Corfu Town II

Museum of Asiatic Art
The collection in this museum was a gift from the Greek diplomat, Gregorios Manos, along with other donors, and numbers an astounding 10,000 items which date back as far as 1000 BC. Ceramics, weapons, theater masks, woodcuts, art works from the Far East, are among the items. Housed in the old Georgian palace, the museum is open Tues-Sun 8:30 am-3 pm, free.

Modern Art Museum and Café The museum is behind the palace; art exhibitions are held here. Open daily 9 am to 9 pm, 1.50 euros admisson. Gardens and the café are nearby.

Mitropolis (Orthodox Cathedral) Built in honor of the Byzantine empress, Aghios Theorora (St. Theodora) August in 1577, this church houses her relics in a silver casket in a chapel near the altar.

Aghios Spyridon This church was built in 1596 to house the bones of the island’s patron St. Spiridon, who was the Bishop of Cyprus in the 4th century. When the Ottomans took Constantinople (1453), the bones were hidden in a sack of straw and sent to Corfu, and a carried through the city on feast days honoring him. It is said that he saved the island from an epidemic of cholera, and also from the Turks.

Solomos Museum Built to honor the famed 19th century Greek poet, author of the Greek national anthem. Open Mon-Fri, 5-8 pm, admission .60 euros.

Byzantine Museum Housed in a restored 15th century chuch, this museum is found near the Orthodox Cathedral. Architecturally it is typical of the churches of the Ionian islands, with an indoor portico encircling three sides, a wooden roof, mosaic floors. There are sculptures, frescoes, icons spanning the 15th-19th centuries, and pre-Christian artifacts. Open Tues-Sun, 9am to 3 pm, 1.50 euros admission.