Corfu

Angelokastro is probably the most important fortified structure on Corfu. It is situated on the north-west coast of Corfu, 1000 feet above and about 4km by donkey track (but 6km by road) from Paleokastritsa, the village which is said to be the location of the Homeric city of Scheria, where Odysseus was washed ashore). The site, which commands much of the southern Adriatic, may have first been occupied in the early Byzantine period (5th-6th century) but was almost certainly developed further in the 11th and 12th centuries as a defence against the Normans of Sicily when Corfu became the westernmost outpost of the Byzantine Empire.

When the Byzantine Empire broke up in the 13th century, Corfu was occupied by a number of powers until 1267 when it was occupied by the Angevins of Naples, who took Angelokastro in 1272. It was subsequently seized by the Venetians in 1386 and held by them until 1797, resisting Turkish invasions in 1537, 1571, and 1716. The castle was only finally abandoned in the 19th century. Restoration began in 1999.