John's Corfu World

"Τhe girl from Corfu"

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:26:00 +0000

Corfu had been always a favourite shooting location for many films. Among them, a 1956 comedy film, starring Rena Vlachopoulou and directed by Yiannis Petroulakis named "The girl from Corfu" (original greek title "Πρωτευουσιάνικες περιπέτειες").
It is about a corfiot girl whose uncle invite her to live with him in Athens, teach her good manners and become part of the athenian high society. The film was shot in Corfu and Athens and it had been the very first colour greek film. It was entered into the 7th Berlin International Film festival.

You can watch the full film below.

Anemomylos after the storm

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:24:00 +0000

Yesterday morning Corfu was hit by a strong storm whose strong winds and heavy rainfaill caused problems. Trees fell, a man died as he was hit by a falling tree branch in Yannades village, big waves caused inudation in some coastal areas. Thankfully by afternoon, winds had gone, rain stopped and everything came back to normal. I went out for a walk in Anemomylos area and I took some photos that show the beauty of the landscape after the storm.

By the way, here is a short video taken by a friend of mine in Ipsos yesterday morning, the time when the stormy rain and winds hit our island.

The roman catholic cathedral of Corfu ("Duomo")

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:21:00 +0000

Situated on the eastern side of Municipal square, the roman catholic cathedral of Saint Jacob and Saint Christopher is one of the finest examples of baroque architecture in Greece.

It was built in 1588 following a licence given by archibishop Martino to the roman catholic community of the island. More than a century before, in 1466, the Pope gave his permission to the catholic fraternity of St.Jacob and St. Christopher to built a church and a place where the members of the fraternity returningfrom Jerusalem could be hosted. In 1633 the holy relics of St. Arsenios were moved to the cathedral while in 1659, the archibishop Lavia added six little chapels. In 1709, the cathedral was renovated but in 1943 it was heavily damaged by the nazi germans bombs. The building was restored by the 1970s but St. Jacobs holy relics had been moved to the orthodox cathedral of St. Theodora.

There are services every Sunday assisted by the majority of catholic christians that live in the island, who are about as many as 2.000 people. It is also a popular classical music venue because of its excellent acoustics. Below there are some photos I took last December when I visited the cathedral.

Corfu then and now 7: The Palace film theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:55:00 +0000

It is a phenomenon of our times: many film theatres had been closed down because fewer and fewer people prefered to watch a film at the cinema. The reasons? Firstly, it was the growing popularity of video clubs in the early 80s but the second and most fatal one, was the illegal internet downloading. Nowadays, quite a few people spend their night out at the movies.

One victim of that crisis, was Palace film theatre on Georgiou Theotoki street. As far as I remember, it was the biggest cinema in town. It closed down in late 1998 to become a "Marks & Spencer" shop which, in my opinion, it is of low quality compared to those found in Britain. The Palace theatre had been used as a concert venue as well. As late as the early 90s, many local wind bands and orchestras performed there, as an alternative venue to that of the Municipal theatre across the street.

I loved the neon sign with the theatre's name written in greek using a kind of font popular in the 60s. That neon sign survived intact until its last day. The last movie I watched there was the 1998 film "Great Expectations" starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethen Hawke but I will never forget the long queues that blocked the central throughfare traffic when "Titanic" was screened.

Below, there is a vintage 1960s picture showing the film theatre with people outside waiting for the next screening and a second one showing the site as it is today,

I found a third photo showing a bit of its interior, as it was in the 70s during an electional campaign.

A documentary about our patron saint

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:53:00 +0000

Here is an interesting documentary about Corfu's patron Saint Spyridon, originally produced and broadcasted on an ukranian channel but translated in greek by a local channel. By watching it you can tell how important is our saint in our lives and how much we love him.

-For a Saint Spyridon's bio, read this post: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-saint-spyridons-day.html

Bizet and Joplin at the theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Tonight the Philharmonic Society of Corfy symphonic orchestra gave a wonderful concert. A diverse selection of music works were skillfully performed like the Rodion Shchedrin/Bizet "Carmen" suite and Gunther Schuller "Journey to Jazz". Four ragtimes, specifically arranged for symphonic orchestra were presented, including Scott Joplin's "The entertainer" theme heard in the famous 1973 american film "The Sting".
Here are three short videos from tonight's concert. The first two are taken from the "Carmen" suite while the last one is "The entertainer" ragtime.

The german origin of the "Gastouriotikos" traditional dance

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Few corfiots know that the famous Gastouriotikos dance is not a corfiot one but its music had been composed by a berliner named Franz Meissner in 1892. This song became popular in Corfu by Kaiser Wilhelm II since 1908, when he was visiting Achilion palace in Gastouri village for his summer holidays. As he loved the song and he supported the local Philharmonic Band, he asked them to play it for him by giving them its music score. Because of the fact that its rhythm matches the corfiot dance steps, the locals adopted it originally renaming it "Gastouri Kaiser dance".
Below you can hear the original as well as the greek version of this tune.

The original theme named "Im Grunewald ist Holzauktion"

The "Gastouriotikos" dance

The southern side of Town Hall square

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:36:00 +0000

The southern side of this monumental and beautiful square is dominated by the Bank of Greece building. This edifice had been built in 1754 on the site of the 17th century Latin archibishop's residence which had been destructed by an earthquake. Originally, this building had three floors and housed various governmental services but the Nazi german bombs almost made it collapse. After the second world war, this building was rebuilt having only two floors.

Right at the base of the grand set of scales leading to the entrance, there is a nice spring but no water runs from it and it is infested by tag graffitis.

At the right side of the Bank of Greece building, there is a nice dead end street which features some old traditional corfiot buildings dating back centuries ago.

The view from that side of the square feels like being drawned by a painter. The town hall dominates the view, while it can be seen the Saint Spyridon campanile, Duomo catedral and in the background, the tallest mountain in Corfu, mount Pantrokrator.

The western side of the Bank of Greece building is quite interesting. There is a nice venetian arch leading to the back side of the edifice and a plaque attached on the building's west side bearing the latin numeral and words "A FUNDAMENTIS EREC S. A. MDCCLIII", which in arabic numbers is year 1754 and commemorates its contruction.

Next to the edifice's western side, there are few more old buildings dating back from the venetian period.

A 90s greek videoclip shot around Corfu Island

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:54:00 +0000

Kostas Bigalis, a known greek singer who has a series of hits back in the 90s, had shot the video for his 1995 song "Varkáda" ("Boating ride") in various corfiot locations like old Corfu town, Kanoni and Kaiser's bridge near Benitses.
It is a nice happy summer song, back from the era when greek pop music was flourishing and unpretending. Here is the rare video:

The old San Giacomo theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:34:00 +0000

The old San Giacomo theatre is one of the most beautiful buildings in Greece. It was was built in the 1680s as a "loggia" (a noblemen's club) but in the 1720s it was converted to a theatre. It had been named after San Giacomo catholic cathedral church next door. Its formal name was "Nobile teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù".

In the beginning, only theatre plays had been staged but in 1733 an opera was performed there for the first time. It was A. Aurelli's ''Gerone, tiranno di Siracusa". The operas flourished in the theatre but in 1893, the building became the city hall and a new Municipal theatre had been built in the new part of town. During the Second World war the precious theatre historical archives had been destroyed by Luftwaffe raids.

The theatre attracted many italian musicians and composers which helped generating an appreciation for music among the locals and led to the apprearence of important greek composers like Nikolaos Mantzaros and Spyridon Xyndas.

The building exterior is ornate. It had been built with corfiot stone in rennaisance style and its façade is adorned with baroque busts and insciptions. On the eastern side of the building, a big statue of venetian governor Morosini and his offsprings dominate the view.

The southern side, facing the Town Hall square, features the main entrance to the building. Above the vaulted main door and windows, busts of ancient greek deities and the local coat of arms with the ancient corfiot ship featured as a symbol of corfiot glory, make the building look special dominating the area around it.

The old San Giacomo theatre, has always been a focal point of our town, either being a noblemen's club and opera or a town hall. It had been the first opera theatre in Greece, long before Athens and Patras build their own ones. At the same time, it helped creating a national classical music school which had been nonexistent back then in ottoman occupied mainland Greece.

Happy New Year 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Dear followers,

Happy New Year with love, peace, prosperity! I wish 2012 will be better year than the previous one for my country.

A beautiful article about the Philharmonic Society of Corfu

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:04:00 +0000

The Ionian magazine kindly published an article about the oldest philharmonic society in Greece in their January 2012 issue. I have contributed to the article by providing two photos and making some remarks about my experience as a member of this band. Also it features a brief history of the philharmonic and mention a passage from reknown british writer Lawrence Durrell's desciption of a typical corfiot religious procession in his "Prospero's cell" novel.

Download the photo in your computer for better resolution (courtesy of the "Ιonian magazine")

- You can download the issue from the magazine's site: http://www.theionian.com

Merry Christmas from John!

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:30:00 +0000

I wish to all my readers Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012 filled with peace and prosperity. I hope to see you all in our beautiful island next year!

Here are three videos from a christmas concert given by the Corfu conservatory's children choir and the brass ensemble in the catholic cathedral of San Giacomo. In the first one, the choir is singing the famous spanish carol "Feliz Navidad" while in the last two the brass ensemble is perfomorming "Christmas swing" and a selection of corfiot and other greek carols.

Corfu then and now 6: The Paleo-Christian church across the Mon Repos gate

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Yesterday, I came across a very interesting image posted by an old photo collector in a Facebook group about old Corfu. On first sight, I didn't recognized the church shown in that documentary 1880 photo but after reading the comments posted by some members, I found out that it is an image showing the interior of the paleo-christian church which now is in ruins, right across the Mon Repos estate gate. It came as a suprise to me that this ancient church was still in perfect condition in late 1800s. What happened to it?

The church relics as seen from the satellite

Let's have a quick look into the church's history. The Paleo-christian church of Paleopolis was built in 463 AD by the bishop of Corfu, Iovianos. The church was built in the very heart of the ancient Corfu town, next to the roman forum site, across the roman baths and very close to the ancient port of Alkinoos. The church was built on the site where a roman temple once stood. Its materials had been used to built the christian church. The church had been destructed in the 6th century by the barbarians but soon it had been restored to its former glory. In the 15th century the ancient basilica was owned by a monastery dedicated to Virgin Mary. It was mercilessly bombed by the german Nazis during the Second world war and since then it had not been rebuilt.

The church is a basilica with wooden roof. In the 1880 image below, perhaps the unique photograph showing the church's interior intact, we can see clearly how simplistic but in the same time, beautiful was that building. I think it is time the local Church authorities raise some money to renovate it, using the image below as a reference. It is a pity, one of the oldest churches in Greece to be in such terrible condition!

The church in 1880 - as you can see, it was in excellent condition!

The same view nowadays

Some images taken from the "Corfu tour" page

- A virtual tour of the interior by the corfuchurches.com site.

The renovated Farmer's market

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:23:00 +0000

This month, the long awaited renovation of the Farmer's market has been completed and the vendors started to move in in their brand new stalls. Being hosted for more or less five years in a temporary market on the site of a municipal parking area, the Farmer's market looks now more human and organized.

Below there is a satellite view of the new market (still under construction by the time this image was shot) and the old temporary one on the upper left. Note how messy and primitive looked the old one from above and how well designed and spacious look the new one.

The old temporary ungly market is now being dismantled and the site will be again used as a parking area providing some additional valuable spaces relieving a bit the parking problem.

As mentioned in a last year post in this blog, the site on which the farmers market was built originally was part of the defensive system of the New Fortress. Last years, while excavating, the ruins of a building built by the british as a part of the fortress had been found. Hopefully, a large part of it has been preserved and serve as a local landmark.

The market itself look way better than its predecesors. The old one on the same site was rather messy and unequal. As far as I remember, it was a mixture of stalls of different size and look. Now, all stalls look identical and all built by the same standards. Another good thing about the new market is that it is no longer allowed for private cars to pass through it as it was the case with the older one.

Without doubt, the New Farmer's market was a long awaited construction but at this point, I should say that I rather prefer the market would had been moved to another place, restoring this ancient fortifications and a brand new building had been built, inspired by the old Markas market (sadly bombed by the Nazis in the September 1943 bombardment) which stood on the site of where the Spilia square is nowadays.

Strong walnut sized hailstorm in Corfu today!

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Today around 3:15 p.m., Corfu town experienced one of the strongest hailstorms of last decades. It is a rainy day but nobody could imagine this rare phenomenon would happen. Walnut sized hail was falling for ten minutes turning the streets white, like if it had snowed. Hopefully, as far as I know up to this moment, it did not provoked any damage. Below there are few photos and a video from today's hailstorm.

A concert in honour of our patron saint

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Today our island celebrates its patron saint, Saint Spyridon who has helped Corfu and many people in many occasions. In order to honour him, every year on December the 12th, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu is giving a concert in its own mini concert hall on Nikiforou Theotoki street. The hall is always full of people waiting for the concert to start.
Below, there are three videos from today's concert.

Beaked whales stranded along the western shore

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:44:00 +0000

Few days ago, I read from some other corfiot blogs that some beaked whales stranded at Ermones, Pelekas and St. George beaches. People suspect that they stranded because of the sonars used by the italian navy. Here is an except from an article of an enviromentalist site:

"Last week, beaked whales began stranding along the Greek island of Corfu, on the eastern edge of the Ionian Sea. The whales stranded alive, and rescuers struggled to lead them back to deeper water. Around the same time, a mother and calf stranded on the coast of Calabria, about 130 miles away on the other side of the water. The mother perished.
At the western coast beach of Ermones, witnesses at two separate stranding sites reported hearing a strange whistling sound every ten or fifteen seconds – a truly remarkable thing since they were above the waterline and the signal probably came from below.

From November 27 through Dec. 2, the Italian Navy has been conducting a major exercise known as “Mare Aperto” (“Open Seas”) in the central-southern Tyrrhenian, Ionian, and southern Adriatic. At least one of the participating ships in this year’s exercise, an Italian Maestrale-class frigate called the Scirocco, is equipped with active sonar made by Raytheon and identical to systems used by the U.S. Navy.
Of course, the Italian exercise covered a wide area, and we don’t yet know how closely it may be correlated in space and time with the mass strandings. All possible causes, including other anthropogenic noise sources, should be investigated. But the facts look ominous. Sonar has killed Cuvier’s beaked whales in the Ionian Sea before, and researchers suspect it has played a role in several other strandings involving the same population. One biologist wrote that, thanks to these events, the population “may be steadily headed towards its extinction."

It is known that beaked whales are very sensitive to some patricular sound ranges. Should the italian navy stop using such powerful sonars that can lead many species to a massive extinction?

Images of old Lisbon that look as if they were taken somewhere in old Corfu Town

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:51:00 +0000

Last month I spent a week in beautiful Lisbon. One thing that striked my attention was the endless similarities between the old "bairros" (districts) of the portuguese capital with the older parts of Corfu town. Lisbon was built on seven hills which overlook Tagus estuary. The streets in older parts like Alfama, Sé and Mouraria are narrow and mazy like those in the Campielo district of Corfu town. Most buildings are 3-4 storeys tall with roofs featuring red ceramic tiles similar to those found in Greece. Like what happens in Corfu, those medieval neighbourhoods are inhabited by elderly people who still hang their laundry to dry out of the window. Many buildings had been coloured with vivid mediterranean colours which look bright and warm under Lisbon's strong sunlight.

I would like to point out that, unlike Corfu, most of those medieval alleys are pedestrianized and access by car is only allowed to permanent residents. Streets are clean and most old buildings are being renovated thanks to program run by the municipal authorities. Also, the old districts are teeming with tourists all year round and few buildings are uninhabited or rundown. Another similarity I noticed was the abundance of those horrid tag graffiti which can be found in both places.

Below there is a selection of photos I took from various old neighbourhoods like Alfama and Bairro do Castelo. I wish our municipal authority had visited Lisbon and inspired by the way how Lisbon residents and officials respect and take care of their town.

Τhe "Coffee & Books" coffee shop

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:08:00 +0000

Today morning I came across an advertisement posted on a tree at the Esplanade advertising an event which will took place at a new place simply called "Coffee & Books". As the name suggest, this is a place in which someone can read a book enjoying a cup of coffee in a peaceful environment. Establishments of this kind are popular abroad. Here in Corfu, "Coffee & Books" is the first coffee shop which has a selection of greek and foreign books.

According to the shop's website, books can be bought. There is also the possibility of second hand book exchange, so if you have some used books you don't really need, you can bring them there and get some other second hand books in return.
I would like to congratulate the owners who had this bright idea of establishing a coffee shop different from the others, trying to incentivate people read more and appreciate reading as a free time activity.

- Visit their site at: http://www.coffeeandbooks.gr (on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coffee-and-Books/188896444506037 ) or get to know the place yourself at 6 Kapodistriou street, Corfu Town (opposite the Esplanade).

Some infamous bars of Corfu Town

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Well, I wasn't sure whether I should post this or not but I believe that these places deserve to be presented to those who may wonder if there are any unsavoury hangouts in Corfu Town. These bars usually are passed unobserved by the passers-by and few people hang out in them.

My favourite and the oldest of all is the bar "Barita" near the jewish quarter. A sign mounted on a building wall facing the main street is the only indication of its existence.

The second establishment is not a bar but a suspicious ground floor apartment near the old hospital. Some say it used to house a brothel.

Few hundred metres away, on a bar's door named after an italian town we can read "Enterprise offering Internet services" - I doubt if it is offering only this kind of services!

Finally, near the old psychiatric hospital a bar named "Prive" is open day and night. It is frequented by some lorry drivers who use to park their vehicles in the area.

There should be few more places of this nature in town - there are some strip bars in the suburbs which probably will be presented in a future post.

Spiros Samaras "Flower dance" from "Flora Mirabilis"

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Yesterday the Philharmonic Society of Corfu gave a concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of Spiros Samaras birth. Samaras is one of the most important and acclaimed greek composers, mostly known for its operas. The band performed pieces of his era and style which was pretty close to that of Puccini and Leoncavallo.
Here is a video in which the band is perfoming one of the most famous melodies composed by Samaras. It is the "Flower dance" from the "Flora Mirabilis" opera.

Bands playing marches after litany

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:45:00 +0000

Here are two short videos taken from the festivies of "Protokyriako" (every first Sunday of November we celebrate one of S. Spyridon's miracles). Right after the litany's end, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu and the Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" marched in the Liston square playing marches.

My blog is already four years old!

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:34:00 +0000

Four years of continuous blogging are not a few. I started this blog on November 05 2007 following the then growing blogging trend. My scope always were to promote my island's culture, diversity and history to local and foreign people and to make them appreciate this little charming place.

I promise more interesting posts in the near future as Corfu's long history and variety is endless. At this point, I would like to thank my followers for their support and interest. You are the best!

A new Kapodistriou street sign

noreply@blogger.com (Giannis, an average Corfiot) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:47:00 +0000

I noticed yesterday a new sign placed behind Liston buildings on which is written in greek and french the name of the street (J. A. Capodistria street) and the following explanatory text: "1st governor of Greece 1776-1831".

But why in french and not in english or even in russian? It makes more sense if written in english or russian because , in our days it is the most popular language on earth and Kapodistrias himself was a diplomat in the service of Russia. A possible explanation could be the fact that Liston buildings were built by the french during early 19th century - at that time Kapodistrias lived and workerd in Switzerland as a russian diplomat.

Anyway or another, this is another good initiative which helps the locals and our (french speaking) visitors to learn more things about our history.