Old Fortress

In the eastern part of Corfu's old town, perched on two hills and surrounded by the sea on all sides, rises the Old Fortress of Corfu (Palio Frourio).

It is a true architectural masterpiece of Venetian fortification art. The fortress is connected to the island by a bridge built over the artificially dug Contra Fossa Canal. To the right and left of the majestic central entrance are two bastions – Martinengo and Sebastian.

The fortress's two large towers, the "Tower of Land" and the "Tower of the Sea," were built on the hilltops (a peak in Greek is koryphi). This is the source of the Byzantine name of the city, "Koryphon (city on the peaks)," which later became the abbreviated form of Corfu. The former peak is open to the public; on the way to it, you can pass a military prison, navigate a system of tunnels, and reach the citadel at the very top and the lighthouse. Inside the fortress there is also an architecturally unusual Doric church of St. George, built during the English rule in the 19th century, the grand staircase of the Venetian Doge's Palace with several surviving bas-reliefs, numerous French cannons of various calibers, a museum of Vincentian mosaics, English barracks, the Carmelite Church, a music conservatory, and a small yacht club with a beach and a restaurant.