Recap of Corfu

Our next stop on our honeymoon cruise was to Corfu, Greece. Corfu is a small, sickle-shaped island to the Northwest of the mainland. Our primary stop was at the Achilleion, a wealthy estate originally set up by Elisabeth of Bavaria. It was later used by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Below is a sculpture of Elisabeth.



The mansion itself is adorned with several amazing mythological depictions, from Greek to Christian. The image below is from the ceiling just inside the main entrance.



Below is a marble statue of Achilles with the arrow shot by Paris, and guided by Apollo, in his heel. It was done by Ernst Gustav Herter.



This is a statue of Achilles erected by the Kaiser. French occupiers during WWI removed an inscription under the name of Achilles which dedicated it to Wilhelm.



This bronze relief depicts a charioteer attacking some snake-legged people:




In Elisabeth’s private chapel, she had a depiction of Mary and the baby Jesus which was painted for her after an incident in a boat. She experienced harsh waters and prayed to Mary. Obviously she lived to commission the piece, and she attributed it all to the intercession of Mary. The painting shows rough waters in the bottom left, and the painting is read to the right, where the ship is seen sailing into calmer waters. Sadly, the lighting around the painting washed out some of the color at the bottom, but one can get the general idea.



Above this painting is a depiction of Jesus being brought before Pontius Pilate.



We made another stop and saw some pottery and such, but nothing worth showing. While this wasn’t the most interesting stop on the cruise, it was the first Greek stop, and was our first excursion with my parents.

For my next post: Olympia.