La Serenissima, the most serene, this how the Venetians were calling their beautiful and powerful republic! The Republic of Venice dominated the Mediterranean for many centuries with its powerful galleys, fierce mariners, brilliant merchants, and ingenious artists.

For more than four centuries, the Ionian Islands constituted an important part of the Venetian Stato da Màr, the State of the Sea, with Corfu serving as the Capital of the Governorate of the Ionian islands. The Venetians paid special attention to Corfu, an island of great strategic importance, guarding the narrow passage between the Greek and Albanian lands and serving as a major port on the way to Italy, the Adriatic and Venice itself.

La Serenissima tour gives you the chance to explore Corfu’s rich Venetian heritage. Imposing fortresses, baroque churches, the bust of a hard-boiled Doge, mansions and markets from the 17th century that are still in use, piazzas and piazzettas, loggias and mysterious coats of arms are some of the exciting remains of the Venetian presence in the island.

Finally, a marvelous statue of a Saxon soldier of fortune holds the key to a heroic story of resistance, which together with St. Spyridon’s divine intervention saved the island from a terrible threat.