Ithaca has an impressively long history and may once have been the capital of the Cephalonian Empire.  The oldest traces of this empire date back to around 1600 BC but there are signs of habitation and civilisation on Ithaca which predate that period.

Ithaca has lived through some of the same changes of ownership as its neighbours but there are a few differences.  Following the collapse of the Cephalonian Empire the Romans elbowed their way in sometime in the 2nd century BC.  When the Roman Empire split into two, the Eastern Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire and assumed control of Ithaca.

During the European Middle Ages the Normans took ownership of the island, followed by the Turks.  The Turks couldn’t hang on to their property for very long and the expansive Venetian Empire gained control of the territory around the same time as it acquired the other Ionian Islands.  For more information about the Venetian occupation and how they were asked by Ionian residents to assume control click here.

The Treaty of Campo Formio in 1979 handed control of the island to the French for one year until the Russians and Turks absorbed it in 1798.  The French briefly took control again in 1807 before the British gained it in 1809.  It remained as a protectorate of the British Empire until 1864 when it rejoined the growing Greek nation.

Looking towards Northern Ithaca

As with many of the regions other islands, Ithaca’s most important source of revenue is tourism.  It has a range of attractive beaches situated mainly on the north-west coast and on the northern side of the inlet which splits Ithaca about half way down on the east side.

What makes Ithaca slightly more attractive than more popular destinations is the relative awkwardness of getting there.  Basically there is no airport so you’ll have to fly to neighbouring Cephalonia and get a ferry onwards.  This can be a deterrent for those who regard it as an inconvenience but if you make the effort, you won’t regret it.

Much has been made of Lefkas’ association with Greek gods and Homer’s Odyssey.  While the stories relating to Aphrodite should be taken with a mythical pinch of salt, there seems to be some substance behind the claim that Homer based his fictional setting of Ithaca on Lefkas.  Excavations have backed this up somewhat and not surprisingly the Lefkas tourist board promotes this line of thinking.  Those who follow this logic point to the sections of Homer’s Odyssey in which the island is close enough to the mainland to be walkable, which Lefkas of course is.

Lefkas

Lefkas has been through the same range of owners and suffered the same invasions and occupations as it’s neighbours and in 1864 it too was ceded to the Greek nation by the British.  Lefkada City is the biggest settlement on Lefkas and sited in the north east where the causeway from the mainland joins the island.  The area which Lefkada City administers covers not only the entire island but also the two very small outlying islands of Kastos and Kalamos.

Unlike the tiny island of Paxos, Lefkada is relatively well developed as a tourist destination although this has been given a huge boost by the building of an airport on the island.  If you travel south from Lefkada City on the east coast, it’s easy to see the tourist infrastructure that has sprung up here but if you persist down to the south coast, the more inaccessible nature of the countryside means that the beaches and coves are more well hidden and there’s plenty to explore for the more adventurous.

Paxos is a long, thin island; in this case ‘long’ means about eight miles and when we talk about the history of the island, it largely mirrors the history of it’s bigger neighbours which you can read here.  We can speculate that it had permanent inhabitants thousands of years ago but the Phoenicians are certainly known to have lived here around two thousand years ago.  This was followed by Roman domination of the region and when the empire collapsed, Paxos was left largely unprotected.  It was not adequately protected like it’s more important neighbours and became a target and residence for pirates until the Venetians were asked to take control of the region in the 14th century.

As with Corfu, ownership of Paxos was transferred a bewildering number of times in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and ultimately ended up in the hands of British in 1814.  When the entire island group was ceded to the Greek state in 1864, Paxos went with them.

Paxos

Unsurprisingly, given the picturesque nature of this tiny island, tourism is the main driver of the economy.  Before the mid-sixties, more traditional industry such as olive oil and fishing existed (and still do now in minor ways).  The permanent population of the island is somewhere between two and three thousand, most of which live in the largest town of Paxoi.  Paxio is also the main town among the other islands of Paxi.

Greece’s current financial problems notwithstanding, Paxos is an extremely expensive piece of European real estate.  Construction is well-regulated and the island has become a first or second home to many wealthy Europeans.

Corfu vineyard

The Treaty of  Campo Formio, following Napoleon’s Italian campaigns, gave ownership of Corfu to the French briefly before the Russians laid siege to the island and gained it in 1799.  The Treaty of Tilsit returned it to the French in 1807 but by this time the British had taken an interest.  By 1809 they controlled all the other Ionian islands but could not capture Corfu until 1815 when it was passed to them by the Treaty of Paris.

As the United States of the Ionian Islands, the British ruled the group until 1864, unpopular with the locals but presiding over an improvement in the standard of living.  The Treaty of London in 1864 returned all the Ionians to Greece.

Monument to Corfu Jews

Corfu was not invaded again until 1923 when, during a diplomatic spat with Greece, Italy bombed and then invaded and occupied the island.  The recently set-up League of Nations arbitrated and Greece regained its property.  Italy invaded again in 1941 during the Second World War and this time kept hold of them until 1943 when the Italian fascists fell.  They were replaced by the Germans who destroyed a significant portion of the infrastructure by bombing runs before occupying the island.  It was at this point that a significant resistance movement developed on the island (and the Greek mainland) which attempted to protect and shelter some of the Jews which had escaped the Nazi’s attention.

Towards the end of the war, in October 1944, the British liberated Corfu from the Germans and spent almost two years sweeping the Corfu channel for mines before declaring it safe.  Post-war, Corfu’s economy has grown in tune with the rest of Europe; much of its income now derives from tourism, viniculture and olive farming.

Corfu Map

Some scholars have argued that Corfu is the island of Scheria which Homer mentioned in his Odyssey.  If you’d like to follow that train of though, this means the first mention of the island occurs in about 1200BC.  More concrete evidence suggests that Corinthian settlers were here from about 730BC.  The Corinthians who settled here were independent and this resulted in the occasional squabble with the home city of Corinth.

Alliances with mainland cities such as Athens came and went, as did quarrels with Spartans, Periander of Corinth and the Illyrians and by 229BC it was under Roman control and by 148BC it was part of Macedonia under Roman control.  When the Roman Empire began to break up in the third century AD, Corfu was aligned with the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire).

The attraction of Corfu as a possession is obvious; aside from it’s fertile land and pleasant climate, it’s was strategically important as an early naval base and an ocean-going trading route.  Despite this, it existed unmolested for most of the rest of the first millenium, not coming under attack again until early in the second millenium when the Normans (1081 – 1085) and Sicilians (1147 – 1154) began to take an interest.  Genoese privateers (1197 – 1207) were then followed by Venetians (1207 – 1214) and Greeks (1214 – 1267) before it passed into the hands of the French House of Anjou.  In 1386 it offered itself to the powerful Venetians in the hope they would offer a measure of protection and stability.  From 1401 until 1797, this remained the status quo.

Part Two follows…..