Corfu then and now 7: The Palace film theatre

   It is a phenomenon of our times: many film theatres had been closed down because fewer and fewer people prefered to watch a film at the cinema. The reasons? Firstly, it was the growing popularity of video clubs in the early 80s but the second and most fatal one, was the illegal internet downloading. Nowadays, quite a few people spend their night out at the movies. 

   One victim of that crisis, was Palace film theatre on Georgiou Theotoki street. As far as I remember, it was the biggest cinema in town. It closed down in late 1998 to become a "Marks & Spencer" shop which, in my opinion, it is of low quality compared to those found in Britain. The Palace theatre had been used as a concert venue as well. As late as the early 90s, many local wind bands and orchestras performed there, as an alternative venue to that of the Municipal theatre across the street. 

  I loved the neon sign with the theatre's name written in greek using a kind of font popular in the 60s. That neon sign survived intact until its last day. The last movie I watched there was the 1998 film "Great Expectations" starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethen Hawke but I will never forget the long queues that blocked the central throughfare traffic when "Titanic" was screened. 

   Below, there is a vintage 1960s picture showing the film theatre with people outside waiting for the next screening and a second one showing the site as it is today,

   I found a third photo showing a bit of its interior, as it was in the 70s during an electional campaign.

A documentary about our patron saint

   Here is an interesting documentary about Corfu's patron Saint Spyridon, originally produced and broadcasted on an ukranian channel but translated in greek by a local channel. By watching it you can tell how important is our saint in our lives and how much we love him.



-For a Saint Spyridon's bio, read this post: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-saint-spyridons-day.html

Bizet and Joplin at the theatre

   Tonight the Philharmonic Society of Corfy symphonic orchestra gave a wonderful concert. A diverse selection of music works were skillfully performed like the Rodion Shchedrin/Bizet "Carmen" suite and Gunther Schuller "Journey to Jazz". Four ragtimes, specifically arranged for symphonic orchestra were presented, including Scott Joplin's "The entertainer" theme heard in the famous 1973 american film "The Sting".
  Here are three short videos from tonight's concert. The first two are taken from the "Carmen" suite while the last one is "The entertainer" ragtime.

The german origin of the "Gastouriotikos" traditional dance

   Few corfiots know that the famous Gastouriotikos dance is not a corfiot one but its music had been composed by a berliner named Franz Meissner in 1892. This song became popular in Corfu by Kaiser Wilhelm II since 1908, when he was visiting Achilion palace in Gastouri village for his summer holidays. As he loved the song and he supported the local Philharmonic Band, he asked them to play it for him by giving them its music score. Because of the fact that its rhythm matches the corfiot dance steps, the locals adopted it originally renaming it "Gastouri Kaiser dance".
   Below you can hear the original as well as the greek version of this tune.

The original theme named "Im Grunewald ist Holzauktion"




The "Gastouriotikos" dance 

The southern side of Town Hall square

   The southern side of this monumental and beautiful square is dominated by the Bank of Greece building. This edifice had been built in 1754 on the site of the 17th century Latin archibishop's residence which had been destructed by an earthquake. Originally, this building had three floors and housed various governmental services but the Nazi german bombs almost made it collapse. After the second world war, this building was rebuilt having only two floors.

   Right at the base of the grand set of scales leading to the entrance, there is a nice spring but no water runs from it and it is infested by tag graffitis. 

   At the right side of the Bank of Greece building, there is a nice dead end street which features some old traditional corfiot buildings dating back centuries ago. 

   The view from that side of the square feels like being drawned by a painter. The town hall dominates the view, while it can be seen the Saint Spyridon campanile, Duomo catedral and in the background, the tallest mountain in Corfu, mount Pantrokrator.

   The western side of the Bank of Greece building is quite interesting. There is a nice venetian arch leading to the back side of the edifice and a plaque attached on the building's west side bearing the latin numeral and words "A FUNDAMENTIS EREC  S. A. MDCCLIII", which in arabic numbers is year 1754 and commemorates its contruction. 

   Next to the edifice's western side, there are few more old buildings dating back from the venetian period.