The Old Fortress

The Old Fortress stands over the Esplanade (Spianada Square) and is linked to the town by a fixed iron bridge 60 meters in length. This bridge used to be wooden and was drawn up to isolate the fortress for greater safety.

The first fortifications of the Old Fortress were started about the 6th century AD after the destruction of the ancient city of Corcyra by the Goths, who had forced the population to abandon the ancient city and to settle on the rocky promontory with its two peaks. The Byzantines fortified one of the two peaks, the one that in Venetian times was named 'Castel Vecchio' or 'Castel a Mare'. Later the Venetians fortified the other, peak called 'Castel Nuovo' or 'Castel a Terra'. Between the 6th and 13th centuries the town of Corfu lay within the walls of the fortress. In the 15th century the Venetians replaced the old fortifications. They built bastions, winding galleries and tunnels. They also erected buildings to house the military and political authorities. These bastions are considered masterpieces of military engineering.

A small harbor called Mandracchio built in the 15th century on the northern side of the fortress, used by Venetians galleys as an anchorage. In the depression between the wall of the Esplanade and the western bastions of the Old Fortress an artificial canal, Contrafossa, served as a sea moat to it.

On the open space at the foot of the peak named 'Castel a Terra' stands the church of St. George, built in 1840 by the British in Doric style. The church turned over to the Orthodox cult at the end of the British Protectorate.

Just outside the Old Fortress stands the marble statue of the German Field Marshall Von Schulenburg, erected by the Venetian Senate during his lifetime in recognition of his gallant defense of the city during the last great siege by the Turks in 1716. The statue once stood inside the Old Fortress but was removed during the British Protectorate to its present position.

The large Esplanade in front of the Fortress was planned by the Venetians as an open space between the Fortress and the town proper. It was the rule when building fortifications to distance the houses from the fort. This space is approximately the firing range of a gun of the period.

Today, the Venetian walls as well as the additional fortifications built by the British can still be seen in the Old Fortress.

However, most of the surviving buildings date from the period of British rule.