Archaeological Museum of Corfu: Welcome to the Phaeacians’ island

Housed in a two-storey modernist building near the former industrial suburb of Garitsa, it is rightfully enjoying a new era of flourishing, as it reopened its doors to the public in 2018, fully renovated.

The Museum presents the history of Corfu from prehistoric to Roman times, through approximately 1,600 exhibits arranged in two sections: on the ground floor, the prehistoric collection takes us to the distant past, from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, to then illustrate the chronicle of the ancient town’s foundation at the end of the 8th century BC. On the first floor, the history of Corfu unfolds from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD.

A prevalent deity in the island’s cult, Artemis makes her presence felt in the Museum; the discovery in the Kanoni peninsula of thousands of terracotta figurines representing the goddess, some of which are now on display here, is quite indicative. Nothing, however, compares to the breathtaking, apotropaic depiction of her on the pediment from the sanctuary of Artemis Gorgo (580 BC), located in the area of Stratia. In this monumental sculpture (17×3.18m), the oldest surviving stone pediment of ancient Greek architecture, the goddess is represented as the huge demonic Gorgo, accompanied by her children, Pegasus and Chrysaor, and flanked by two ferocious panthers.

If you manage to escape her fearsome gaze, the next halls hold many more archaeological treasures. Another impressive stone pediment, featuring a scene from a Dionysian banquet (500 BC), and the robust stone lion (7th century BC) from the burial monument of Menekrates stand out.