Why go
The century explains why a Venetian-looking city also has British monuments, a cricket tradition and the Ionian Academy. It connects the Spianada and Palace of St Michael and St George with political changes that ended in the Ionian Islands joining Greece.
The full story
Venetian rule ended in 1797, opening a period of rapid changes in Corfu's government. French occupation was followed by a short-lived Ionian state under Ottoman suzerainty, renewed French administration and, after the Napoleonic Wars, British protection of the Ionian Islands. Corfu Town became the seat of the British Lord High Commissioner. The era left visible public buildings and monuments, while improvements to roads and water supply changed daily life beyond the capital. The Ionian Academy was founded in 1824, an important milestone in Greek higher education. In 1864 the Ionian Islands united with Greece. On a town walk, this sequence helps explain the British-era Maitland monument in Spianada and the former administrative role of the Palace of St Michael and St George. These landmarks stand within an older Venetian street plan, so the nineteenth century is best understood as another layer of Corfu rather than a replacement of its fortified past.