Spianada Square, Corfu

"Spianada" is from the Italian word "spianare," meaning "to flatten." The Spianada Square of Corfu is located in front of the Old Fortress and is considered the largest square in the Balkans. The open defensive area was created by French occupiers by flattening houses.

At the "top end" of the Spianada Square is a peristyle of 20 Ionic columns, designed by British General George Whitmore in 1817. It was built over an old cistern. The locals call the Peristyle "sterna," meaning "cistern" in Greek.

A statue by sculptor Antonio Carradini of Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, who commanded the Venetian force against the Turks in 1716, now commands the square. Bewigged and armored, the General seems to be looking for stray Ottomans.

Relax at the "Boschetto," a beautiful municipal garden with a fountain. It has busts of famous visitors, including poet Konstantinos Theotokis and writer Gerald Durrell.

Liston is a fashionable boulevard by the Spianada Square, designed and built by the French imperial commissioner Mathieu de Lesseps in 1807 to look like Rivoli street (Rue de Rivoli) in Paris. It houses arcaded terraces and fashionable cafes.

The Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George is on the Square. Once the home of the Ionian Senate and later a royal palace, it was built if 1824. Today it houses the Museum of Asian Art of Corfu. The Church of Saint Spyridon is on Liston street, close by.