Cape Town Lens: Corfu_2019 10 23_1318

A Cape Town Castle Military Museum tagged image from photographer – HBarrison as published on Flickr.

Corfu_2019 10 23_1318

Image by HBarrison

Statue of Empress Elisabeth of Austria set at the main entrance to the Palace / Achilleion Palace was built on the Island of Corfu for the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sisi. Elisabeth was deeply saddened by the tragic loss of her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria following the “Mayerling Incident”, a murder-suicide in 1889, and a year later she had this summer palace built as a refuge. Achilleion provides a panoramic view of the city to the north, and across the whole southern part of the island to the Ionian Sea. The architectural style was designed to suggest an ancient palace of mythical Phaeacia (first mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey as the home of the Phaeacians and the last destination of Odysseus in his 10-year journey before returning home to Ithaca).. The motif centers on the hero Achilles of Greek mythology, from which the name is derived. Elisabeth’s wanted a palace to gratify her admiration for Greece, its language and its culture. The property currently operates as a museum under the management of Hellenic Tourism Development Company, within the Greek National Tourism Organization. The palace was designed by Italian architect Raffaele Caritto. Elisabeth’s husband, Emperor The German sculptor Ernst Herter was commissioned to create works inspired from Greek mythology. His sculpture, Dying Achilles), created in Berlin in 1884 as inscribed in the statue, forms the centerpiece of the Achilleion Gardens. Paintings and statues of Achilles are abundant, both in the main hall and in the gardens, depicting contrasting heroic and tragic scenes of the Trojan war. The architectural style is Pompeian and has many parallels to that of the Livadia Palace, the Russian imperial residence in Crimea. Elisabeth frequently visited Achilleion until spring 1896. She lost interest in her palace though and even considered selling it. Much of the interior was moved back to Vienna. In September 1898 Elisabeth was assassinated by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni in Geneva. During World War I, the Achilleion was used as a military hospital by French and Serbian troops. After World War I, it became the property of the Greek state according to the treaty of Versailles and the war reparations that followed in 1919. From about 1921 to 1924, the palace housed an orphanage, which accommodated Armenian orphans from Constantinople. In the remaining years between the two world wars, the Achilleion property was used for various government functions and a number of artifacts were auctioned off. During World War II, the axis powers used the Achilleion as military headquarters. After the war, the Achilleion came under the management umbrella of the Hellenic Tourist Organization. In 1962, the Achilleion was leased to a private company that converted the upper level to a casino and the lower grounds to a museum. In 1983 the lease was terminated and the palace management was returned to the Hellenic Tourism Organization / Corfu or Kerkyra is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered by three municipalities with the islands of Othonoi, Ereikoussa and Mathraki. The principal city of the island is also named Corfu. Corfu is home to the Ionian University. The island is bound up with the history of Greece from the beginnings of Greek mythology. Its history is full of battles and conquests. Ancient Korkyra took part in the Battle of Sybota which was a catalyst for the Peloponnesian War, and, according to Thucydides, the largest naval battle between Greek city states until that time. Thucydides also reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth century BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth. Ruins of ancient Greek temples and other archaeological sites of the ancient city of Korkyra are found in Palaiopolis. Medieval castles punctuating strategic locations across the island are a legacy of struggles in the Middle Ages against invasions by pirates and the Ottomans. Two of these castles enclose its capital, which is the only city in Greece to be surrounded in such a way. As a result, Corfu’s capital has been officially declared a Kastropolis ("castle city") by the Greek government. From medieval times and into the 17th century, the island, having successfully repulsed the Ottomans during several sieges, was recognized as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empire and became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortifications of the island were used by the Venetians to defend against Ottoman intrusion into the Adriatic. Corfu eventually fell under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars, and was eventually ceded to Greece by the British Empire along with the remaining islands of the United States of the Ionian Islands. Unification with modern Greece was concluded in 1864 under the Treaty of London. Corfu is the origin of the Ionian Academy, the first university of the modern Greek state, and the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, the first Greek theatre and opera house of modern Greece.