The importance of Corfu, and its participation in the history of architecture is precious and unique. Built during the period of Venice Occupation, the City of Corfu maintains largely its urban planning, the buildings and fortresses, and constitutes an urban system which is unique in the Greek territory, an architectural legacy of immense value.
Developed under the Western influence over four centuries, Corfiot Architecture appears autonomous and in line with the Greek tradition, constituting the connecting link between Greek and Western architecture. Being one of the few areas of Greece to have a smooth cultural progress, Corfu had secured the conditions that allowed it to transit uneventfully to the field of architecture from Italian Renaissance and Baroque to Neoclassicism. The outcome of this unhindered transition is the development of a regular and homogenous urban system. The construction activities of the English, especially during their first years of occupation, were crucial for the preservation of this homogeny. The structure and character of the city underwent few changes after the introduction of Athenian and other standards during the first decades following the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece. The same occurred following 1930, when Corfiot architecture transited to the morphological commands of European modernism. After the War, Corfiot architecture was influenced by the International Style and the international formalism, and in 1960 it transited to the morphological commands of classic monternism.
At this point it should be mentioned that Corfu, as with all Venice occupied Greek territories, in contrast with Turkish occupied territories, owe their distinct development mostly to the special treatment of the central government. The protectorate relationship between Venice and the people of the Ionian Islands formed the proper conditions for the development of their culture. So, while Greece, after the fall of the Byzantine, enters a long period of decline under the Turkish domination, these areas become focal points for the maintenance and spreading of the Greek spirit and art, securing their later significant development.
Apart from being of architecturalinterest, however, Corfu also has a distinct development in urban planning. Dependingon its fortifications, the city of Corfu was forced to grow within the space defined by the designs of military engineers. So, the urban system was developed confined by land and sea, with boundaries set clear by its perimetric fortifications, acquiring all the urban planning characteristics of Western walled cities. Distinct urbancores which grew progressively either on a planned or a spontaneous structuring system, upon basic routes designed in relation to the gates, a maze of narrow streets in the centre of these cores, and a dense, multi-storied structure, completely harmonized with the ground morphology, comprise, amongst other things, a unique instance for the history of urban planning on an international level.
The later city of Corfu, which in no way is similar to the Old Town, was built on the borders of the old one, as settlements that developed into suburbs. Until the early 19th century, when the English took control of the island, these suburbs were somewhat independent of the City, due to the closed state of operation imposed by the Venetians. This situation changedgradually during the English occupation, when a large part of the island’s fortifications was brought down, resulting in the creation of gaps in the city to facilitate its expansion. Sincethen, and especially after the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece, which, for Corfu, meant the demolition of all remaining fortifications except the Old and the New Fortress, the city, unhindered by its old boundaries, was united with the surrounding suburbs during the 20th century. Thewars and the consequences of bombings that followed defined its development until 1960, when the first signs of planning for tourism appeared. During the following years, there were new expansions of the city, directly linked to the increased demographic and financial growth of the island. Tourism had anadverse effect in the urban planning and modern architecture of Corfu, but it did played a major part in the preservation of its traditional core, which is a major attraction for tourists.