Kassiopi Castle

Kassiopi was one of three Byzantine-period castles defending Corfu before the Venetian era of 1386–1797, forming a defensive triangle with Gardiki in the south of the island and Angelokastro in the north-west. Its place overlooking the Corfu Channel, which divides the island from the mainland, gave it a vantage point and elevated strategic significance.

The castle's origins are not settled and several theories have been advanced, but they appear to be Byzantine. Excavations in the two towers flanking the main gate, and in a third tower to the north of it, turned up bronze coins struck under the emperors Maurice (582–602) and Basil II (976–1025), together with ceramic ostraca of the early Byzantine period, the fourth to seventh centuries. The finds suggest a Byzantine castle may have stood in the area by the sixth century, several centuries earlier than the estimated construction date of the present fortress.

In 1081 Count Bohemund of Taranto took the castle at the opening of the first Norman invasion of Greece. Three years later the fortress fell to Alexios I Komnenos, who had beaten the Norman fleet in three naval battles in the Corfu Channel. The Angevins took it over in 1267, and in 1386 it fell to the Venetians after some initial resistance.

Because its defenders had resisted the Venetian takeover of Corfu in 1386 and had not willingly surrendered, Venice ordered the castle destroyed. It was dismantled for fear it might be seized by Venice's enemies, or by the islanders themselves, and used against them, and in later years the Venetians neither repaired nor maintained it, in contrast with the work they put into Angelokastro and the Old Fortress of Corfu. A century after the castle's destruction, folk tales spoke of fire-breathing dragons that had wrecked it and poisoned the villagers; the genesis of those myths has been attributed to the impression made on residents unfamiliar with black powder and explosions.

The Venetian architects Michele Sanmicheli and his son Giangerolamo, under contract to reinforce the Old Fortress during the inter-siege years of 1537–1558, took building material from Kassiopi to the citadel for their repairs.

The consequence of the Venetian decision was that during the Ottoman sieges of Corfu in 1537 and 1716 the local people who could not get away were slaughtered or enslaved.

After Venice surrendered Candia in Crete to the Ottomans in 1669, Corfu became its last possession and bastion in the Levant, and the Republic redoubled its efforts on the island's defences. In 1671 an official named Dona was sent to assess them and report to the Venetian Senate. Dona went to Kassiopi in person, accompanied by Mocenigo, special commander of the Adriatic and a future Doge, and on further advice from general St Andrea and the military engineer Verneda his report backed strengthening the fortress. Despite that advice the Venetians abandoned all plans of defending Kassiopi. Only after the second great siege of Corfu in 1716 did they finally decide to rebuild the castle, by which time the local population had already moved elsewhere, including to villages on the highlands of Mount Pantokrator.

The circuit runs 1.073 km on a quadrilateral plan, guarded by nineteen strong towers of alternating circular and rectangular section; the rectangular towers are the older of the two, and there are indications that the technology of the cylindrical ones may have reached this provincial fortress late. The walls are vertical rather than inclined in the manner that turns cannon shot aside, a design meant to repulse the siege equipment of the age before artillery — ladders, siege towers and battering rams. Defence was conducted mainly from the battlements, of which nothing survives. The main gate stands between two two-storey towers behind strong fore-walls, an arrangement similar to that at the Castle of Riza in Epirus, and its wall extensions restrict approach from the sides against a surprise ambush.

Long abandonment left the fortress in ruin: the eastern side has gone but for a few traces, and castle stone has been reused as building material in houses in the area. Kassiopi is counted among the most imposing architectural remains in the Ionian Islands, and it is protected in Greek law both as an archaeological site and as a protected building. Approach is mainly from the south-east along a narrow walkway that passes between houses and backyards, the castle standing at the centre of the densely built village.