| Photo Information |
Copyright: Aimilios Petrou (aimilios)
![Silver Note Writer [C: 7 W: 7 N: 27]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/n-n-s.gif) (559) |
| Genre: Places |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2005-09-10 |
| Categories: Architecture |
| Exposure: f/1.8, 1 seconds |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2007-02-12 5:18 |
| Viewed: 686 |
| Points: 0 |
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Corfu town is simply the prettiest city in Greece. It is a mix of Venetian residences and French and British public buildings, laid out between the Old and the New Venetian Fortresses and the harbor.
The center of the city's social life is the Splanada, a huge park that is the biggest square in Greece.
On the west side of the Splanada, the L I S T O N is a public building whose facade defines the image of Corfu Town to the world. Built by the Napoleonic army in the 1810s, and modelled after the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, this used to be the hangout of the Corfiot aristocracy (Liston is derived from Liste d' Or, or Gilded List, i.e. the catalogue of Corfiot aristocracy). Today, it is a row of elegant coffee shops and snack bars that attract locals and tourists all day long.
The square is dotted with 4 statues of the foreigners that marked the island's history in the last 300 years: the statue of Count Capodistria, Greece's first Governor after its liberation from the Turks in 1829, who lived abroad and became Foreign Minister of Russia before coming home; the statue of Sir Thomas Maitland, the first British High Commissioner of the island; the statue of Marshal Schulenberg, the Prussian officer who helped turn back the Ottoman's 1715 siege of the city; and the statue of the Earl of Guildford, the British hellenophile who, among other contributions, founded the Ionian Academy.
A stroll west of Liston is a trip back through time. Narrow, cobblestone streets, and Venetian 3- and 4-story houses tell the story of this city. |
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