickly pear and, in some spots, the banana. Olive trees dominate and their combination with cypress trees compose the typical Corfiot landscape. When undisturbed by cultivation, the high maquis is the major natural vegetation type followed by deciduous oak forests and to a lesser extent, pine forests. In total more than 1800 plant species have been recorded. Corfu

4218-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

4332-443: The tree grayling , many of which are of near threatened status . Before the turn of the century, not much had been published about the butterfly fauna of Corfu, and there were only a few short and obscure scientific articles. Recent interest grew when a Facebook discussion page (now called Corfu Butterfly Conservation) was created on 27th April 2014. Since that time, a group of responsible butterfly enthusiasts has grown (731 members at

4446-471: The "Door of Venice" during the centuries when the whole Adriatic was the Gulf of Venice , remained in Venetian hands from 1401 until 1797, though several times assailed by Ottoman naval and land forces and subjected to four notable sieges in 1537 , 1571, 1573 and 1716 , in which the strength of the city defences asserted itself time after time. The effectiveness of the powerful Venetian fortifications as well as

4560-539: The 17th century, the island was recognised as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empire and became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortifications of the island were used by the Venetians to defend against Ottoman intrusion into the Adriatic . Corfu repulsed several Ottoman sieges, before passing under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars . Kerkyra,

4674-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

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4788-861: The Catholic community numbers about 4,000 ( 2 ⁄ 3 of Maltese descent), who live almost exclusively in the Venetian "Citadel" of Corfu City . Like other native Greek Catholics, they celebrate Easter using the same calendar as the Greek Orthodox church. The Cathedral of St. James and St. Christopher in Corfu City is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Corfu, Zakynthos and Cephalonia . Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

4902-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

5016-424: The Greek government. From medieval times and into the 17th century, the island, as part of the Republic of Venice since 1204, successfully repulsed the Ottomans during several sieges, was recognised as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empire and became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortifications of the island were used by the Venetians to defend against Ottoman intrusion into

5130-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

5244-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

5358-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

5472-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

5586-503: The Ottoman fleet off the Corfu Channel and defeated it in the ensuing naval battle. On 19 July, after taking a few outlying forts, the Ottoman army reached the hills around the city of Corfu and laid siege to it. Despite repeated assaults and heavy fighting, the Ottomans were unable to breach the defences and were forced to raise the siege after 22 days. The 5,000 Venetians and foreign mercenaries, together with 3,000 Corfiotes, under

5700-570: The Turks left the island unsuccessfully because of poor logistics and an epidemic that decimated their ranks. Thirty-four years later, in August 1571, Ottoman forces returned for yet another attempt to conquer the island. Having seized Parga and Mourtos from the Greek mainland side, they attacked the Paxi islands. Subsequently they landed on Corfu's southeast shore and established a large beachhead all

5814-636: The Venetian centuries and spoke their own language ( Italkian ), a mixture of Hebrew-Italian in a Venetian or Apulian dialect with some Greek words. Venetians promoted the Catholic Church during their four centuries of rule in Corfu. Today the majority of Corfiots are Greek Orthodox , but the small Catholic minority (5%), living harmoniously with the Orthodox community, owes its faith to these origins. These contemporary Catholics are mostly families who came from Malta , but also from Italy , and today

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5928-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

6042-594: The ancient city of Korkyra are located in Palaiopolis . Medieval castles punctuating strategic locations across the island are a legacy of struggles in the Middle Ages against invasions by pirates and the Ottomans . Two of these castles enclose its capital, which is the only city in Greece to be surrounded in such a way. As a result, Corfu's capital has been officially declared a Kastropolis ("castle city") by

6156-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

6270-408: The beaches are excellent. The coastline is coves (or the older term, "ports," which may not have any facilities) alternating with headlands. Much of the coast is cliffs bordered by strip beaches of fine sand. Sidero is unaccessible to the public except at specified times. A checkpoint and barbed wire gate the road with a sign that the peninsula is under military jurisdiction. On the west of the isthmus

6384-443: The benefit of Corfu's butterflies and the wider natural environment, as well as to stimulate public interest in butterfly conservation. CBC launched its website (www.corfubutterflyconservation.org, funded by the Royal Entomological Society 's Goodman Award) on the 1 January 2021 to coincide with the launch of the Corfu Butterfly Survey. The website describes the 75 species of butterflies that have been confirmed by members of CBC from

6498-432: The centre, lies toward the Albanian coast. With the island's area estimated at 592.9 km (228.9 sq mi; 146,500 acres), it runs approximately 64 km (40 mi) long, with greatest breadth at around 32 km (20 mi). 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

6612-399: The city sailing away. The second great siege of Corfu took place in 1716, during the last Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–18) . After the conquest of the Peloponnese in 1715, the Ottoman fleet appeared in Buthrotum opposite Corfu. On 8 July the Ottoman fleet, carrying 33,000 men, sailed to Corfu from Buthrotum and established a beachhead at Ipsos. The same day, the Venetian fleet encountered

6726-422: The city, led by its archbishop, Arsenios, withstood a Saracen attack; Arsenios was canonized and became the city's patron saint . The peace and prosperity of the Macedonian era ended with another Saracen attack in 1033, but more importantly with the emergence of a new threat: following the Norman conquest of Southern Italy , the ambitious Norman monarchs set their sights on expansion in the East. Three times on

6840-411: The conquest of Corcyra by the Corinthian tyrant Periander (Περίανδρος) who induced his new subjects to join in the colonization of Apollonia and Anactorium . The island soon regained its independence and thenceforth devoted itself to a purely mercantile policy. During the Persian invasion of 480 BCE it manned the second largest Greek fleet (60 ships), but took no active part in the war. In 435 BCE it

6954-444: The coypu and the raccoon have established viable populations. Eight species of amphibians and 31 species of reptiles live or have been recorded on and around Corfu. The Greek newt , the Macedonian crested newt , the common toad , the European green toad , the European tree frog , the agile frog , the Epirus water frog and the Greek marsh frog are the representatives of the Amphibia Class. Loggerhead sea turtles nest on

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7068-441: The current Old Fortress, where the rocky hills offered natural protection against raids. From the twin peaks of the new site, the medieval city received its new name, Korypho (Κορυφώ, "city on the peak") or Korphoi (Κορφοί, "peaks"), whence the modern Western name of "Corfu". The previous site of the city, now known as Palaiopolis (Παλαιόπολις, "old city"), continued to be inhabited for several centuries, however. From at least

7182-431: The death of Alexander , last King of Epirus. In 229 BCE, following the naval battle of Paxos , it was captured by the Illyrians , but was speedily delivered by a Roman fleet and remained a Roman naval station until at least 189 BCE. At this time, it was governed by a prefect (presumably nominated by the consuls), but in 148 BCE it was attached to the province of Macedonia . In 31 BCE, it served Octavian (Augustus) as

7296-405: 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 a military hospital. During the period of British rule , in 1814, the leprosarium was once again opened after renovations, and following Enosis in 1864

7410-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

7524-405: The early 9th century, Corfu and the other Ionian Islands formed part of the theme of Cephallenia . This naval theme provided a defensive bulwark for Byzantium against western threats, but also played a major role in securing the sealanes to the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy . Indeed, traveller reports from throughout the middle Byzantine period (8th–12th centuries) make clear that Corfu

7638-448: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

7752-398: The first Greek theatre and opera house of modern Greece. The first governor of independent Greece after the revolution of 1821, founder of the modern Greek state, and distinguished European diplomat Ioannis Kapodistrias was born in Corfu. In 2007, the city's old town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List , following a recommendation by ICOMOS . The 1994 European Union summit

7866-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

7980-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

8094-467: The island Korkyra (Corfu) for a time, until the 8th century BCE. They reportedly were expelled from Korkyra by the Corinthians. At a date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse , Corfu was peopled by settlers from Corinth , probably 730 BCE, but it appears to have previously received a stream of emigrants from Eretria . The commercially advantageous location of Corcyra on the way between Greece and Magna Grecia , and its fertile lowlands in

8208-525: The island formed part of the province of Epirus Vetus in the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum . In 551, during the Gothic War , the Ostrogoths raided the island and destroyed the city of Corfu, then known as Chersoupolis (Χερσούπολις, "city on the promontory") because of its location between Garitsa Bay and Kanoni. Over the next centuries, the main settlement was moved north, to the location of

8322-545: The island in Argonautica as a place visited by the Argonauts. Jason and Medea were married there in 'Medea's Cave'. Apollonius named the island Drepane , Greek for "sickle", since it was thought to hide the sickle that Cronus used to castrate his father Uranus , from whose blood the Phaeacians were descended. In an alternative account, Apollonius identifies the buried sickle as a scythe belonging to Demeter , yet

8436-407: The island. It outlines the value of butterflies as indicators of the island's biodiversity status and encourages enthusiasts to record their sightings on this website, as participants of the survey. On the 16 December 2021, CBC became a UK registered community interest company (No.13813164) and so its identity changed from being a project to that of an organisation. The earliest reference to Corfu

8550-465: The island. The Ottomans tried to take the city castle and raided the surrounding area, but were repulsed. The Siege of Corfu (1537) was the first great siege by the Ottomans. It began on 29 August 1537, with 25,000 soldiers from the Ottoman fleet landing and pillaging the island and taking 20,000 hostages as slaves . Despite the destruction wrought on the countryside, the city castle held out in spite of repeated attempts over twelve days to take it, and

8664-418: The lagoons and streams of Corfu. The golden jackal was very common till the 1960s, but after persecution it became extinct, with the last individuals observed in the first half of the 1990s. Recent sightings indicate a recolonization effort from the nearby mainland. Wild boars were exterminated after 2000, after farmers complained about crop damage, but at the moment they recolonized Corfu, swimming from

8778-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

8892-402: The leadership of Count von der Schulenburg who commanded the defence of the island, were victorious once more. The success was owed in no small part to the extensive fortifications, where Venetian castle engineering had proven itself once again against considerable odds. The repulse of the Ottomans was widely celebrated in Europe, Corfu being seen as a bastion of Western civilization against

9006-874: The leprosarium again saw occasional use. During World War II , the Axis Occupation of Greece established a Nazi concentration camp there for the prisoners of the Greek Resistance movement , while remaining today are the two-storeyed building that served as the Headquarters of the Italian army, a small church, and the wall against which those condemned to death were shot. Corfu has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ) featuring hot, dry summers and mild to cool, very rainy winters, which are much wetter than other Greek islands . The highest temperature ever recorded

9120-589: The mainland. Red foxes , beech martens , least weasels , European hares , northern white-breasted hedgehogs are quite widespread, as some of the smaller mammals like the European edible dormouse , the hazel dormouse , the house mouse , the yellow-necked mouse , the western broad-toothed field mouse , the wood mouse , the lesser white-toothed shrew , the etruscan shrew , as well as several species of bats. Coypus , fallow deer , red deer , Indian crested porcupines , Siberian chipmunks and raccoons have been observed recently, but they are escapees and only

9234-551: The margin of the nation's northwestern frontier with Albania . The island is part of the Corfu regional unit , and is administered by three municipalities with the islands of Othonoi , Ereikoussa , and Mathraki . The principal city of the island (pop. 32,095) is also named Corfu . Corfu is home to the Ionian University . The island is bound up with the history of Greece from the beginnings of Greek mythology , and

9348-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

9462-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

9576-470: The mouth. The waters around Sidero are highly dangerous to passing ships, although small-boat activity is frequent (water sports, beaching, etc.). Professional works on navigation recommend giving the cape a wide berth (a few miles). Looking from Kyriamadi Bay around Sidero in a CW direction, one finds the following "insular formations." Spitfire Rock found at 35°19′08″N 26°14′59″E  /  35.3189°N 26.2497°E  / 35.3189; 26.2497

9690-598: The name Drepane probably originated in the sickle-shape of the island. According to a scholiast , commenting on the passage in Argonautica , the island was first of all called Macris after the nurse of Dionysus who fled there from Euboea . Some scholars have asserted that Corfu is Taphos , the island of the Lelegian Taphians. According to Strabo (VI, 269), the Liburnians were masters of

9804-542: The northwest of Corfu, (6 km away) and about 40 km (25 mi) from the Italian coast. The main islands are Othonoi , Ereikoussa and Mathraki . Lazaretto Island , formerly known as St. Dimitrios, is located 1.1 km (0.68 mi) off the coast northeast of the city Corfu . Lazaretto has an area of 7.1 ha (17.5 acres) and comes under the administration of the Greek National Tourist Organization. During Venetian rule in

9918-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

10032-470: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

10146-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

10260-530: 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 BCE and 425 BCE). During the Sicilian campaigns of Athens Corcyra served as a supply base; after a third abortive rising of the oligarchs in 410 BCE it practically withdrew from the war. In 375 BCE it again joined the Athenian alliance; two years later it

10374-432: The peninsula of Sideros itself, which also sometimes is called an island, nor should it be confused with another insular formation south of Crete called Strongylo, "round." The "round" etymology is straightforward and descriptive, while Sidero is named after the cape it is near. This formation, Sidero islet, found at 35°19′07″N 26°18′03″E  /  35.318620°N 26.300745°E  / 35.318620; 26.300745

10488-564: The place: Korkyra , which gradually evolved to Kerkyra ( Doric ). They had a child, Phaiax, after whom the inhabitants of the island were named Phaiakes (in Latin , Phaeaciani ). Corfu is known as the island of the Phaeacians . The name Corfù is a Venetian and Italian version of the Byzantine Κορυφώ (Koryphō), meaning "city of the peaks". It derives from the Byzantine Greek Κορυφαί (Koryphai) (crests or peaks), denoting

10602-467: The sandy beaches. On land, the Hermann's tortoise is widespread, while the marginated tortoise 's status is unclear. In freshwater wetlands European pond terrapins and Balkan terrapins are common, but the last few years face the competition of the introduced pond slider . Lizard species include typical lizards and geckos like the starred agama , the Mediterranean house gecko , the moorish gecko ,

10716-528: The second Stravoskiadi, at 849 m (2,785 ft). The full extent of capes and promontories 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 (or Vido). The Diapontia Islands (Greek: Διαπόντια νησιά) are located in

10830-469: The second half of the 20th century the Veneto da mar was spoken in Corfu. During this time, the local Greek language assimilated a large number of Italian and Venetian words, many of which are still common today. The internationally renowned Venetian-born British photographer Felice Beato (1832–1909) is thought to have spent much of his childhood in Corfu. Also many Italian Jews took refuge in Corfu during

10944-485: The southern section of the island favoured its 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 BCE, when their fleets fought the first naval battle recorded in Greek history: 665 BCE according to Thucydides . These hostilities ended in

11058-531: The space of a century Corfu was the first target and served as a staging area for the Norman invasions of Byzantium . The first Norman occupation from 1081 to 1084 was ended only after the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos secured the aid of the Republic of Venice , in exchange to wide-ranging commercial concessions to Venetian merchants. The admiral George of Antioch captured Corfu again in 1147, and it took

11172-496: The strength of some old Byzantine castles in Angelokastro , Kassiopi Castle , Gardiki and elsewhere, were additional factors that enabled Corfu to remain free. Will Durant claimed that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was one of the few parts of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans. A series of attempts by the Ottomans to take the island began in 1431 when Ottoman troops under Ali Bey landed on

11286-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

11400-551: The time of writing) who share their passion for the butterflies and moths found on the island. It is through this work that more is being discovered about the distribution and abundance of butterflies across the island. Corfu Butterfly Conservation (CBC) was launched in April 2019. The group is composed of concerned residents, island visitors and scientists from throughout Europe. Their goals are to produce robust scientific data that can be used to influence policy and protect habitat for

11514-418: The two peaks of Palaio Frourio . The northeastern edge of Corfu lies off the coast of Sarandë , Albania , separated by straits varying in width from 3 to 23 km (2 to 14 miles). The southeast side of the island lies off the coast of Thesprotia , Greece. Its shape resembles a sickle ( drepanē, δρεπάνι ), to which it was compared by the ancients: the concave side, with the city and harbour of Corfu in

11628-529: The two ranges, that of Pantokrator (Παντοκράτωρ – the Almighty) stretches east and west from Cape Falacro to Cape Psaromita, and attains its greatest elevation in the summit of the same name. The second range culminates in the mountain of Santi Jeca, or Santa Decca, as it is called by misinterpretation of the Greek designation Άγιοι Δέκα (Hagioi Deka), or the Ten Saints. The whole island, composed as it

11742-525: The way from the southern tip of the island at Lefkimi to Ipsos in Corfu's eastern midsection. These areas were thoroughly pillaged as in past encounters. Nevertheless the city castle stood firm again, a testament to Corfiot-Venetian steadfastness as well as the Venetian castle-building engineering skills. Another castle, Angelokastro , situated on the northwest coast near Palaiokastritsa (Greek: Παλαιοκαστρίτσα meaning Old Castle place ) and located on particularly steep and rocky terrain, also held out. The castle

11856-563: Was "an important staging post for travels between East and West". Indeed, the medieval name of Corfu first appears (Latinized Coryphus ) in Liutprand of Cremona 's account of his 968 embassy to the Byzantine court. Corfu enjoyed relative peace and safety during the Macedonian dynasty (867–1054), which allowed the construction of a monumental church to Saints Iason and Sosipatrus outside the city wall of Palaiopolis. Nevertheless, in 933,

11970-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

12084-469: Was again involved in a quarrel with Corinth over the control of Epidamnus , 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

12198-550: Was all due circumspection, but in the centre, when his guide, Captain Manias, sometime revolutionary and pirate, warned him to steer on the Dionysiades side to avoid the reef. In commemoration of the event he named the rock after the ship, although he gives no further insight into his line of reasoning. The names of these formations vary by convention, this "island" sometimes being called an "islet." It should not be confused with

12312-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

12426-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

12540-534: Was attacked and conquered by Agathocles of Syracuse . 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 BCE when it became independent after

12654-524: Was besieged by a Spartan 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 BCE, after a vain siege by Cassander , the island was occupied for a short time by the Lacedaemonian general Cleonymus of Sparta , then regained its independence and later it

12768-468: Was held in Corfu. The island is a popular tourist destination. The Greek name, Kerkyra or Korkyra , is related to two powerful water deities: Poseidon , god of the sea, and Asopos , an important Greek mainland river. According to myth, Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, daughter of Asopos and river nymph Metope , and abducted her. Poseidon brought Korkyra to the hitherto unnamed island and, in marital bliss, offered her name to

12882-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

12996-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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