Corfu’s culture, art, philosophy and mythology heritage is safely housed in the city’s countless museums. Immerse yourself into world-class art, exciting history and traditions. Below you can check the best museums in Corfu Island.
The Achilleion palace is famous mainly because it was the dwelling of the Princess Sissi and is situated ten kilometers to south of the city, in a village called Gastouri. The history of this palace is mostly tied to three important persons: Elizabeth (Sissi) the Queen of Austrian-Hungarian empire, Guglielmo II Emperor of Germany and the Baron Von Richthofen. Elizabeth, during one of her trips, stopped over in Corfu and fell in love with the island so much that in 1889 she decided to buy a villa with a incredible view all over the city and part of the island. The villa was demolished and the current building was built by the Italian architect Raffaele Carito in two years and then was furnished personally by the Queen. For her love of Greek culture, Sissi wanted to pay homage to it dedicating the palace to Achilles and for this reason called it “Achilleion. In honour of Achilles she had a statue, sculpted by E. Gustav Herter in 1884, placed in the middle of the garden, representing the dying Achilles at the moment of removing the arrow from his heel. After the murder of Sissi the villa remained uninhabited until 1907, when it was bought by Guglielmo II. He changed many things in the garden and in the structure and he moved the statue of the dying Achilles in order to put a more victorious version of Achilles, a statue in bronze created by J. Gotz that well represents the spirit of Germany in that age.
The Museum of Asian Art is inside the beautiful Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George that is placed in the northern extremity of the Spianada. Corfu boasts the only museum in Greece that features Asian Art. The museum was created in 1927 when the Corfiot diplomat Gregorio Manos donated over 10.000 pieces of Japanese and Chinese handicraft to the prefecture. After the ’70s other works were gained coming from the private collections of Chatzivasiliou, Siniosoglou and Almanachos (precisely art objects from India, Pakistan, Indochina, Thailand, Nepal, Tibet and Korea). The art works of this museum are very different for features and origin.
Hotel Corfu Palace
2 Leoforos Dimokratias
Corfu, 49100
Greece
Tel.: +30 2661039485
Fax: +30 2661039485
info@corfupalace.com