Built atop a rocky promontory, overlooking the Northern entrance to the Corfu Channel and towering over the village’s main harbour, the castle of Kassiopi was a strategic engineering achievement not only of its times, but of the centuries that followed. Archeological bronze-coin findings date its initial construction back to the 6th century AD, although ceramic pot findings point to an even earlier date.
Built atop a rocky promontory, overlooking the Northern entrance to the Corfu Channel and towering over the village’s main harbour, the castle of Kassiopi was a strategic engineering achievement not only of its times, but of the centuries that followed. Archeological bronze-coin findings date its initial construction back to the 6th century AD, although ceramic pot findings point to an even earlier date.
This castle once formed a protective triangle of the island of Corfu alongside the Gardiki Castle in the South and Aggelokastro in the North West. Its location and the surviving byzantine square towers along with the highly fortified main gate, lay witness to its great strength, admired by European travellers throughout history. Though initially occupied by the foreign conquerers of the island, it was sadly abandoned by the Venetians (1386-1797), who actually proceeded to destroy it, following the locals resistance to their rule. It is believed that they used material from the Kassiopi castle to fortify the forts and walls of the town of Corfu, warding off the Turkish siege from the capital, while the coastline remained unprotected, resulting in major massacres and slave captivity of the locals.
Today, to visit the castle, you walk through a narrow cobble-stoned path found just opposite the main entrance of the Church of Kassiopi, winding up through the village houses that surround the castles walls. You arrive at a the front gate with a forewall, where an installation would have, once upon a time, allowed a large iron structure to secure the gate. The castle walls measure a total of 1,073 sq.km. dotted with 19 towers, both square and circular, reflecting the different architectural styles over time.
However, while the castle lay abandoned, fear-provoking legends of dragons and snakes and evil men, kept the villagers at bay, allowing plunderers to raid and profit from the castle grounds and treasures unhindered. Thus, disuse, decay of time, plunder and farming has left little standing of the castle’s past glory. It is nonetheless a beautiful walk through the olive-groves and the views of the Corfu Channel and the North-Eastern coastline of Kassiopi are magnificent.
