Audio Guide: Corfu Old Town Walking Tour (Self Guided), Corfu

Poseidon, the god of the sea, was obsessed with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, the daughter of the river god Asopus. Poseidon abducted Korkyra and carried her off to an unnamed island. He called the island Korkyra, after his lady love. This island later became Corfu.

By the 8th century BC, the Greek city Corinth had claimed it as a colony, and its ships became key players in the Peloponnesian War, taking place between 431 and 404 BC. The Romans and Byzantines followed, layering basilicas, walls, and bits of empire onto its coastline. Through centuries of raids and rivalries, Corfu’s role as a maritime outpost never quite let up.

When the Venetians arrived in 1401, they made sure the island would not be easy pickings. They poured nearly four hundred years into shaping Corfu, digging moats and stacking stone into the massive Old Fortress that still looms above the sea. Its bastions weren’t for show-Ottoman armies battered its walls more than once, but the fortress held, and Corfu never fell.

Yet Corfu’s strength has never been just military. Faith anchored the community through plagues and sieges alike, embodied in Saint Spyridon whose relics rest inside the 16th-century church that bears his name. The church's flickering lamps and silver work remind visitors of the centuries of devotion poured into keeping the saint's spirit alive. Corfiots still credit him with miracles, and his processions fill the narrow streets with incense, bells, and a sense of continuity that binds the living to their history.

Foreign flags flew over Corfu more than once - French, Russian, and British - with each departure left behind a piece of architecture or governance that made up the island’s identity. By the time it joined Greece in 1864, Corfu had already developed a cosmopolitan air: Venetian arcades, British cricket greens, and a skyline defined by fortresses and domes.

Today, the island doesn’t need to boast. It is ready to enthrall you, the same way Korkyra did to Poseidon. Come and be a part of its mosaic, one influence at a time.