Corfu Self-Guided Walking Tour Three Empire Audio Quiz

Highlights

Inclusions

Itinerary

1. A bronze memorial standing on the square beside the New Fortress, at the edge of Corfu's historic Jewish quarter. Unveiled in 2001 and sculpted by Georgios Karahalios, it commemorates the roughly 1,800 Corfiot Jews deported from the island in June 1944.

   Passes by

2. The single-nave basilica that holds the relics of Saint Spyridon, Corfu's patron saint. Its red-domed bell tower, completed in 1620, is the tallest in the Ionian Islands, and the interior is lined with silver oil lamps and baroque woodwork.

   Passes by

3. Housed in the Palace of St Michael and St George, the British Regency building of Maltese limestone built between 1819 and 1824 for the Lord High Commissioner. It is the only museum in Greece devoted entirely to Asian art, founded on Gregorios Manos's donated collection.

   Passes by

4. An arcaded promenade along the western edge of the Spianada, begun under French rule after 1807 and modelled on the neoclassical arcades of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. The British later added the upper storeys; the cafes beneath the arches are the town's main social hub.

   Passes by

5. The great esplanade the Venetians kept clear for artillery fire, now Corfu's main green square. At its southern end stands the Pentophanaro, the five-lamp post that gives the crossroads its name and marks the boundary between the Upper and Lower Spianada.

   Passes by

6. Corfu's Roman Catholic cathedral, dedicated to Saints James and Christopher, with a late Venetian facade on Town Hall Square. Gutted by bombing in 1943 and rebuilt by 1970, it is where the island's Catholics keep Easter on the Orthodox date, a custom dating to 1583.

   Passes by

7. A circular Ionic monopteros of imported Maltese limestone, raised in 1821 to Sir Thomas Maitland, the first British Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. It sits directly on top of a Venetian water cistern built in 1781.

   Passes by

8. A Pentelic marble statue on the southern Spianada, unveiled in 1887, of Count Ioannis Kapodistrias. Born in Corfu in 1776, he served as joint foreign minister of the Russian Empire before becoming the first head of state of independent Greece in 1827.

   Passes by

9. A neoclassical hall with a Doric portico, designed by Ioannis Chronis in 1854 for the assembly that governed the islands under the British protectorate. Here in 1863 the deputies voted to dissolve the protectorate and unite with the Kingdom of Greece.

   Passes by

10. The Venetian citadel on a twin-peaked promontory, cut off from the town by the Contrafossa, an artificial seawater moat. Inside stands the Church of Saint George, built in 1840 as an Anglican garrison chapel in the form of a Doric temple.

    Passes by

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.

Reviews

Ratings come from 2 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.

Know before you go

How it compares in Corfu

• Its from-price is 94% below the median of the 582 experiences we list in Corfu.
• It is shorter than most of them.
• By number of reviews it ranks 301 of 582.
• The operator lists free cancellation on it.

About Corfu

Corfu is a green Ionian island off north-west Greece, with a Venetian old town, olive groves, rocky coves and a taste of French and British history.

Corfu Town, on the east coast, is listed by UNESCO for its Venetian, French and British layers, with narrow lanes of tall pastel houses between two Venetian fortresses. The Liston arcade, modelled on a Parisian street, runs along the Spianada, a huge square where cricket is still played, and the old British palace there now holds a museum of Asian art. The tiny islet of Vlacherna and Pontikonisi, Mouse Island, sit off the airport runway.

Top-ranked sights in Corfu: Old Fortress (Palaio Frourio), Kanoni, Paleokastritsa.

See all 582 experiences in Corfu