TOP 24 best attractions in Corfu

Cor­fu is the pearl of the Ion­ian coast. The island has sur­vived the influ­ence of many cul­tures brought with mer­chants and invaders, but has retained its iden­ti­ty. This was reflect­ed in the lan­guage, habits and way of life of the local pop­u­la­tion.

Who and why should come to Corfu

Fans of his­to­ry and leg­ends will love the fortress­es and muse­ums of the city, which store price­less arti­facts from the depths of time.

Cathe­drals and tem­ples are the cra­dle of the Chris­t­ian reli­gion. Every cul­tured per­son should vis­it them.

Beach­es, moun­tains and islands with stun­ning land­scapes are suit­able for fam­i­ly leisure and roman­tic dates.

architectural landmarks

Paleo Frurio (Old Fortress)

The citadel, locat­ed in the east­ern part of Cor­fu, was built by the Vene­tians in the 16th cen­tu­ry on the ruins of a Byzan­tine cas­tle. The for­ti­fi­ca­tion is sep­a­rat­ed from the city by a moat and has two small peaks or corypha. It is believed that the name of Cor­fu came from this word.

At the foot of the hill on which the fort ris­es stands the church of St. George, notable for its mon­u­men­tal Doric columns. It, like many oth­er build­ings of the fortress, appeared in the era of the dom­i­na­tion of the British Empire.

Neo Frurio (New Fortress)

The fort appeared on the hill of St. Mark only a few decades lat­er to pro­tect the island from the attacks of the Turks. Sub­se­quent­ly, the for­ti­fi­ca­tions were rebuilt by the British. Today, part of the premis­es and gal­leries is open to tourists.

You can wan­der through the stone halls and climb to the very top of the fortress, which offers a breath­tak­ing panoram­ic view of the sur­round­ings.

Fortress of Angelokastro

This for­ti­fi­ca­tion has played an impor­tant role in the his­to­ry of Cor­fu. The fortress was built at the dawn of the XIII cen­tu­ry, that is, in the Byzan­tine era. And already in the XIV cen­tu­ry, she went to the Venet­ian Repub­lic.

At one time, the walls of the citadel with­stood the onslaught of the Ottoman invaders — a small gar­ri­son suc­cess­ful­ly repulsed the attack of the ene­my. In 2009, a glob­al recon­struc­tion of the archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment was car­ried out.

Castle of Kassiopi

Kas­siopi is a small vil­lage in the north­east of the island. Lovers of “wild” recre­ation come here to sun­bathe on peb­ble beach­es framed by emer­ald green­ery.

The main attrac­tion of these places is the cas­tle, built on the ruins of an ancient Roman fortress. Its mas­sive walls and quad­ran­gu­lar tow­ers are well pre­served and open to the pub­lic. The majes­tic build­ing stands on a cape and is vis­i­ble from any­where in the har­bor.

Achillion Palace

The snow-white neo­clas­si­cal palace was built in the 19th cen­tu­ry by order of Amalia Elis­a­beth of Bavaria a year after the death of her son, Crown Prince Rudolf.

The theme of the inte­ri­or design was the image of Achilles and the myth of the Tro­jan War. The palace is sur­round­ed by a beau­ti­ful gar­den with a mag­nif­i­cent view of the Ion­ian Sea. Mar­ble sculp­tures and stat­ues com­plete the land­scape.

Eliz­a­beth loved to vis­it Achillion. She often came to Cor­fu to take a break from the bus­tle and gos­sip of the Aus­tri­an court. After the death of the empress, the palace passed to Kaiser Wil­helm II.

Palace of Saints Michael and George

The neo­clas­si­cal palace was built in the 19th cen­tu­ry by order of the British gov­er­nor who ruled the Ion­ian Islands. Today, the build­ing with majes­tic columns and mas­sive arch­es hous­es a muse­um of Asian art. It hous­es the pri­vate col­lec­tion of Ambas­sador G. Manos, which he col­lect­ed dur­ing his trav­els in Chi­na, India and Japan: paint­ings, sculp­tures, jade and porce­lain items.

Villa Mon Repos

A beau­ti­ful colo­nial-style vil­la is locat­ed in the for­est near the archae­o­log­i­cal com­plex of Pale­opo­lis. It was built for the British Viceroy Adams and lat­er donat­ed to the Greek roy­al fam­i­ly. Here, in 1921, Prince Philip was born, who then mar­ried Queen Eliz­a­beth II of Great Britain. Today, with­in the walls of the vil­la is a muse­um ded­i­cat­ed to the his­to­ry of Cor­fu.

Liston

Lis­ton Street is a great place to walk in the evening. Lux­u­ri­ous, grace­ful, with many ele­gant arch­es and amaz­ing light­ing, it was found­ed dur­ing the Sec­ond French Occu­pa­tion. The project was devel­oped by engi­neer Math­ieu de Lesseps, inspired by the Riv­o­li street in Paris. When the British occu­pied the island, they expand­ed the arch­es and com­plet­ed the floors that today house offices and apart­ments.

There are two ver­sions of the ori­gin of the name “Lis­ton”. Accord­ing to one, the word has Ital­ian roots and means “straight line”, which is con­sis­tent with the geom­e­try of the street. Accord­ing to anoth­er, in ancient times only noble aris­to­crats, includ­ed in a spe­cial list, could walk here.

Museums

Casa Parlante

This muse­um, equipped with the lat­est tech­nol­o­gy, invites you to immerse your­self in the past. The expo­si­tion is housed in a restored man­sion and tells about the life of its own­ers, who lived here in the 19th cen­tu­ry.

In the recre­at­ed inte­ri­ors of a bygone era, wax fig­ures in ele­gant dress­es are pre­sent­ed in var­i­ous scenes: receiv­ing guests, drink­ing tea, cook­ing, etc. All actions are accom­pa­nied by char­ac­ter­is­tic sounds and smells that are recre­at­ed by robot­ic gad­gets.

Museum of Paleopolis

The muse­um is locat­ed with­in the walls of the Mont Blanc estate, close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Greek impe­r­i­al fam­i­ly. The exhi­bi­tion presents exhibits that tell about the rich his­to­ry of Cor­fu.

The detailed mod­el shows the ter­ri­to­ry of the city with­in its mod­ern bound­aries with an exact indi­ca­tion of the main attrac­tions: tem­ples, muse­ums, view­ing plat­forms. There is also a stand with old pho­tographs show­ing the city in the mid­dle of the 19th cen­tu­ry.

Byzantine Museum

Locat­ed in the cham­ber church of Our Lady of Antivouni­o­tis­sa, the muse­um hous­es a unique col­lec­tion of icons from the Byzan­tine and post-Byzan­tine peri­ods. All his mas­ter­pieces were writ­ten in the peri­od of the XV-XIX cen­turies. Of par­tic­u­lar val­ue are the wall fres­coes of the 11th-18th cen­turies, col­lect­ed from var­i­ous monas­ter­ies of Cor­fu, as well as the altar fab­ric brought from Rus­sia by Arch­bish­op Niki­for.

Shell Museum

Div­er, enthu­si­ast and col­lec­tor Napoleon Segais trav­eled the Asia-Pacif­ic region for 20 years. Dur­ing count­less dives, he recov­ered many valu­able arti­facts from the seabed. They became the basis of an unusu­al expo­si­tion.

The muse­um dis­plays a vari­ety of shells. The most expen­sive of them is esti­mat­ed at 20 thou­sand dol­lars. There are also stands with ancient fos­sils, stones and corals. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to vis­i­tors are stuffed tur­tles, sharks, starfish, snakes and oth­er inhab­i­tants of the depths.

Religious sites

Vlaherna Monastery

This Ortho­dox monastery was found­ed in the 18th cen­tu­ry. The snow-white archi­tec­tur­al com­plex occu­pies almost the entire tiny island, which can be reached along a nar­row man-made isth­mus. The main shrine of the monastery is the icon of the Blach­er­nae Moth­er of God. Believ­ers attribute mirac­u­lous prop­er­ties to it.

Cathedral of Saint Spyridon

The tem­ple, locat­ed in the heart of the old city, attracts thou­sands of tourists. They come to admire the out­stand­ing fres­coes of the 16th-18th cen­turies.

The relics of St. Spyri­don, the patron saint of Cor­fu, are kept in the cham­ber basil­i­ca of the 16th cen­tu­ry. His remains were brought here from Con­stan­tino­ple and laid to rest in a sil­ver cof­fin. On major reli­gious hol­i­days, the monks march with him around the city.

Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Also known as the Metrop­o­lis, this Ortho­dox cathe­dral is one of the most vis­it­ed on the island. This is part­ly due to its loca­tion — it stands on the way to the Old Port — an impor­tant trans­port and pas­sen­ger artery.

Anoth­er rea­son is rich inte­ri­ors, a huge iconos­ta­sis and fres­coes. The main shrine of the tem­ple is the remains of St. Theodo­ra, the Byzan­tine empress who ruled in the 9th cen­tu­ry.

Church of Saints Jason and Sosipater

In the imme­di­ate vicin­i­ty of Mon Repos is the cham­ber church of Jason and Sosi­pa­ter. It glo­ri­fies the two dis­ci­ples of the Apos­tle Paul who brought Chris­tian­i­ty to Cor­fu in 63 AD. The church is active, and ser­vices are held in it.

The tem­ple, built of mas­sive stone blocks, is a canon­i­cal exam­ple of Byzan­tine archi­tec­ture of the 11th cen­tu­ry. The build­ing has the shape of a cross topped with a dome. Ini­tial­ly, its walls were com­plete­ly cov­ered with skill­ful fres­coes, but many of them have been lost over time. How­ev­er, some frag­ments can still be seen. The iconos­ta­sis of the 18th cen­tu­ry has been com­plete­ly pre­served.

Monastery in Paleokastritsa

The monastery appeared on the island as ear­ly as the 13th cen­tu­ry, but its final archi­tec­tur­al fea­tures were formed in the peri­od from the 16th to the 18th cen­turies. Many valu­able Chris­t­ian shrines are kept with­in the walls of the monastery. Among them are the icons of Skopi­etis­sa (Pale­okas­trit­sa) and the Assump­tion of the Moth­er of God.

natural attractions

“Canal of Love” in Sidari

This pic­turesque place is locat­ed in the north­west of Cor­fu. Sev­er­al shal­low chan­nels with pierc­ing blue water are sand­wiched between bizarre lime­stone cliffs.

Pecu­liar “fjords” lead to small bays with pic­turesque sandy beach­es. Thanks to the rocks, the chan­nels are pro­tect­ed from the wind. Here you can have a great rest, even when the sea­son is com­ing to an end in the pop­u­lar Greek resorts, and the weath­er starts to dete­ri­o­rate.

mouse island

This islet is offi­cial­ly called Pon­tikon­isi, but locals and tourists pre­fer to call it “mouse” because of its very mod­est size. It only takes a few min­utes to walk around its entire ter­ri­to­ry. Pon­tikon­isi is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble by boat from Kanoni har­bor.

There is a leg­end that the island is actu­al­ly the ship of the trav­el­er Odysseus, which Posei­don turned into a rock because the wan­der­er invad­ed the domain of the god.

Mount Pantokrator

The high­est point in Cor­fu is Pan­tokra­tor (906 m). At the top is a monastery and cell tow­ers. The obser­va­tion deck offers a view of the sur­round­ings, and on a fine day, the out­lines of neigh­bor­ing Italy are clear­ly vis­i­ble. On the slopes of the moun­tain there are hik­ing trails that vary in dif­fi­cul­ty. Climb­ing Pan­tokra­tor Peak takes an aver­age of 2 hours.

Vido Island

Reg­u­lar­ly, boats and boats full of tourists moor to a small island, over­grown with dense for­est. The clos­est point on land from where you can get to the nat­ur­al pearl is the Old Port. The voy­age will take 10–15 min­utes.

The main attrac­tive fea­ture of the island is three pic­turesque beach­es. You can reach any of them along the paths that run through the thick­et. The addi­tion to the land­scape is a memo­r­i­al to the Ser­bian sol­diers who defend­ed Greece dur­ing the First World War.

Peroulades

This is the most beau­ti­ful and inac­ces­si­ble beach in Cor­fu. You can sun­bathe and swim there only at low tide. The sea recedes from the 100-meter lime­stone cliffs, expos­ing a nar­row strip of sand, which is reached by two stairs built right into the sheer cliff.

The lucky ones, who man­aged to take a seat on a few sunbeds, enjoy the stun­ning scenery and the clear­est sea. But not for long — in the evening the tide begins, and the beach is hid­den under water.

The bulk of tourists come to Per­oulades to enjoy the stun­ning sun­sets from the open ter­race of the tav­ern, built right above the cliff. Tables are rec­om­mend­ed to be booked in advance.

Glyfada

This beach, locat­ed about 2 km from the vil­lage of Pelekas and 25 km from Cor­fu, is con­sid­ered the best. The coastal strip is cov­ered with soft gold­en sand, olive groves, pines and cypress­es on the hill com­plete the land­scape. Cafes, bars and restau­rants line the coast­line.

Paleokastritsa

The beach is locat­ed near the vil­lage of the same name in the north-west of Cor­fu, about 20 km from the cap­i­tal. The pic­turesque bay with blue water includes 6 sandy and sandy-peb­ble beach­es. The largest of them is the own­er of the Blue Flag — the high­est award for clean­li­ness and envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness.

The long prom­e­nade that goes around the bay invites you to take a fas­ci­nat­ing walk and admire the local views. You can sat­is­fy your hunger in cafes and tav­erns locat­ed near­by.