Qualla: Old Fortress, Corfu

Old Fortress, Corfu: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr.K., CC BY-SA 3.0. The city's name is a clue hidden in plain sight. "Corfu" descends from Korypho -- the Greek word for peak -- and refers to the twin summits of this fortress promontory jutting into the Ionian Sea. Before the old town spread westward, before the New Fortress rose, before the Esplanade became a cricket pitch under British rule, this rocky headland was Corfu. The Byzantine town huddled within its walls. The Venetians rebuilt those walls into something the Ottoman Empire threw its armies against three times and failed to take. The fortress endured. What happened inside its walls across the centuries is a story that runs from military triumph to unspeakable cruelty.

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Image: Dr.K. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Fortress, Corfu: The Peaks That Named a City

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr.K., CC BY-SA 4.0. The Old Fortress occupies a promontory separated from the town by the Contrafossa, an artificial moat that the Venetians carved to isolate the stronghold. A bridge spans this channel, connecting the civilian city to the military one. The twin peaks -- koryphes in Greek -- gave th...

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Image: Dr.K. | CC BY-SA 4.0

Old Fortress, Corfu: Three Sieges, Three Failures

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ottomans tested this fortress repeatedly, and the fortress held. The great siege of 1537 brought Suleiman's forces against the walls, ravaging the undefended countryside -- the people of Corfu who could not fit within the fortress were killed or enslaved. The Venetians' triag...

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Image: Joanbanjo | CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Fortress, Corfu: Bombardment and Occupation

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fortress survived the Ottomans only to face modern weaponry. In 1923, during the Corfu Incident, the Italian Air Force bombarded both the Old and New Fortresses -- an act of aggression by Mussolini's government over a diplomatic dispute. The damage was repaired, but worse was...

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Image: Jean Housen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Fortress, Corfu: The Deportation That Emptied a Community

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr.K., CC BY-SA 3.0. From the fortress, the Jewish prisoners were transported by stages -- first to Lefkada, then to Patras, Piraeus, and the Haidari detention camp near Athens. From there, approximately 1,800 Corfiot Jews were loaded onto trains bound for Birkenau. Of those who were forced to leave ...

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Image: Dr.K. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Fortress, Corfu: From Ramparts to Film Sets

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Olaf Tausch, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fortress found an unexpected second life in popular culture when the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only used it as a filming location -- the scene where Bond pushes the villain Emile Locque's Mercedes off a cliff was shot on its ramparts. The fortifications that Schulenb...

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Image: Olaf Tausch | CC BY-SA 3.0