History

ACHARAVI HISTORY:

Acharavi is the nearest town to The Olive Press and belongs to the former community of Agios Panteleimonas. The former community of Agios Panteleimonas is nowadays one of the ten official sections of the municipal unit of Thinali. Etymologically, the name Acharavi consists of the Greek words Achari Hebe (pronounounced: 'Ahari Ivi, Greek: Άχαρη Ήβη) meaning "ungracious life/youth". 

Originally it was called Hebe and was an ancient Greek city, possibly named after the daughter of Zeus, Hebe. The city was destroyed in 32 BC by the Roman Emperor Octavian and was thus renamed from the city of life "Hebe" into the city of "Ungracious Life" Acharavi. After  and the Greek Civil War, its village was mainly rebuilt.

CORFU HISTORY:

The island is bound up with the history of Greece from the beginnings of Greek mythology. Its Greek name, Kerkyra or Korkyra, is related to two powerful water symbols: Poseidon, god of the sea, and Asopos, an important Greek mainland river. According to myth, Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, daughter of Asopus and river nymph Metope, and abducted her. Poseidon brought Korkyra to the hitherto unnamed island and, in marital bliss, offered her name to the place: Korkyra, which gradually evolved to Kerkyra (Doric).Together, they had a child they called Phaiax, after whom the inhabitants of the island were named: Phaiakes. This term was transliterated via Latin to Phaeacians. Corfu's nickname is The island of the Phaeacians.

The island's history is full of battles and conquests. Castles punctuating strategic locations across the island are a legacy of these struggles. Two of these castles enclose its capital, which is the only city in Greece to be surrounded in such a way. As a result, Corfu's capital has been officially declared a Kastropolis ("castle city") by the Greek government. From medieval times and into the 17th century, the island was recognised as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empire and became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortifications of the island were used by the Venetians to defend against Ottoman intrusion into the Adriatic. Corfu repulsed several Turkish sieges, before falling under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars. Corfu was eventually ceded by the British Empire along with the remaining islands of the United States of the Ionian Islands, and unification with modern Greece was concluded in 1864 under the Treaty of London.

In 2007, the city's old quarter was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.