Achilleion (Corfu)

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The Achilleion
The current location of the statue of Empress Elisabeth in front of the entrance
The nine muses of Greek mythology on the terrace of Achilleion
View from the garden of the Achilleion towards Corfu

The Achilleion is a palace on Corfu near Gastouri, about seven kilometers south of the island's capital Corfu , which the Austrian Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) had built in the years 1890-1892.

history

The Achilleion was built on the property of the famous Corfiot Petros Brailas-Armenis (a friend of Sisis) after his death. It was named after Achilles , whom Sisi admired for his strength.

The previous building was a dilapidated villa owned by a Mr. Tagliavacca, who was a close relative of the Braila family. Empress Sisi's travel companion Alexander Freiherr von Warsberg described the area with the old Villa Braila in his book Odyssey Landscapes , which appeared in 1878, so impressively that Elisabeth wanted to purchase this old house immediately after reading his work. Sisi regarded the island of Corfu as her new, future home and quoted about it: Corfu is an ideal stay; Climate, walks in the endless olive shade, good roads and the wonderful sea air, plus the glorious moonshine . Sisi had set up and lived in the old villa during her two-month stay in 1888, but Emperor Franz Joseph could only purchase the property in 1889. Warsberg was also an expert in ancient Greek culture at the time and Elisabeth commissioned him to plan a new palace in the style of Greek architecture. After building the new Achilleion, Elisabeth allegedly said: I destroyed the old melancholy. I actually regret it now. Our dreams are more beautiful when we don't realize them .

Initially, Sisi contacted Theophil Hansen to design the palace. After Hansen's first drawings, she decided on Raffaele Carito (and Antonio Landi) from Naples for unknown reasons. Carito completed the designs by 1889.

Franz Matsch: Triumph of Achilles , fresco, 1892–1894

She had the marble sculpture Dying Achilles, created by Ernst Herter in 1884, set up in the palace gardens . The furnishings and the Pompeii architectural style are based on Greek mythology . On the upper floor of the staircase, visible from the terrace through a window, there is a large fresco by the Austrian painter Franz Matsch from the year 1892. It shows the victorious Achilles standing on a chariot and defeated Hector at the gates of Troy grinds.

Until she was murdered in September 1898, Sisi visited the Achilleion again and again. Her two children Gisela and Marie-Valerie were only there once; her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph , never visited it. Sisi had some of the groceries brought to her by purveyors to the court from Vienna with the Austrian Lloyd , but for the wines she always preferred Greek. Some of the Achilleion's furniture was later brought back to Austria in order to set up “Corfiot rooms” there, as well as tableware, cutlery and paintings. Most of these items were later sold by the heirs.

Kaiser Wilhelm II , who had always shown interest in this property and in 1905 visited the Greek royal family on Mon Repos (their summer residence on Corfu), finally bought it from the heirs in 1907. In 1908, through the German ambassador in Athens, the emperor commissioned the local German-born architect Ernst Ziller to draw up plans and cost statements for the repair and renovation of the existing palace, as well as plans for a new 40-room palace on the site next to the castle in a cavalier house situated in a valley. According to another source, the original architect of the palace, Raffaele Carito, was also involved in the construction work.

The palace, which used to be mainly used for private purposes, has been converted into a diplomatic center. The furnishings from Sisis were largely replaced by furnishings from Berlin . The Potsdam sculptor Johannes Götz was commissioned to create a gigantic second male-heroic and above all "victorious Achilles" with shield and spear and to set him against Sisi's "dying Achilles". He had the "dying Achilles" moved a few meters back from his main place in the garden and instead placed the victorious Achilles at this point. The helmet and spearhead were covered with gold and, in clear weather, were visible as far as the main town of Kerkyra. In the meantime, the gold applied is weathered and no longer recognizable. Both statues can still be admired in the Achilleion's garden to this day. A sculpture by Elisabeth of the poet Heinrich Heine , created in 1873 by the Danish sculptor Louis Hasselriis , was removed by the emperor (it has been in Toulon since 1939 ) and replaced with a sculpture by Elisabeth.

The castle garden stretches down the hill to the coastal road between Corfu Town and Moraitika. The botanist Carl Ludwig Sprenger (1846–1917) was responsible for the garden . He was captured in 1914 by Serbian soldiers who had occupied the property during the chaos of war, but was released again after an intervention by the Corfiot Prefect. According to Sprenger's activity, the species Yucca aloifolia and Yucca elephantipes have grown wild in large numbers on the island and are reminiscent of the person to whom 122 yucca hybrids go back.

  • Dying Achilles
    by Ernst Herter , 1884
    (in front of the terrace)

  • Victorious Achilles
    by Johannes Götz , 1909 (sea side in the garden)

  • The round temple still has a Heine monument, which Kaiser Wilhelm replaced with a statue of Empress Elisabeth

  • Staircase to the garden with four statues of Olympian gods : Aphrodite , Hermes , Apollon , Artemis (from left)

Remains of the Kaiser's Bridge

During the First World War , the Achilleion's buildings were used as a hospital by the French and Serbian armies . After the war it became Greek property on the basis of the Versailles Treaty .

In the past, the garden area was connected to the beach and the own pier for the Achilleion via a bridge. During the Second World War , the island was occupied by Italian troops from April 1941 . After Italy changed sides in September 1943, Wehrmacht troops disarmed Italian troops and took over their positions ( Axis case ). The Italian troops stationed on Corfu (and also those on Kefalonia ) offered resistance before finally capitulating. The Achilleion served as the headquarters of the German occupying power. The bridge was demolished to make way for large vehicles. The remains of the "Kaiser's Bridge" and the former landing stage of the royal ships can still be seen on the coastal road about 5 km south of Corfu town.

  • Sisi's desk

  • Sisi's chapel

  • Converted saddle and desk of Kaiser Wilhelm

  • Tableware of the new equipment under Kaiser Wilhelm

After the war it fell back to the Greek state, which used it as a kindergarten. In 1962 it was leased to a private company, which converted the ground floor into a museum and the first floor into a casino . In 1983 it was taken over again by the Greek state. On June 24 and 25, 1994, the Achilleion was the venue for an EU summit . The Achilleion is one of the main attractions of Corfu for tourists.

Events
  • As part of the Greek EU Council Presidency , the EU heads of government met on June 24 and 25, 1994 in the Achilleion. The accession of Austria, Sweden, Finland and Norway to the European Union was signed here.
  • An informal meeting of the EU agriculture ministers took place in the Achilleion on May 12th and 13th, 2003.
  • An informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers (OSCE) took place there on June 27 and 28, 2009. It was seen as the “starting shot” of the OSCE's Corfu process (restoring confidence in European security policy).
  • In 2012, on the occasion of Elisabeth's 175th birthday , the Hofmobiliendepot in Vienna showed the exhibition Sisi on Corfu from September 26, 2012 to January 27, 2013 .

literature

  • Jörg Michael Henneberg: The Sanssouci Kaiser Wilhelm II. - The last German Kaiser, the Achilleion and Corfu. (=  Wilhelmine Studies. Volume 1). Isensee, Oldenburg 2004, ISBN 978-3-89995-040-3 .
  • Therese Kracht: Corfu and the Achilleion - what has been experienced and heard. Kracht, Berlin 1908, DNB 362510415 .
  • Olivia Lichtscheidl: Sisi on Corfu - The Empress and the Achilleion. Schönbrunn Palace Culture and Operating Company, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-901568-89-3 .
  • Michael Meier: The Achilleion. (=  Great Architectural Monuments . Issue 179). Munich / Berlin 1963, DNB 453287484 .

Web links

Commons : Achilleion  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Achilleion  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angelika Dierichs: Corfu - Kerkyra. Green island in the Ionian Sea from Nausicaa to Kaiser Wilhelm II. P. 82.
  2. ↑ Der Zorn des Achilles ( Memento of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.6 MB), www.klphs.uzh.ch, accessed on July 6, 2011
  3. ↑ a b Jörg Michael Henneberg: Das Sans-Souci Kaiser Wilhelm II. ( Memento from September 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) www.preussen.de, accessed on July 7, 2011
  4. ↑ Maro Kardamitsi-Adami; Dionysis Zivas (preface); Giorgis Gerolympos (photos): Classical Revival: The Architecture of Ernst Ziller 1837–1923 . Melissa Publishing House, Athens 2006, ISBN 960-204-275-3 , pp. 27 (English).
  5. ↑ Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 45, 1911, No. 5 (from January 18, 1911), p. 44. (Mentioned in a short obituary for Raffaele Carito)
  6. ↑ Communications of the German Dendrological Society: German Dendrological Society - 1922, issues 32-34
  7. ↑ Garden World: Volume 22, 1918
  8. ↑ The desert garden ( Memento from August 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Archive of European Integration (AEI): The European Council [Corfu Summit 1994 , Corfu, 24-25 June 1994]
  10. ^ Presidency Conclusions
  11. ↑ [1]
  12. ↑ in a referendum in November 1994 , 52.2 percent of those who voted rejected Norway's accession to the EU; Norway therefore did not join.
  13. ↑ EU Commissioner Byrne: Security and Diversity of Food Supply in the Enlarged EU
  14. ↑ Restoring Trust: The Corfu Process . In: osce.org, December 1, 2010; see also Ian Cliff: What was the Corfu Process about? (PDF)
  15. ↑ Sisi on Corfu ( Memento from September 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), hofmobiliendepot.at, accessed on August 18, 2018

Coordinates: 39 ° 33 '44.8 "  N , 19 ° 54'15.3"  E