In the suburb of Garitsa I recently spotted an ancient wall in the juction of Cyprus and Kolokotroni streets. This wall follows the sharp ascenting Kolokotroni street and it almost encircles a detached house with a garden. The house seems to had been built much later than the wall itself and this can be proved by a 1910 documentary photo that I found in the Old Corfu Photos group in Facebook (see below).
A special feature that makes the wall even more like an enigma is that it seems like a defensive one, like those which encircle fortresses or towns. Holes on the wall look like they had created on purpose.
The question is why. Did that wall protected an important structure during the venetian era? Had been part of some kind of fortification? Maybe, because the Salvatore fort (where now the prison stands) was not very far from the site. Or was just to decorate the peripheric wall of an ancient house? The 1910 picture gives no clue about that, it seems that the site behind the wall was just fields.
Look at the pictures I took the day before and compare them to the 1910 one. How built up and busy looks the area now and how serene and rural looked exactly one century ago.
- 1910 photo of Cyprus and Kolokotroni junction taken from "Old Corfu photos" group, courtesy of Zohios - Tzikas archives.
- Another forgotten spot on Cyprus street, just 150 metres away from the wall: the Cyprus street commemorative post.
No comments:
Post a Comment