ASIANOVERLAND.NET WINTER EUROPEAN DAY 22/195: CORFU TO ANGELOKASTRO, GREECE

DAY 22, 2/1/81, Angelokastro, Corfu, Greece

The Ottoman Empire reached the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast, only 3 km from Corfu, in 1385. The Ottomans erected garrisons across Southern Albania by 1415, and occupied most of Albania by 1431, remaining in Albania for over five centuries, until 1912. However, it seems that the 3km of water crossing from the Albanian coast to the island of Corfu, was a bit too far.

The Ottomans tried to take the island of Corfu in 1431, when Ottoman troops first landed on the island and tried to take the city castle, but were repulsed.

More than 100 years later, the Siege of Corfu (1537) was one of the great sieges by the Ottomans. It began on 29 August 1537, with 25,000 soldiers from the Ottoman fleet landing and pillaging Corfu and taking 20,000 hostages as slaves. Despite the destruction, the Corfu city castle held out in spite of repeated attempts over twelve days to take it, and the Turks left Corfu because of an epidemic that decimated their ranks.

Thirty-four years later, in August 1571, the Ottomans returned for another attempt to conquer Corfu, landing on Corfu's southeast shore and establishing a large beachhead. Nevertheless, the city castle stood firm again. Another castle, Angelokastro, situated on the northwest coast near Palaiokastritsa and located on particularly steep and rocky terrain, also held out.

These defeats in the east and the west of Corfu proved decisive, and the Ottomans abandoned their siege and departed. Two years later they repeated their attempt. Coming from Africa after a victorious campaign, they landed in Corfu and wreaked havoc on rural areas, but were forced to leave Corfu again, sailing away.

The second great siege of Corfu took place in 1716, during the last Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–18). After the conquest of the Peloponnese (where we travel tomorrow) in 1715, the Ottoman fleet were opposite Corfu. On 8 July the Ottoman fleet, carrying 33,000 men, sailed to Corfu and established another beachhead. The same day, the Venetian fleet encountered the Ottoman fleet off the Corfu Channel and defeated it in the ensuing naval battle. On 19 July, after taking a few outlying forts, the Ottoman army reached the hills around the city of Corfu and laid siege to it. Despite repeated assaults and heavy fighting, the Ottomans were unable to breach the defences, and were forced to raise the siege after 22 days. The Venetians and Corfiotes were victorious once more. The success was owed in no small part to the extensive fortifications, where Venetian castle engineering had proven itself once again against massive odds. The repulse of the Ottomans was widely celebrated in Europe. Corfu was seen as a bastion of Western civilization against the Ottoman tide.

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