Achilleion Palace

Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, built the Achilleion in 1890 as a retreat on a hillside above the Corfiot coast, and dedicated it to Achilles, whom she admired as the embodiment of Greek beauty and tragedy. The house is a neoclassical villa with painted ceilings, a chapel and rooms kept as museum display, but the gardens are the memorable part: terraces of palms and statuary looking east over the sea, with a large Dying Achilles by Ernst Herter and, added later by Kaiser Wilhelm II who bought the estate after her death, a colossal Achilles Triumphant. The house has served as a hospital, a casino and a film location, appearing in a James Bond film in 1981, and it now belongs to the Greek state.

History

The site was once the Villa Vraila of the Corfiot philosopher Petros Vrailas-Armenis, and in 1888 Empress Elisabeth of Austria chose it for her palace; the Italian architect Raffaele Caritto designed it as an ancient Phaeacian palace in the Pompeian style on 200,000 m2, and Ernst Herter's Dying Achilles, made in Berlin in 1884, became the centrepiece of the gardens. Elisabeth visited often until spring 1896, then lost interest and moved much of the interior back to Vienna, and after her death in Geneva in September 1898 the palace passed to her daughter Gisela; Kaiser Wilhelm II bought it in 1907 as a summer residence (Wikipedia, Achilleion (Corfu)).

Highlights

• The garden terraces - statuary and palms above the east coast.
• The Dying Achilles - Herter's marble, the centrepiece of the garden.
• The state rooms - painted ceilings and period furnishing inside the villa.
• The chapel - the small private chapel of the imperial household.

When to go

Spring and autumn for the gardens at their best and comfortable temperatures; the site is popular with cruise excursions, so early morning avoids the peak of the coach traffic.

Things to know

The interior is modest in scale and only part of the house is open; furnishings are a mixture of original and later pieces. Coach groups can fill the gardens at midday. The visit takes an hour to ninety minutes.

Nearby

Corfu Town lies north; Benitses and the east coast beaches are below the hill.

Key facts