COR'FU (Gk. K6perpa, Korkyra, or Kipsvpa, Kcrkyra, Lat. Coreyra). The most northerly of the Ionian Islands (q.v.), in latitude 39' 20' to 39° 50' N., longitude 19' 40' to 20° 10' E. It has a length of about 3S miles, with a breadth varying from 3 or 4 to 20 miles. Area, 275 square miles. Population, in 1890, 90,872. Like the rest of the Ionian Islands, it is mountainous, and the mountains are generally naked and dry. the highest summit, Pantokrator, being about 3000 feet above the sea. The valleys, however. are very fertile, and yield olive-oil, wine, honey, oranges, figs. etc. Salt is also produced in some quantity. The climate is generally mild and healthful. The principal town, Corfu, on the east, situated on an elevation, has some good streets. and a fine esplanade. It has about 25,100 inhabitants and a considerable trade. It is the seat of a Greek archbishop and of a Catholic bishop. The early history of the island is purely mythical, as the later inhabitants identified it with the Homeric Scheria (Plmeacia). About u.c.
734 the Corinthians are said to have colonized the island, which, however, soon attained such wealth and maritime power as to assert its inde pendence. After the Persian wars, in which Corcyra took no part. a further dispute with Cor inth led the Corcyreans to ally themselves with Athens, and the intervention of the latter city was one of the factors which contributed to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. Internal dissensions and varying foreign control marked the history of the island until it was taken under Roman protection in p.c. 229. During the greater part of the Middle Ages it formed part of the Byzantine Empire, and later passed into the possession of the Venetians, who held it in spite of two fierce attacks by the Turks, until 1797. Since that time Corfu has shared the fortunes of the other Ionian Islands. Consult: Rieman, Recherches archeologiques sur les ilcs ioniennes, vol. L, Corfou (Paris, 1879) : and Partseh, Die Insel Korfu (Gotha, 1887).