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Kardaki Temple

1822 archaeological discoveries5th-century BC establishments in Greece5th-century BC religious buildings and structuresAncient CorcyraBuildings and structures in Corfu (city)
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Kardaki Temple south side
Kardaki Temple south side

Kardaki Temple is an Archaic Doric temple in Corfu, Greece, built around 500 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra (or Corcyra), in what is known today as the location Kardaki in the hill of Analipsi in Corfu. The temple features several architectural peculiarities that point to a Doric origin. The temple at Kardaki is unusual because it has no frieze, following perhaps architectural tendencies of Sicilian temples. It is considered to be the only Greek temple of Doric architecture that does not have a frieze. The spacing of the temple columns has been described as "abnormally wide". The temple also lacked both porch and adyton, and the lack of a triglyph and metope frieze may be indicative of Ionian influence. The temple at Kardaki is considered an important and to a certain degree mysterious topic on the subject of early ancient Greek architecture. Its association with the worship of Apollo or Poseidon has not been established.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Kardaki Temple (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Kardaki Temple
Mon Repos Park, Corfu

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N 39.601388888889 ° E 19.926111111111 °
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Δωρικός ναός Καρδακίου (Τέμενος Ἀπόλλωνος / Ποσειδῶνος)

Mon Repos Park
491 00 Corfu
Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian, Greece
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Kardaki Temple south side
Kardaki Temple south side
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Korkyra (polis)
Korkyra (polis)

Korkyra (also Corcyra; Greek: Κόρκυρα, Kórkyra) was an ancient Greek city on the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea that is adjacent to Epirus. It was a colony of Corinth that was founded in the Archaic period. Korkyra was acting as a port of call on the sailing routes, especially to reach the Italian coast or ventured farther north. According to Thucydides, the earliest recorded naval battle took place between Korkyra and Corinth, roughly 260 years before he was writing, and thus in the mid-7th century BC. He also writes that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers in 5th-century BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth.The antagonism between Korkyra and its mother city, Corinth, appears to have been an old one. Quite apart from the naval battle that Thucydides mentions, Herodotus records a myth involving the tyrant of Corinth, Periander. Periander was estranged from his younger son, Lycophron, who believed that his father had killed his mother, Milissa. After failing to reconcile with Lycophron, he sent him to Korkyra, which was within Corinth's governance. In his old age, Periander sent for his son to come and rule over Corinthn and suggested that they would trade places and he would rule Korkyra while his son came to rule Corinth. To prevent that, the Korkyraeans killed Lycophron. In punishment, Periander captured 300 young men of Korkyra with the intention of castrating them. That is more likely to be a myth explaining the animosity between Corinth and Korkyra and justifying the use of the word tyrant for Periander's rule than an actual historical event.

Temple of Artemis, Corfu
Temple of Artemis, Corfu

The Temple of Artemis is an Archaic Greek temple in Corfu, Greece, built in around 580 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra (or Corcyra), now called Corfu. It is found on the property of the Saint Theodore monastery, which is located in the suburb of Garitsa. The temple was dedicated to Artemis. It is known as the first Doric temple exclusively built with stone. It is also considered the first building to have incorporated all of the elements of the Doric architectural style. Very few Greek temple reliefs from the Archaic period have survived, and the large fragments of the group from the pediment are the earliest significant survivals. It was excavated from 1911 onwards. The temple was a peripteral–styled building with a pseudodipteral configuration. Its perimeter was rectangular, with width of 23.46 m (77.0 ft) and length 49 m (161 ft) with an eastward orientation so that light could enter the interior of the temple at sunrise. It was one of the largest temples of its time. The Temple of Artemis is approximately 700 m. to the northwest of the Temple of Hera in the Palaiopolis of Corfu.The metope of the temple was probably decorated, since remnants of reliefs featuring Achilles and Memnon were found in the ancient ruins. The temple has been described as a milestone of Ancient Greek architecture and one of 150 masterpieces of Western architecture. The architecture of the Corfu temple may have influenced the design of an archaic sanctuary found at Sant'Omobono in Rome which dates to the archaic period and incorporates similar design elements. The massive altar of the sanctuary is precisely rectangular and stood in front of the temple. It was 2.7 m. wide and 25 m. long. Only 8 m. of its northern section survive. The Saint Theodore monastery was built on top of the southern portion of the altar.

Ionian Academy
Ionian Academy

The Ionian Academy (Greek: Ιόνιος Ακαδημία) was the first Greek academic institution established in modern times. It was located in Corfu. It was established by the French during their administration of the island as the département of Corcyre, and became a university during the British administration, through the actions of Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford in 1824. It is also considered the precursor of the Ionian University. It had Philological, Law, and Medical Schools. The first period of existence of its Medical School was from 1824 to 1828. The second from 1844 to 1865 (when the Ionian islands united with Greece). Many of the physicians at the academy had followed the traditional path of studying in Italy, and in particular at the medical School of Bologna. Their scientific and educational activities in establishing the high level of the Medical School influenced the Greek medical science as a whole. In particular, George Therianos (Prof of General and Comparative Anatomy and Experimental Physics) from the island of Zante (Zakynthos) met the Earl of Guilford in 1825 in England and was given the position of professor of the academy's Medical School. Giovanni Carandino (Ioannis Karantinos), who had already learnt mathematics with Charles Dupin at the original Ionian Academy established by the French during their occupation of the Septinsular Republic (1807–1824), was sent by Lord Guilford to study at the École Polytechnique in Paris, France, in Italy and in England between 1820 and 1823, and became the director of the school of Mathematics at the academy.The academy gave Public courses in Sciences, Ethics and humanities, it offered subjects like, Physiology, Botany, political economy and Penal and Civil law.George Bowen was president of the Academy 1847-1851 and later first governor of Queensland.After the union of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece in 1864, the Ionian Academy was closed to support the newly established University of Athens. Parts of the staff moved to Athens and also the library was brought there.

Maitland Monument
Maitland Monument

The Maitland Monument, also known as the Maitland Rotunda or the Peristyle of Maitland (Greek: Περιστύλιο του Μαίτλαντ), is a neoclassical monument located at the end of Spianada Square in Corfu. It was built in 1821 to honour Sir Thomas Maitland, a British military officer who was the last Civil Commissioner and first Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Maitland arrived in Corfu on 16 February 1816, and eight months later, on 25 October 1816, forty-six noble Corfiots made a proposal for the construction of a triumphal arch in his honour. The monument was eventually constructed in 1821 in a completely different form of a rotunda with twenty Ionic columns. It was designed by Colonel George Whitmore of the Royal Engineers.Like the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, the structure was built out of limestone imported from Malta, which was a British colony at the time. Maitland had simultaneously held the positions of Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands and Governor of Malta. The sculptural work was done by the local sculptor Pavlos Prosalentis. The monument is also known as the Cistern (Greek: Στέρνα), since it is built on top of a Venetian-era underground water cistern which had been built in 1781. The two entrances of the monument allowed access to the water tank.The top of the monument contains the following circular inscription: ΕΙΣ ΜΝΕΙΑΝ ΑΙΣΙΟΥ ΗΜΕΡΑΣ ΕΠΑΝΟΔΟΥ ΕΚ ΜΕΓΑΛΗΣ ΒΡΕΤΑΝΝΙΑΣ ΘΩΜΑ ΜΑΙΤΛΑΝΔΟΥ ΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΝΤΗΡΩΣ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟΥ ΚΑΤΑΣΤΗΜΑΤΟΣ ΝΗΣΩΝ ΙΟΝΙΚΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΑΙ ΚΕΡΚΥΡΑΙΟΙ ΑΝΕΣΤΗΣΑΝ ΕΤΕΙ ΣΩΤ ΑΩΙΣΤ The Maitland Monument is visible in the 1981 Bond film For Your Eyes Only.The monument was damaged due to erosion over the years, and it was restored in 2004.