Angelokastro (Corfu)

Front view of Angelokastro approaching from the nearby village of Krini. Archangel Michael's church at the Acropolis can be seen at the top left of the castle. The Ionian Sea can be seen in the background. Remnants of the battlements can be seen on the right (northeast) side of the castle. The circular protective tower can be seen in front of the main gate.
Angelokastro
Angelokastro from above
An old Venetian map of Isola di Corfu: posseduta dalla Serenissima Republica di Venetia ca. 1690 featuring the map of Angelokastro inside a wreath, amongst similar representations of the rest of the castles of Corfu. Angelokastro is indicated as "Castello S. Angelo" in a ribbon below the top right wreath of the map.
Castel Sant Angelo by Edward Lear

Angelokastro (Greek: Αγγελόκαστρο (Castle of Angelos or Castle of the Angel); Venetian: Castel Sant'Angelo) is a Byzantine castle on the island of Corfu,[1][2][3][4][5] Greece. It is located at the top of the highest peak of the island's shoreline in the northwest coast near Palaiokastritsa and built on particularly precipitous and rocky terrain. It stands 1,000 ft (305 m) on a steep cliff above the sea and surveys the City of Corfu and the mountains of mainland Greece to the southeast and a wide area of Corfu toward the northeast and northwest.[2][6]

Angelokastro is one of the most important fortified complexes of Corfu. It was an acropolis which surveyed the region all the way to the southern Adriatic and presented a formidable strategic vantage point to the occupant of the castle.

Angelokastro formed a defensive triangle with the castles of Gardiki and Kassiopi, which covered Corfu's defences to the south, northwest and northeast.

The castle never fell, despite frequent sieges and attempts at conquering it through the centuries, and played a decisive role in defending the island against pirate incursions and during three sieges of Corfu by the Ottomans, significantly contributing to their defeat.

During invasions, it helped shelter the local peasant population. The villagers also fought against the invaders playing an active role in the defence of the castle.

The exact period of the building of the castle is not known, but it has often been attributed to the reigns of Michael I Komnenos and his son Michael II Komnenos.[7][8][9][10][11][12] The first documentary evidence for the fortress dates to 1272, when Giordano di San Felice took possession of it for Charles of Anjou, who had seized Corfu from Manfred, King of Sicily in 1267.

From 1387 to the end of the 16th century, Angelokastro was the official capital of Corfu and the seat of the Provveditore Generale del Levante, governor of the Ionian islands and commander of the Venetian fleet, which was stationed in Corfu.[13]

The governor of the castle (the castellan) was normally appointed by the City council of Corfu and was chosen amongst the noblemen of the island.[3]

Angelokastro is considered one of the most imposing architectural remains in the Ionian Islands,[14] along with Kassiopi Castle, Gardiki Castle and the two Venetian Fortresses of Corfu City, the Citadel and the New Fort.[14]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tataki was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Nondas Stamatopoulos (1993). Old Corfu: history and culture (3 ed.). N. Stamatopoulos. pp. 163–165, 325. ISBN 978-960-8403-00-0. On a precipitous rocky peak dominating a wide range of coastline around Palaeokastritsa stand the crumbling walls and battlements of the twelfth-century Byzantine Fortress of Angelokastro, not far from the village of Krini. (p. 163) [...] After a siege lasting a year the invaders were finally driven away by the defenders of the fortress who were helped by the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages. Again, during the first great siege of Corfu by the Turks in 1537, Angelocastro successfully resisted attack. About 3,000 villagers had sought refuge within the fortress to escape the fate of the inhabitants of other parts of the island who were ... In 1571, when they once more invaded Corfu, the Ottomans again unsuccessfully attacked, Angelocastro, where 4,000 people had taken refuge. During the second great siege of the city by the Ottomans in 1716, Angelokastro once again served as a refuge for the...During the course of the centuries Angelocastro played an important part in the defence of the island. In 1403 a force of Genoese soldiers, under the command of the French condottiere Boucicaut, landed at Palaeokastritsa and attacked ... The fortress existed in 1272 when it was formally taken over by the Italian Giordano di San Felice in the name of the Angevin rulers of Naples, who held the island of Corfu from 1267 to 1386. (p. 164)[...]...Angelocastro was probably built during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenos (1143 - 1 180).(p. 164)[...]This was used as a hermitage and was converted into a chapel, probably around the end of the eighteenth century (p. 165)[...]From the top of Angelocastro the view sweeps far and wide over the hills across the breadth of Corfu, to the town, the Eastern Channel and the mountains on the mainland, over a sheer drop of a thousand feet to the sea below (p.325)
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference 8th Ephorate was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Michaēl S. Kordōsēs (1981). Symvolē stēn historia kai topographia tēs periochēs Korinthou stous mesous chronous (in Greek). Vivliopōleio D.N. Karavia. p. 140. Retrieved 19 September 2013. Ή ύπαρξη βυζαντινών έρειπίων στή θέση Πατίμα δείχνει πιθανότατα ότι στό σημείο αύτό ύπήρχε βυζαντινός οικισμός. Δέν άποκλείεται, σέ δυσκολότερα χρόνια, ό πληθυσμός νά μετοίκησε άπό τή θέση αύτήστσν οχυρωμένο λόφο. Εκτός άπό τό βυζαντινό φρούριο, στήν περιοχή τοϋ Άγγελοκάστρου παρουσιάζουν ένδιαφέρον καί δυό παλιές έκ- κλησίες, πού ...Ο Buchon, που επισκέφθηκε το καστρο, υποθέτει οτι χτιστηκε ατα τελη του ΙΒ' αιώνα από καποιο μελος της οικογενειας των Αγγελων Κομνηνων, σε μια ταραγμένη εποχή που ευνοουσε προσωπα με κυρος να γινονται ανεξαρτητα απο το κεντρο. Τα τειχη του, γραφει, μαρτυρουν βιαστικη κατασκευή.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference NGDE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ John S. Bowman; Peter Kerasiotis; Sherry Marker (10 January 2012). Frommer's Greece. John Wiley & Sons. p. 567. ISBN 978-1-118-20577-8. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Archaiologikon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ William Miller (1908). The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece (1204-1566). E. P. Dutton. p. 514. Retrieved 1 October 2013. The oldest historian of Corfu may be exaggerating when he says that the Despots of Epiros "adorned the city with most noble buildings" but tradition and probability are with him when he ascribes to them the castle of Sant' Angelo on the west coast, whose ruins, in a superb situation above the blue Ionian Sea, still preserve the name of that adventurous race.[...] The castle of Sant' Angelo on the west coast alone resisted their attacks. More than 3,000 refugees from the countryside had congregated within its walls, and four times did its brave Corfiote garrison repulse the enemy (p. 561)
  9. ^ William Miller (1964). "The Latins in the Levant". Web archive.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Katsaros2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Andrea Marmora, Della Historia di Corfù, 1672, Libro 4, p. 210 "Adorno egli di nobilissimi edificii la Città; fabbricò in posto, molto atto alla difesa, il castel S. Angelo; ..."
  12. ^ Anthony Hirst; Patrick Sammon (26 June 2014). The Ionian Islands: Aspects of their History and Culture. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 233. ISBN 978-1-4438-6278-3.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Freely2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ a b Martin Young (1977). Corfu and the Other Ionian Islands. Cape. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-224-01307-9. Retrieved 8 April 2013.