Why go
A short walk can reveal several layers of the city at once. The Old Fortress faces the Spianada across its moat; the Liston lines the square's western edge; tightly packed lanes then draw you into the older urban fabric. This contrast is more revealing than treating each landmark as an isolated stop.
The full story
Corfu city occupies a peninsula whose eastern tip was separated for the Old Fortress by a seawater moat. The town expanded within defences, making ground valuable and streets compact. Its narrow lanes, called kantounia, bend with the terrain and can be too tight for cars. They feel very different from the Spianada, the large open space facing the fortress. The Liston arcade on the square's western side was built in the early nineteenth century with a Parisian model in mind. This sequence gives a visitor an easy way to read the city: start in the dense lanes, emerge onto the square, then look toward the fortress and sea. The nearby Garitsa waterfront adds another view of the peninsula and its edge. The Old Town's appeal is not a single façade; it is the quick shift between enclosed streets, civic space and military landscape.
Useful to know
- Walk from the kantounia lanes to the Spianada, then decide whether to add the Old Fortress across the moat.