CORFU ITALIANA
Corfu city (called in greek "Kerkyra") is often remembered as 'the Italian city of Greece', and also nicknamed "Corfu Italiana". The reason is that the old city within the venetian walls, for historical reasons (http://wwwbisanzioit.blogspot.com/2012/08/corfu-introduzione.html), is similar to the cities in Istria and north-eastern Italy. Same streets, squares, building architecture: also the cuisine is similar to the one of Venice (with Italian names -like "Pastitsado", the most popular dish in the island of Corfu that comes from the Venetian dish 'Spezzatino', "Strapatasada", "Sofrito", "Savoro" , "Bianco" and "Mandolato"- translated to the local greek dialect that is full of Italian/venetian loanwords). Furthermore it is noteworthy to remember that until Napoleon times the language used in the city by nearly 2/3 of the inhabitants was the "Veneto da mar", an Italian dialect very similar to the one spoken today in Venice, and that the official language in the documents and legal activities was the Italian.
Diamante Pavello-Artale, wife of the famous Italian linguist Niccolo Tommaseo, was a Corfiot Italian from a noble venetian family resident in Corfu city since the "Cinquecento" (XVI century).
There was also a strong minority of nearly 5000 Jews in the city and surroundings, who used the "Italkian", a jewish language with plenty of words from Italian Apulia.
Indeed the old city built by the Venetians is the only one in Greece to be surrounded by two fortresses earning it the name Kastropolis, city of castles, evidence of its turbulent history and of many invaders not only because it was such a desirable place to live: being the first port of call between Rome and Greece, it was indispensible as a port for repairs and supplies, the Venetian shipyard in Gouvia standing as proof until today.
Walking through the narrow streets of the old city it is easy to forget you are in Greece and might be tempted to talk Italian to the locals, since very little has been changed since it was built in the 16th century. Additionally it is noteworthy to pinpoint that from 1386 to 1797 Corfu island was directly ruled by the Republic of Venice and that the Corfu city was inhabited by some members of the Italian nobility of Venice.
During the Byzantine and early venetian era the city gradually expanded and became powerful and fortified with fortresses and castles like the Angelo Castro, the Gardiki Castle and the Fortress of Saint Mark.
The city of Corfu from as early as the thirteenth century graduated expanded beyond the Old Fortress, thus creating the modern-day city, which was called the “Borgo” or “Xopoli” (“Outer City”), and which was unwalled and thus easy prey to continual Turkish incursions. In the late sixteenth century, the walling of the city outside the Old Fortress and the fortification of the hill of Saint Mark (the New Fortress), imposed by the danger of invasion, were completed according to the plans of important military engineers of the Most Serene Republic. The impressive form of the modern city, with its fortresses, city plan, and large central square (the Spianáda), are owed to these exemplary Venetian fortification works. The two major and most destructive Turkish sieges in 1537 and 1716 were held in check, since the unassailable Corfiot walls put an end to Turkish attempts to expand into the Ionian Sea. At the same time, and especially a er 1669 and the final fall of Crete to the Turks, the wave of refugees to the safe Ionian Islands, and naturally to Corfu, created a new dynamic in all areas of the economy, society, and culture. For four centuries, Venetian rule had a decisive influence on the character of Corfu
The French and then the British followed the Venetian domination. The entire town was reorganized, but most of what we see today dates back to that period 16th- 19th century).
Corfu (and its island) is the only part of Greece never conquered by the Turks: it was considered a bastion -with Malta- of Western Civilization against the Ottoman tide in the central Mediterranean sea(http://www.antivouniotissamuseum.gr/it/corfuxmcenni-storicixm).
The old city of Corfu was one of the most strongly fortified cities of Greece, which despite the persistence of the Ottomans to conquer it, they never succeed, in fact Corfu is the only part of christian Greece never to fall in the hands of the muslim Ottomans, to a large degree thanks to the brilliance of Venetian engineering. The island has seven powerful fortresses made by the Venetians!
As one would except, today the ancient streets of Corfu city cater mostly for the needs of tourists and with cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops aplenty, but despite this inevitable development, the greater part of the old city remains very authentic. Its all too easy to wonder away from the few busy streets and find yourself in another era, narrow streets between tall buildings with cloths hanging to dry between balconies, old people looking after their flowers, had it not been for the annoying presence of cars and scooters, it would be a scene out of a Hollywood film about Venice.
Despite its small size the city is packed with history, magnificent old buildings and of course churches, 37 to be exact.
Diamante Pavello-Artale, wife of the famous Italian linguist Niccolo Tommaseo, was a Corfiot Italian from a noble venetian family resident in Corfu city since the "Cinquecento" (XVI century).
There was also a strong minority of nearly 5000 Jews in the city and surroundings, who used the "Italkian", a jewish language with plenty of words from Italian Apulia.
Indeed the old city built by the Venetians is the only one in Greece to be surrounded by two fortresses earning it the name Kastropolis, city of castles, evidence of its turbulent history and of many invaders not only because it was such a desirable place to live: being the first port of call between Rome and Greece, it was indispensible as a port for repairs and supplies, the Venetian shipyard in Gouvia standing as proof until today.
Walking through the narrow streets of the old city it is easy to forget you are in Greece and might be tempted to talk Italian to the locals, since very little has been changed since it was built in the 16th century. Additionally it is noteworthy to pinpoint that from 1386 to 1797 Corfu island was directly ruled by the Republic of Venice and that the Corfu city was inhabited by some members of the Italian nobility of Venice.
During the Byzantine and early venetian era the city gradually expanded and became powerful and fortified with fortresses and castles like the Angelo Castro, the Gardiki Castle and the Fortress of Saint Mark.
The city of Corfu from as early as the thirteenth century graduated expanded beyond the Old Fortress, thus creating the modern-day city, which was called the “Borgo” or “Xopoli” (“Outer City”), and which was unwalled and thus easy prey to continual Turkish incursions. In the late sixteenth century, the walling of the city outside the Old Fortress and the fortification of the hill of Saint Mark (the New Fortress), imposed by the danger of invasion, were completed according to the plans of important military engineers of the Most Serene Republic. The impressive form of the modern city, with its fortresses, city plan, and large central square (the Spianáda), are owed to these exemplary Venetian fortification works. The two major and most destructive Turkish sieges in 1537 and 1716 were held in check, since the unassailable Corfiot walls put an end to Turkish attempts to expand into the Ionian Sea. At the same time, and especially a er 1669 and the final fall of Crete to the Turks, the wave of refugees to the safe Ionian Islands, and naturally to Corfu, created a new dynamic in all areas of the economy, society, and culture. For four centuries, Venetian rule had a decisive influence on the character of Corfu
The French and then the British followed the Venetian domination. The entire town was reorganized, but most of what we see today dates back to that period 16th- 19th century).
Corfu (and its island) is the only part of Greece never conquered by the Turks: it was considered a bastion -with Malta- of Western Civilization against the Ottoman tide in the central Mediterranean sea(http://www.antivouniotissamuseum.gr/it/corfuxmcenni-storicixm).
The old city of Corfu was one of the most strongly fortified cities of Greece, which despite the persistence of the Ottomans to conquer it, they never succeed, in fact Corfu is the only part of christian Greece never to fall in the hands of the muslim Ottomans, to a large degree thanks to the brilliance of Venetian engineering. The island has seven powerful fortresses made by the Venetians!
As one would except, today the ancient streets of Corfu city cater mostly for the needs of tourists and with cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops aplenty, but despite this inevitable development, the greater part of the old city remains very authentic. Its all too easy to wonder away from the few busy streets and find yourself in another era, narrow streets between tall buildings with cloths hanging to dry between balconies, old people looking after their flowers, had it not been for the annoying presence of cars and scooters, it would be a scene out of a Hollywood film about Venice.
Despite its small size the city is packed with history, magnificent old buildings and of course churches, 37 to be exact.
Corfu city had the first University and theater of Greece: indeed the first academy of Greece (Ionian Academy), was established in 1732 in Corfu, while the San Giacomo (town hall) was the first theater and opera of modern Greece.
Directly Italian words in the actual Greek dialect of Kerkyra include “fanestra” (from “finestra” meaning “window”) and splanada” (esplanade) while other terms may have been deformed by the differences between Veneto and Italian such as “chita” (quiet) from “zitto” and “iezamina” from “esaminante” (examiner). Another "italianised" place name is Koulines, an industrial suburb of Kerkyra, whose name is from “collina” (hill) in Italian.
Map of 1942 showing Corfu annexed to the Kingdom of Italy (in dark green color)
It is noteworthy to remember that Pugliese and Neapolitan fishermen (the latter engaged in the activity of coral extraction since the eighteenth century) were the backbone of the Italian community of Corfu, estimated at 1,300 by a census promoted in 1928 by the Greek authorities: they reached the quota of 1,500 people during the first years of the second world war.
In fact, the Italians of Corfu, even if reduced to a thousand in the late thirties of the XX century by the Greek authorities, were strongly supported by fascist propaganda and in the summer of 1941 (after the Italian occupation of the Ionian islands) Italian schools were reopened in the city of Corfu. In 1942 the Italians of Corfu became almost 2000. Indeed some years before & during the Second World War Mussolini promoted an initial development of Italian irredentism in Corfu, similar to the one promoted in Savoy.
Moreover in 1937 in Corfu there were 356 members of the Fascist Party and 306 young people enrolled in the "Italian Youth of the Foreign Littorio" (GILE). A rather high figure, including "a good half of the local Italian community" according to historian G. Esposito.
All the Italian community in Corfu suffered the consequences of the Italian defeat in September 1943.
Festa di San Spiridiano in "Citta di Corfu" in summer 1942, showing some of the 2000 Corfiot Italians of the island.
Corfiot Italians (or "Corfiote Italians") are a population from the Greek island of Corfu with ethnic and linguistic ties to the Venetian Empire. Their name was specifically established by Niccolò Tommaseo during the Italian Risorgimento. During the first half of the 20th century, Mussolini (whose fascist regime promoted the ideals of Italian irredentism) successfully used the surviving nearly one thousand Corfiot Italians as a pretext to both occupy and twice annex Corfu to Italy.
Directly Italian words in the actual Greek dialect of Kerkyra include “fanestra” (from “finestra” meaning “window”) and splanada” (esplanade) while other terms may have been deformed by the differences between Veneto and Italian such as “chita” (quiet) from “zitto” and “iezamina” from “esaminante” (examiner). Another "italianised" place name is Koulines, an industrial suburb of Kerkyra, whose name is from “collina” (hill) in Italian.
Map of 1942 showing Corfu annexed to the Kingdom of Italy (in dark green color)
It is noteworthy to remember that Pugliese and Neapolitan fishermen (the latter engaged in the activity of coral extraction since the eighteenth century) were the backbone of the Italian community of Corfu, estimated at 1,300 by a census promoted in 1928 by the Greek authorities: they reached the quota of 1,500 people during the first years of the second world war.
In fact, the Italians of Corfu, even if reduced to a thousand in the late thirties of the XX century by the Greek authorities, were strongly supported by fascist propaganda and in the summer of 1941 (after the Italian occupation of the Ionian islands) Italian schools were reopened in the city of Corfu. In 1942 the Italians of Corfu became almost 2000. Indeed some years before & during the Second World War Mussolini promoted an initial development of Italian irredentism in Corfu, similar to the one promoted in Savoy.
Moreover in 1937 in Corfu there were 356 members of the Fascist Party and 306 young people enrolled in the "Italian Youth of the Foreign Littorio" (GILE). A rather high figure, including "a good half of the local Italian community" according to historian G. Esposito.
All the Italian community in Corfu suffered the consequences of the Italian defeat in September 1943.
Finally it should be remembered that about 5000 Italian Jews called "Italkian" lived in Corfù (from the name of their partially Italianized Jewish dialect), which were almost completely exterminated by the Nazis after the surrender of Italy on September 8, 1943. In addition to these , around 3500 Maltese (Maltese-Italian and Catholic) were present in Corfu, who immigrated to Corfu from Malta over the centuries.
After the terrible years of 1943/1944, the first to be removed from Greece freed by the Nazis were the Italians of Corfu: arrested on October 14, 1944, they were immediately translated into city prisons while their property was confiscated and their houses looted.
Some of them, about 200 people, were repatriated to Italy on October 16th aboard the Italian Navy, while most remained a prisoner until November 7th 1944, when 661 Italians were embarked on a Red Cross ship flying the Norwegian flag (mostly elderly people, women and children), plus another 500 Italian soldiers who escaped from German roundups.
According to some estimates by the government of Rome, there were about 1000 citizens of the Italian colony evacuated from Corfu in 1944-1945, where only "some elders and individuals distinguished for merit in favor of Greece" remained.
The Corfiots of Catholic religion are currently about 5000 and some consider that this is the residual community of Italian Corfioti on the island.
After the terrible years of 1943/1944, the first to be removed from Greece freed by the Nazis were the Italians of Corfu: arrested on October 14, 1944, they were immediately translated into city prisons while their property was confiscated and their houses looted.
Some of them, about 200 people, were repatriated to Italy on October 16th aboard the Italian Navy, while most remained a prisoner until November 7th 1944, when 661 Italians were embarked on a Red Cross ship flying the Norwegian flag (mostly elderly people, women and children), plus another 500 Italian soldiers who escaped from German roundups.
According to some estimates by the government of Rome, there were about 1000 citizens of the Italian colony evacuated from Corfu in 1944-1945, where only "some elders and individuals distinguished for merit in favor of Greece" remained.
The Corfiots of Catholic religion are currently about 5000 and some consider that this is the residual community of Italian Corfioti on the island.
Festa di San Spiridiano in "Citta di Corfu" in summer 1942, showing some of the 2000 Corfiot Italians of the island.
Corfiot Italians (or "Corfiote Italians") are a population from the Greek island of Corfu with ethnic and linguistic ties to the Venetian Empire. Their name was specifically established by Niccolò Tommaseo during the Italian Risorgimento. During the first half of the 20th century, Mussolini (whose fascist regime promoted the ideals of Italian irredentism) successfully used the surviving nearly one thousand Corfiot Italians as a pretext to both occupy and twice annex Corfu to Italy.
Origins
The origins of the Corfiot Italians can be found in the expansion of the Italian States toward the Balkans during and after the Crusades. In the 12th century, the Kingdom of Naples sent some Italian families to Corfu to rule the island. From 1204 onward, the Republic of Venice sent many Italian families to Corfu. These families brought to the island the Italian language of the Middle Ages (1)
When Venice ruled Corfu and the Ionian islands during the Renaissance, all the nobility of the islands was Venetian and the dominant presence of this community lasted until the first half of the 19th century.
Under Venetian rule, most of the Corfiote upper classes spoke Italian (or Venetian in many cases) and converted to Roman Catholicism, but the mass of people in the island remained Greek ethnically, linguistically, and religiously before and after the Ottoman sieges of the 16th century.
Corfiot Italians were mainly concentrated in the city of Corfu, which was called "Cittá di Corfu" by the Venetians. More than half of the population of Corfu city in the 18th century was fully Venetian-speaking (2). Indeed the signatories of the creation in 1815 of the "United States of the Ionian Islands" (the first greek independent state of modern times) were nearly all Corfiot Italians:
B. Theotoki, president. - Cav. Calichiopulo. - Alessandro Marietti. - Niccolò Anino Anas°. - Vettor Caridi. - D. Foscardi. - D. Bulzo. - Felice Zambelly. - Basilio Zaro. - Valerio Stai. - Giovanni Morichi. - Stefano Palazzuol Scordilli. - Anastasio Battali. - Anastasio Cassimati. - Giacomo Calichiopulo Manzaro. - Spiridione Giallina Ym Anastasio. - An.° Tom.° Lefcochilo. - Cav. Niccolò Agorosto. - Marino Veia. - Niccolò D. Dallaporta. - Spiridione Metaxa Liseo. - Pietro Caidan. - Sebastiano D Schiadan. - Daniele Coidan. - Paolo Gentilini. - Spiridione Focca Gio. - Demetrio Arvanitachi. - Dionisio Genimata. - Giulio Domeneghini. - Francesco Mazzan. - Angelo Mercati. - Giovanni Melissimo. - Marino Stefano. - Angelo Condari. - Niccolò Cavada. - Pietro Petrizzopulo. - Gio. Psoma. - Niccolò Vretto. - Giorgio Massello. - Stefano Fanarioli. - Riccardo Plasket, secretary. - Dom. Valsamachi, secretary.
As can be seen, only the president & another two had Greek surnames, while all the others have Italian family names: this simple evidence shows the influence of the Corfiot Italians in the History of Greece! And we cannot forget that Ioannis Capodistrias (considered a founder of the modern Greek state and the architect of Greek independence) was born in Corfu city in a venetian family emigrated to Corfu in the XIII century from Istria's Capodistria: his family's name in Capodistria had been Vitori or Vittori (14).
B. Theotoki, president. - Cav. Calichiopulo. - Alessandro Marietti. - Niccolò Anino Anas°. - Vettor Caridi. - D. Foscardi. - D. Bulzo. - Felice Zambelly. - Basilio Zaro. - Valerio Stai. - Giovanni Morichi. - Stefano Palazzuol Scordilli. - Anastasio Battali. - Anastasio Cassimati. - Giacomo Calichiopulo Manzaro. - Spiridione Giallina Ym Anastasio. - An.° Tom.° Lefcochilo. - Cav. Niccolò Agorosto. - Marino Veia. - Niccolò D. Dallaporta. - Spiridione Metaxa Liseo. - Pietro Caidan. - Sebastiano D Schiadan. - Daniele Coidan. - Paolo Gentilini. - Spiridione Focca Gio. - Demetrio Arvanitachi. - Dionisio Genimata. - Giulio Domeneghini. - Francesco Mazzan. - Angelo Mercati. - Giovanni Melissimo. - Marino Stefano. - Angelo Condari. - Niccolò Cavada. - Pietro Petrizzopulo. - Gio. Psoma. - Niccolò Vretto. - Giorgio Massello. - Stefano Fanarioli. - Riccardo Plasket, secretary. - Dom. Valsamachi, secretary.
As can be seen, only the president & another two had Greek surnames, while all the others have Italian family names: this simple evidence shows the influence of the Corfiot Italians in the History of Greece! And we cannot forget that Ioannis Capodistrias (considered a founder of the modern Greek state and the architect of Greek independence) was born in Corfu city in a venetian family emigrated to Corfu in the XIII century from Istria's Capodistria: his family's name in Capodistria had been Vitori or Vittori (14).
The re-emergence of Greek nationalism, after Napoleonic times, contributed to the disappearance of the Corfiot Italians. Corfu was ultimately incorporated into Greece in 1864. The Greek government abolished all Italian schools in the Ionian islands in 1870, and as a consequence (when the Kingdom of Italy occupied the island from 1941 to 1943) there were only seven hundred "Corfiote Italians" left (3). All of them were forced to move away by the Greek authorities after WW2.
Venetian heritage
The Republic of Venice dominated Corfu for nearly five centuries and many Venetians moved to the island. By the end of the 15th century, the Italian language and culture (including in some ways the Roman Catholic church) came to predominate.
Kerkyra (the Greek name of Corfu) remained in Venetian hands until 1797, though several times assailed by Turkish naval and land forces and subjected to four notable sieges in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716, in which the great natural strength of the city and its defenders asserted itself time after time. The effectiveness of the powerful Venetian fortifications of the island was a great factor that enabled Corfu to remain the last bastion of free, uninterrupted Greek and Christian civilization in the southern Balkans after the fall of Constantinople.
Will Durant, a French historian, claims that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was the only part of Greece never conquered by the moslem Turks (4). The Turks occupied the other Ionian islands, but were unsuccessful with their four sieges of Corfu. This fact gave Corfu and Malta the title of Bastions of Christian Europe during the late Renaissance.
Corfu Town looks very different from most Greek towns because of Corfu's unique history. From 1386 to 1797, Corfu was ruled by Venetian nobility and much of the town itself reflects this particular era when the island belonged to the Republic of Venice and multi-storied buildings on narrow lanes were established.
Many Venetian-speaking families settled in Corfu during those centuries and until the second half of the 20th century the Veneto da mar was spoken in Corfu. During this time, the local Greek language assimilated a large number of Italian and Venetian words, many of which are still common today.
The Venetian feudal families pursued a mild but somewhat assimilating policy towards the natives, who began to adopt many segments of Venetian customs and culture. The Corfiotes were encouraged to enrich themselves by the cultivation of the olive, but were debarred from entering into commercial competition with Venice.
Before the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, most of the population in Corfu spoke the Veneto da mar. However, a huge influx of Christian refugees from Greece and Albania along with the mortality of the Black Death and the Turkish deportations of the original Corfiotes from Corfu (when unsuccessfully attempted to re-conquer the island three times), changed the ethnic, linguistic, and religious composition of the island's population. From predominantly Venetian Catholic before the 14th century the island of Corfu became Greek Orthodox by the 17th century, with the exception of Corfu city that maintained a majority of venetian speaking population (with the Italkian of the Jewish community). This was a process, provoked mainly by the Ottoman invasions, similar to what happened in the Venetian Dalmatia (where only the cities like Zara, Spalato and Cattaro maintained a majority of Venetian-speaking people) (5).
The island served even as a refuge for Greek scholars, and in 1732 became the home of the first Academy of modern Greece. Many Italian Jews took refuge in Corfu during the venetian centuries and spoke their own language (Italkian), a mixture of Hebrew and Venetian with some Greek words.
The Venetian influence was important in the development of the Opera in Corfu. During Venetian rule, the Corfiotes developed a fervent appreciation of Italian opera, and many local composers, such as the Corfiot Italians Antonio Liberali and Domenico Padovani developed their career with the theatre of Corfu, called Teatro di San Giacomo.
The internationally renowned photographer Felice Beato was born in Corfu of a Venetian family in the 19th century. The architecture of Corfu remains much more Italian than anywhere else in Greece.
Venetians promoted the Catholic Church during their four centuries of rule in Corfu. Today, the majority of Corfiots are Greek Orthodox Christians(following the official religion of Greece). However, there is still a percentage of Catholics (5%) who owe their faith to their Venetian origins. These contemporary Catholics are mostly families who came from Malta, but also from Italy during the Republic of Venice. Today, the Catholic community consists of about 4000 people, (2/3 of Maltese descent) who live almost exclusively in the Venetian "Citadel" of Corfu City, living harmoniously with the Orthodox community.
Venetian rule significantly influenced many aspects of the island's culture. Corfu's cuisine, for instance, maintains some Venetian delicacies, cooked with local spicy recipes. Dishes include "Pastitsado" (the most popular dish in the island of Corfu, that comes from the Venetian dish Spezzatino), "Strapatasada", "Sofrito", "Savoro" , "Bianco" and "Mandolato". Some traditions in Corfu were introduced by the Venetians such as the Carnival (Ta Karnavalia).
Italian influence is evident even in Corfu's spacious squares such as the popular "Spinada" and its narrow cobblestone alleys known as "Kantounia". The Italian Renaissance is best represented on Corfu by the surviving structures of the old Fortezza Vecchia on the eastern side of the town by the Veronese military engineer Michele Sanmicheli and the Venetian Ferrante Vitelli, who designed the later fortress on the west, the Fortezza Nuova.
During the Venetian period, the town of Corfu began to grow on a low hillock situated between the two forts. In many respects, Corfu typifies the small Venetian town, or borgo, of which there are numerous other surviving examples in the former Venetian territories of the Adriatic Sea, such as Ragusa and Spalato in Dalmatia. As in Venice itself, the "campi" developed haphazardly in the urban fabric where it was natural for residents to congregate, especially around churches, civic buildings, fountains, and cisterns. The best example of such a space is Plateia Dimarcheiou, or Town Hall Square, overlooked on its north side by the 17th century Loggia dei Nobili (which today serves as the seat of local government) and on the east side by the late sixteenth century Catholic Church of St. Iakovos, or St. James.
Teatro di San Giacomo
During Venetian rule, the Corfiotes developed a fervent appreciation of Italian opera, which was the real source of the extraordinary (given conditions in the mainland of Greece) musical development of the island during that era. The opera house of Corfu during 18th and 19th centuries was that of the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo, named after the neighbouring catholic cathedral, but the theatre was later converted into the Town Hall. A long series of local composers, such as the Corfiot Italians Antonio Liberali and Domenico Padovani contributed to the fame of the Teatro di San Giacomo.
The first opera to be performed in the San Giacomo Theatre had been as far back as 1733 ("Gerone, tiranno di Siracusa"), and for almost two hundred years between 1771 until 1943 nearly every major operatic composition from the Italian tradition, as well as many others of Greek and French composers, were performed at the stage of the San Giacomo theatre. This impressive tradition, invoking an exceptional musical past, continues to be reflected in the mythology supporting the opera theatre of Corfu, a fixture in famous opera singers' itineraries. Operatic performers who found success at the theatre were distinguishd with the accolade applaudito in Corfu ("applauded in Corfu") as a tribute to the discriminating musical sensibility of the island audience.
Corfiot Italians and the Risorgimento
The Italian Risorgimento was initially concentrated in the Italian peninsula with the surrounding continental areas (Istria, Dalmatia, Trentino, Nizzardo, etc.) and did not reach Corfu and the Ionian islands. One of the main heroes of the Italian Risorgimento, the poet Ugo Foscolo, was born in Zante from a noble Venetian family of the island, but only superficially promoted the possible unification of the Ionian islands to Italy.
The first newspaper of Corfu was in Italian: the official weekly newspaper (Gazzetta degli Stati Uniti delle Isole Jone) was first published in 1814. First in Italian, then in both Greek and Italian, finally from 1850 in Greek and English; and it continued for the entire duration of the English Protectorate until 1864.
According to historian Ezio Gray, the small communities of Venetian-speaking people in Corfu were mostly assimilated after the island became part of Greece in 1864 and especially after all Italian schools were closed in 1870 (6).
However, the Italian language maintained some importance, as can be seen by the fact that poets like Stefano Martzokis (Marzocchi was the surname of the father, an Italian from Emilia-Romagna) and Geranimos Markonos, the first from Corfù and the second from Cefalonia, wrote in Italian some of their poems in the second half of the 19th century.
The island of Corfu was a refuge for many Italians in exile during the Wars of Independence of Italy, like Niccolò Tommaseo (who married Diamante Pavello-Artale, a Corfiot Italian) (7).
After WWI, however, the Kingdom of Italy started to apply a policy of expansionism toward the Adriatic area and saw Corfu as the gate of this sea. Mussolini developed an extreme nationalistic position in accordance to the ideals of Italian irredentism and actively promoted the unification of Corfu to Italy.
The Corfiote Italians, even if reduced to a few hundreds in the 1930s, were strongly supported by fascist propaganda and in the summer of 1941 (after the Italian occupation of the Ionian islands) Italian schools were reopened in Corfu city (8).
Italian occupation of Corfu
Italy occupied Corfu two times: the first for a few months only in 1923 by Mussolini, after the assassination of Italian officers; the second during WWII, from April 1941 to September 1943.
- The Corfu incident was used by Italy to occupy temporarily Corfu from august to September 1923.
- During the Greco-Italian War Corfu was occupied by the Italians in April 1941. They administered Corfu and the Ionian islands as a separate entity from Greece until September 1943, following Mussolini's orders of fulfilling the Italian Irredentism and make Corfu part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Detailed chronology of the occupations
Corfu Incident of 1923
At the end of December 1915, Italy sent a military force to Corfu under the command of General Marro. They established Post Offices with the French occupation troops there. In 1915-1919, the Italian and French forces (as well as Serbian forces) remained on the island of Corfu. The Italians did not have any intention to pull out, but the British and the French government forced them to displace.
In 1923, the Italians tried to occupy Corfu again. The morning of the August 27, 1923, unknown people (probably Greeks) murdered General Enrico Tellini and three officers of the Italian engrave deputation on the Greek–Albanian border.
Italy made an announcement asking within 24 hours the following demands: the apology of the Greek people; the commemoration of the dead in the Catholic Church of Athens, with all the members of the Greek government to participate; the honor of the Italian flag in the Italian naval squadron, which would have shipping in Faliro; the investigation of the Greek authorities adjoined by the Italian military attendant carnal Perone di San Martino, which should end within 5 days; the death penalty of the guilty people; the Greek government should pay the amount of 50 million Italian pounds in 5 days, as a penalty; the dead should be honored with military honors in Preveza.
The Greek government responded accepting only the following demands: the Greeks accepted to present the apologies; the commemoration; the honor of the Italian flag at the Embassy; the honor of the dead in Preveza.
Consequently, the Italian Army suddenly attacked Corfu on August 31, 1923. Commander Antony Foschini asked from the prefect of Corfu to surrender the island. The prefect refused and he informed the government. Foschini warned him that the Italian forces would attack at 17:00 and the Corfiots refused to raise the white flag in the fortress. Seven thousand refugees, 300 orphans plus the military hospital were lodged in the Old Fortress, as well as the School of Police in the New Fortress. At 17:05 the Italians bombarded Corfu for 20 minutes. There were victims among the refugees of the old Fortress and the Prefect ordered the raising of the white flag. The Italians besieged the island and set the forces ashore. From the beginning of their possession, they started to inflict hard penalties on the people who had guns, and the officers declared that their possession was permanent. There were daily requisitions of houses and they censored the newspapers. Greece asked for the interference of the Society of the Nations, in which Greece and Italy were members, and demanded the solution of the problem through arbitration. The Italian government of Mussolini refused, declaring that Corfu will be possessed until the acceptance of the Italian terms. On September 7, 1923, the ambassador’s conference in Paris ended with the evacuation of the Italian forces from Corfu, which finally occurred on September 20, 1923 and ended on the 27th of the same month.
World War II
During the Second World War Mussolini wanted to possess the Ionian Islands, which he succeeded with the help of the Germans during the Greco-Italian War. The Italians occupied Corfu from March 28, 1941. They implemented a process of italianization, with creation of Italian schools, centered around the small surviving community of the Corfiote Italians, who still spoke the Venetian dialect (9).
The first reaction to the Italian occupation happened on the first Sunday of November 1941. During the procession of the Saint Spyridon, the fascist young Corfiot Italians participated and provoked the students of the Greek high schools. When the procession arrived in the Upper Square, the students started to leave whilst singing the national Greek songs. The “Carbinaria” and the “Finetsia” fascist groups attacked and arrested many Greek students, beating them and exiling some of them to the island of Othonous. After that episode there was a relative calm in Corfu until the surrender of Italy in September 9, 1943.
From the 10th to the 14th of September, the Germans tried to force to surrender the Italian garrison in Corfu, while the political prisoners were set free from the small island of Lazaretto. The morning of 13th of September, Corfiots woke up to the disasters of the war. The German air raids continued the whole day bombarding the port, the Fortresses and strategic points. During the night of 14th of September, huge damages happened in the Jewish parts of Saint Fathers and Saint Athanasios, the Court House, the Ionian Parliament, the Ionian Academy, in which the Library was lodged, the Schools of Middle Education, the Hotel "Bella Venezia", the Custom Office, the Manor-Houses and the Theatre. Finally the next week the Germans occupied the island with huge losses between the Italians, forcing successively the nearly 5000 Jews (speakers of the Italkian) of the island to concentration camps in Germany.
The small Corfiot Italian community numbered nearly 700 people, living mainly in Corfu city, when Mussolini occupied the island in 1941-1943 (10). Actually there are no more Corfiot Italians in the island since the last peasant speaking the Venetian language died in the 1980s.
The long Venetian domination had a very strong influence on local Greek language which absorbed a wide range of Italian words. One third of the words in the local Greek dialect of Corfú city are loanworded from the Italian language.
There are only a few Jews in Corfu city who speak today the Italkian, a Jewish language mixed with many Venetian words.
References
- Tagliavini, Carlo. Le origini delle lingue neolatine, p. 149.
- Gray, Ezio. Le terre nostre ritornano...Malta, Corsica, Nizza, p. 92.
- Vignoli Giulio. Gli Italiani Dimenticati. Minoranze Italiane In Europa, p. 132.
- Durant. The Renaissance, p. 684.
- Randi, O. Dalmazia etnica, incontri e fusioni, p. 49.
- Gray, Ezio. Le terre nostre ritornano...Malta, Corsica, Nizza, p. 118.
- Seton-Watson. Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 1870-1925, p. 236.
- Vignoli Giulio Gli Italiani Dimenticati. Minoranze Italiane In Europa, p. 143.
- Gray, Ezio. Le terre nostre ritornano... Malta, Corsica, Nizza, p. 162.
- Gray, Ezio. Le terre nostre ritornano...Malta, Corsica, Nizza, p. 47.
- Fortis, Umberto and Zolli, Paolo. La parlata giudeo-veneziana, p. 73.
- Malta Migration (http://www.maltamigration.com/history/exodus/chapter3-2.shtml)
- Price, Charles. Malta and the Maltese: a study in nineteenth century migration, p. 128.
- EFTHYMIOS TSILIOPOULOS: Kapodistrias was born on Kerkyra (Corfu) in 1776, the second child of Count Antonios Maria Kapodistrias. His mother, Adamantia Genome, hailed from Epirus and probably was a "Vlach". Originally, the Kapodistrias family was from the Adriatic city of Capo d'Istria (called in Italian 'Capodistria', a port of what was in those centuries a small island near Trieste), and its original name was Vitori. Centuries before the birth of Ioannis the family had moved to Kerkyra, where it embraced Orthodoxy and changed its name to that of its town of origin: 'Capodistria' (later changed in Greek language to 'Kapodistrias').
