Ionian Islands

(Local Name: Iónides Nisiá) The Ionian Islands, also known as the Eptánisos (Seven Islands), are strung out along the west coast of Greece from the Albanian frontier to the Peloponnese. In this westerly situation, with more rain than most other parts of Greece, the islands have a mild climate and a luxuriant growth of vegetation, with the exception of Kythira, which lies apart from the others off the southern tip of the Peloponnese.

The Ionian Sea, which was equated by ancient authors with the Adriatic and is now seen as its southern continuation, and the Ionian Islands owe their name, according to Aeschylus, to the wanderings of Io or, according to later sources, to the Illyrian hero Ionios (spelt with omicron, the short o). They have thus no connection with the Ionian Greeks (derived from Ion, with omega, the long o), who left Greece in the 11th and 10th centuries B.C. and settled on the Anatolian coast, giving this eastern Greek territory its name of Ionia. Evidence of settlement dating back to Mycenaean times has been found on the islands, but their first emergence into the light of history was in 734 B.C., when Corinth founded the city of Korkyra (later Kérkyra). In the fifth century B.C. the islands came under Athenian influence, and in the second century B.C. all of them, including Kythira, became Roman. Later they came under Byzantine rule, and in A.D. 1085 were conquered by the Normans; then in 1203-04 the Fourth Crusade brought another change of masters. The islands now fell into the hands of Italian barons, and then, one after another, came under Venetian control - Kythira in 1363, Kérkyra (thereafter known as Corfu) in 1386, Zákynthos in 1479, Kefalloniá in 1500 (after a 21-year period of Turkish rule) and finally Lefkás (which had been Turkish since 1467) in 1684.

Venetian rule lasted until the fall of the Republic of St Mark in 1797. During this period the islands provided a refuge for many Greeks fleeing from the Turks, including artists from Crete who established a school of their own here; and throughout these years they enjoyed a richer cultural life than the rest of Greece.

After an interlude of French rule the young "Republic of the Seven Islands" became a British protectorate in 1815. In 1864 Britain returned the islands to Greece.