title: Blue's Clues

text: The thinking games presented in each episode used what Anderson called "a layered approach" that took the varying capabilities of the audience into account. Santomero said that they used scaffolding and that layering was inherent in the script and design of each game. They purposely presented the problem presented in increasing levels of difficulty, to prevent children from feeling frustrated and to master concepts, experience success, and feel empowered to attempt to solve more challenging concepts presented to them. The producers' goal was that all viewers understood the problem, even if they did not know how to solve it. As a result, the child was temporary frustrated by not knowing the answer because after giving them time to come up with it, child voice-overs provided the answers for them, so that they learned the correct answers, even if they were unable to come up with them. If the child was able to come up with the answers, however, they felt "part of a larger, knowing, child audience" when their answers were confirmed by the voice-overs. The child voice-overs also helped viewers maintain high levels of attention during critical educational portions of the episode and modelled the audience involvement encouraged by the program. The audience was told how they could help problem-solve by the host explaining how, by the child voice-overs modeling verbal participation, and by giving them enough time to respond. According to Johnson, the slow pace of the program was challenging for television directors used to the fast pace of television production and for parents, who praised the pace but expressed concerns that their children would find it boring.


title: Blue's Clues

text: "Sesame Street" reflected the prevailing view that preschoolers had short attention spans; it featured a magazine-like format consisting of varied segments. Based on research conducted over the 30 years since the launch of "Sesame Street" by theorists like Anderson, the producers of "Blue's Clues" wanted to develop a show that took advantage of children's intellectual and behavioral activity when watching television. Previous children's television programs presented their content with little input from their viewers, but "Blue's Clues" was one of the first children's shows to actively invite its viewers' involvement. Its creators believed that if children were more involved in what they were viewing, they would attend to its content longer than previously expected—for up to a half hour—and learn more. They also dropped the magazine format for a more traditional narrative format. As "Variety" magazine stated, "The choice for "Blue's Clues" became to tell one story, beginning to end, camera moving left-to-right like reading a storybook, transitions from scene to scene as obvious as the turning of a page". Every episode of "Blue's Clues" was structured in this way.


title: Blue's Clues

text: The pace of "Blue's Clues" was deliberate, and its material was presented clearly. Similar to "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", this was done was in the use of pauses that were "long enough to give the youngest time to think, short enough for the oldest not to get bored". The length of the pauses, which was estimated from formative research, gave children enough time to process the information and solve the problem. After pausing, child voice-overs provided the answers so that they were given to children who had not come up with the solution and helped encourage viewer participation. Researcher Alisha M. Crawley and her colleagues stated that although earlier programs sometimes invited overt audience participation, "Blue's Clues" was "unique in making overt involvement a systematic research-based design element". "Blue's Clues" also differed from "Sesame Street" by not using cultural references or humor aimed at adults, as this could confuse preschoolers but, instead, made the show literal, which the producers felt would better hold the children's attention. The structure of each episode was repetitive, designed to provide preschoolers with comfort and predictability. Repetition of the same skills used in different contexts or games within and across episodes encouraged the mastery of thinking skills and the approach to content within an episode was consistent with learning theory that emphasized situated cognition and provided all viewers, no matter their age or abilities, with repeated opportunities to try to solve the problems presented.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Since preschoolers tend to have difficulty understanding transitions, especially when they involve active inferences about time, space, and characters' perspective, the program's producers minimized transitions that required inference so that their viewers' intellectual resources could be devoted to understanding the episode's content. They accomplished this goal by limiting the number of settings during an episode and with the transitions occurring only between them and signaled by dialogue and enough time and information necessary to process them. The primary settings in "Blue's Clues" were the host's house and backyard, and transitions between them were usually done continuously, without the use of cuts. If transitions were accompanied by cuts, it was done by the host moving to and through a door and continuing as he entered the front or backyard. The biggest transition in "Blue's Clues" occurred when the host "skiddoed" and jumped into a picture or book, done in a magical way with plenty of warning that it was coming, and began and ended in the new environment. Anderson reported that children clearly understood and enjoyed the skiddo transition. Santomero reported that the skidoo transition was inspired by the use of the trolley in "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", which also served as a transition device.


title: Blue's Clues

text: The producers and writers of "Blue's Clues" used content and television production techniques such as camera techniques, the use of children's voices, musical cues, sound effects, repeatable dialogue, and visuals in order to encourage and increase comprehension and attention. "Blue's Clues" was set in the home—the environment that was most familiar and secure for preschoolers—and looked like no other children's television show. The theme and topic of each episode, which was in development, from idea development to final production, for approximately one year, was chosen by the research team. Writers created a goal sheet, which identified their objectives based on the show's curriculum and audience needs. According to show researcher Koshi Dhingra and her colleagues, the integration of writing and researching "Blue's Clues" was unique and involved "an extremely collaborative process". Script drafts, once developed and approved by the show's creators and research team, were tested at public and private schools, day care centers, preschools, and Head Start programs by three researchers, who would narrate the story in the form of a storybook and take notes about the children's responses. The writers and creators revised the scripts based on this feedback. A rough video, in which the host performed from the revised script in front of a blue screen with no animation, was filmed and retested. The script was revised based on the audiences' responses, tested a third time with animation and music added, and incorporated into future productions.


title: Blue's Clues

text: According to Dhingra and her colleagues, the researchers represented the preschool viewer. After coming up with an idea for an episode, the writers met with Alice Wilder, head of the research department for "Blue's Clues", to discuss their idea. The research department and writers then discussed if the topic and approach to the topic was appropriate for preschoolers, and if they accepted it, the content of the episode was further developed. They would often bring in outside consultants who were experts in the subject matter and the processes in teaching it to preschoolers. Wilder considered the researchers experts in how the concepts they wanted to present would translate to the medium of television rather than in a classroom or museum, but they considered preschoolers, who evaluated each script from their perspective, to be their " true experts". The writer took the information they gathered from the research department, preschoolers, and experts and wrote a treatment, or detailed outline of the script, which included goals for the entire episode and for each game. The writers, Wilder, and the research team had a treatment meeting, which Dhingra and her colleagues described as "an organized creative brainstorm", which was rooted in the philosophy and mission of the show, the art of good storytelling, and the point of view of their viewers. The goal of the treatment meeting was to give the writers everything they needed to create a workable second draft of the episode script, and to ensure that it fit the needs of their viewers.


title: Blue's Clues

text: The researchers brought in experts, if needed, and then, at the second draft stage, interviewed preschoolers. Preschooler testing was conducted in three rounds: the concept test, and video test, and content analysis. The producers and creators of the show, during their interviews of preschoolers, created a rough version of the episode, with the host and preliminary animations and backgrounds, and showed it to preschoolers to gain further feedback and was designed to assess their reactions to the content and visuals. According to Dhingra and her colleagues, the greatest strengths of the development of all episodes of "Blue's Clues" were the high levels of collaboration between all departments involved in the creation of the show, the clearly-defined strategies they used to effectively include their preschool viewers in the development process, and their use of the mission, philosophy, and structure of the program to create and develop each episode.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Most of the show's production was done in-house, rather than by outside companies as was customary for children's TV shows at the time. "Blue's Clues" was filmed in a studio in Tribeca, Manhattan, New York. The show's creators understood that the look and visual design of the show would be integral to children's attachment with it. Johnson expanded on the "cut-out" style she had created during her college years. "Blue's Clues" was the first animated series for preschoolers that utilized simple cut-out construction paper shapes of familiar objects with a wide variety of colors and textures, resembling a storybook. Johnson also used primary colors and organized each room of the home setting into groups. The green-striped shirt worn by the show's original host, Steve, was inspired by Fruit Stripe gum. The goals were to make the show look natural and simplistic; as Tracy put it, "freshly cut and glued together with a vivid array of textures, colors, and shadows" similar to picture book illustrations. The program's design was influenced by an understanding of the cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities of preschoolers. For example, the purpose of the notebook in "Blue's Clues", which was used to record the clues presented throughout an episode, was to teach preschoolers how to overcome their poorly developed memory skills by using external mnemonic aids and lists. The music, produced by composer Michael Rubin and pianist Nick Balaban, was simple, had a natural sound, and exposed children to a wide variety of genres and instruments. Rubin and Balaban used Anderson's research about the importance of using auditory cues to increase children's attention and inserted auditory signatures to encourage the audience to pay attention to the episodes "at critical junctures for learning". According to Tracy, the music empowered children and gave the show "a sense of playfulness, a sense of joy, and a sense of the fantastic". Rubin and Balaban encouraged the musicians who performed for the show to improvise.


title: Blue's Clues

text: The host performed each episode in front of a "blue screen", with animation added later. The show's digital design department combined high-tech and low-tech methods by creating and photographing three-dimensional objects, then cutting them out and placing them into the background, which made the objects look more real and added perspective and depth. Johnson hired artist Dave Palmer and production company Big Pink to create the animation, which was at that time a new technology, from simple materials like fabric, paper, or pipe-cleaners, and scan them into a Macintosh computer so that they could be animated using inexpensive computer software such as Media 100, Ultimatte, Photoshop and After Effects. instead of being repeatedly redrawn as in traditional animation. Johnson credited Kessler with the idea of using the Macintosh. The result was something that looked different from anything else on television at the time, and the producers were able to animate two episodes in eight weeks, as compared to the sixteen weeks necessary to create a single episode by traditional methods. Their process looked like traditional cut-out animation, but was faster, more flexible, and less expensive, and it allowed them to make changes based on feedback from test audiences. Unlike traditional animation environments, which tended to be highly structured, the animators were given information about the characters and goals of the scenes they would animate, and then given the freedom to work out the timing and look of each scene themselves, as long as their creations were true to the characters and to the story. By 1999, the show's animation department consisted of Palmer, twenty animators, eleven digital designers, and five art directors and model makers. By 2002, Nickelodeon had built a "state-of-the-art" $6 million digital animation studio that housed 140 people, including 70 animators.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Ratings for "Blue's Clues" were high during its first season, and it was Nickelodeon's most popular preschool program. It has been described as the first commercial television show for preschoolers that was both educational and profitable. Its creators met regularly with businesses that developed "Blue's Clues" merchandise and products to ensure toys that were educational and met "the same high ... standards as the show". Products, like the show, were heavily tested prior to marketing. "Blue's Clues" had sold almost 40 million units of its 45 VHS and DVD titles by 1998 and generated over $1 billion in product licensing in 2000. More than ten million "Blue's Clues" books were in print by 2001 and over three million copies of six CD-ROM titles based on the show had been sold. Seven "Blue's Clues" titles sold at least 1 million copies each. The show's first direct-to-video production was "Blue's Big Musical Movie" (2000), featuring Ray Charles and The Persuasions; it received mostly positive reviews and has sold over 3 million copies since 2006. The launch of "Blue's Clues" products at FAO Schwarz's flagship store in New York City was the most successful product launch in the store's history and was attended by over 7,000 people. Steve Burns' final episode in 2002 was viewed by 1.9 million preschoolers and received a 47 percent share of the overall audience. By 2002, "Blue's Clues" had received several awards for children's programming, educational software, and licensing. It won eight consecutive Emmys between 1998 and 2005 and won a Peabody Award in 2001.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Starting in 1999, a live production of "Blue's Clues" toured the U.S. to positive reviews. As of 2002, over 2 million people had attended over 1,000 performances. The creators of the TV show were involved in all aspects of the live show, aiming to translate the bond between the TV show's audience and its cast to the stage. The creators chose Jonathan Hochwald as the live show's producer, Gip Hoppe as its director, and Dave Gallo as its set designer. Neither Hoppe nor Gallo had any previous experience in children's theater. Nick Balaban and Michael Rubin, who wrote the music for the TV show, composed the live show's soundtrack. The producers were concerned with children's response to the host, who was played by Tom Mizer (a different actor than the host of the TV show), but his young audience enthusiastically accepted and embraced him. Actors were encouraged to improvise and respond to the audience, which resulted in changes throughout the show's run. The show's script included humor that both children and their parents could enjoy.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Regional versions of the show, featuring native hosts, have been produced in other countries. Kevin Duala hosted the United Kingdom version and the show became part of pop culture in South Korea. In total, "Blue's Clues" was syndicated in 120 countries, and was translated into 15 languages. In 2000, it became one of the first preschool shows to incorporate American Sign Language into its content, with between five and ten signs used consistently in each episode. "Blue's Clues" won an award from the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness (GLAD) for promoting deaf awareness in the media.


title: Blue's Clues

text: The extensive use of research in the development and production process of "Blue's Clues" inspired several studies that provided evidence for its effectiveness as a learning tool. As Anderson and his colleagues reported, "Blue's Clues" had "a beneficial cognitive and social impact" the longer younger children watched it, which increased steadily over time, and that its benefits to cognitive development are both durable and cumulative. They also believed that the research conducted on the program demonstrated that when children's television programs were based on information gained from child development concepts, had a systematic curriculum, and were designed with "a research-based understanding of how children use and understand television, it can be a powerful and positive influence". As they stated, "it appears that the program is not only doing well, but it is also doing good”. In 2004, Anderson said that "Blue's Clues" "raised the bar" for educational television; he and "Variety" reported that audience participation became an important part of other educational preschool TV programs such as "Dora the Explorer" and "Sesame Street". Anderson also reported that after "Blue's Clues", all of Nickelodeon's educational programming included the use of formative research.


title: Blue's Clues

text: In 2019, shortly after the premiere of "Blue's Clues & You", "the New York Times" called "Blue's Clues" "something of a throwback: a leisurely paced, unflashy show with the educational bona fides of its public TV predecessors "Mr. Rogers" and "Sesame Street"". It also stated that "Blue's Clues" paved the way for shows like "Dora the Explorer". The program was the first children's cable show built entirely around direct address, the first to invite preschoolers to play along with the characters with games and "mini-mysteries", and the first to include built-in silences designed for child participation. As "The New York Times" stated, "The show was interactive before interactivity became mundane".


title: Blue's Clues

text: Based on anecdotal evidence that preschoolers enjoyed repeated viewings of the programs they watched on television, including Anderson's own experience with his four-year-old daughter, who asked to watch a tape of the pilot of "Blue's Clues" 17 times, the producers decided to repeat each episode daily for a week. Despite no published evidence that repeated viewings resulted in increased comprehension, especially for younger viewers, and would reinforce the problem-solving skills taught in each episode, and because they did not have enough money to produce a full season of episodes, Nickelodeon agreed to their broadcast strategy, and they were the first network to experiment with the approach. In the summer of 1996, before the premiere of "Blue's Clues", Santomero, Anderson, and Wilder conducted a study, funded by Nickelodeon, about the effect of repeated viewings of the pilot episode on its viewers and their ability to learn the curriculum content contained in the episode.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Anderson reported that the results of the study were "clear, striking, and to us, very interesting". They found that except for the five-year-old boys they tested, audience participation greatly increased with repetition, especially for the problem-solving portions of an episode, as did their comprehension and problem solving. Anderson stated, "As children learned how to solve the problems they would shout out the answers, talk to Steve, point to the screen, jump up with excitement, and so on". After five viewings, children had also become skilled at solving similar problems that had not been presented in the episode. Anderson reported that the repetition broadcast strategy worked during the program's first year. Nickelodeon used the same strategy for its premiere of "Dora the Explorer" in 2000, and Nielson ratings for both programs indicated no change in audience size during the time the repetitions aired. The study also demonstrated that watching "Blue's Clues" changed how children watch television and that their problem-solving skills and interaction would transfer to other programs they watched.


title: Blue's Clues

text: In 1999, Anderson and a team of researchers, some of which were his colleagues at Nickelodeon, studied how episode repetition affected comprehension, audience participation, and visual attention. The researchers tested whether repeated viewings of the show resulted in mastery over the material presented, or whether viewers would habituate to what they watched or become bored. The study demonstrated that for the first few repetitions, children pay close attention to the educational content because it was more cognitively demanding. The researchers concluded that audience participation was lower because children were devoting more of their cognitive resources to understanding and solving the problem presented in the episode. When they mastered the problems, which the researchers suspected happened the third time the children viewed the episode, they paid the same amount of attention to the educational content as to the entertainment content, which was less demanding. Audience participation, however, increased because their cognitive resources were freed up and because they knew the answers to the questions asked by the host and other characters. Anderson and his colleagues believed that their study proved that episode repetition appeared to foster their viewers' empowerment, as demonstrated in the viewers' enthusiastic efforts to help solve problems the host and other characters posed.


title: Blue's Clues

text: The study also demonstrated that experienced viewers (those familiar with the program) looked less at the screen than inexperienced viewers. All children looked at educational content more than at entertainment content. Experienced viewers looked at content unique to the program, but inexperienced viewers did not distinguish between the two types of content, since for them, all content was new. Experienced viewers interacted with the program more and showed better comprehension of the content than inexperienced viewers, especially when they were exposed to content that was repeated across episodes. As Anderson and his colleagues put it, "These results further support the notion that when content is new and challenging, preschoolers pay greater attention, but when it is in a recurrent format and therefore readily mastered, they interact more". In other words, "Interaction in "Blue’s Clues" to some extent thus reflects mastery". Nielsen ratings of the show's first season, when the same episode was shown daily, were flat over the five-day period, which indicated to Anderson that young children did not tire of its repetition or of its complexity over time. According to Crawley and her colleagues, the producers' repeat broadcast strategy had no negative effectives of the program's ratings and appeared to be a success.


title: Blue's Clues

text: In 2000, another team of researchers, including Anderson, Crawley, and other Nickelodeon colleagues, studied if watching "Blue's Clues" changed the way children watch television and if they learned "an interactive style of television viewing”, meaning that they were more interactive with an episode from a different series than viewers who did not have experience watching "Blue’s Clues". They compared experienced and unexperienced viewers as they watched an episode of "Big Bag", a “curriculum-based magazine format” series that aired on Cartoon Network, directed towards approximately the same audience as "Blue’s Clues". They found that although experienced "Blue's Clues" viewers paid less overall attention to "Big Bag" than inexperienced viewers, their patterns of attention across "Big Bag" were identical to their attention to an episode of Blue's Clues. They also demonstrated that viewers had the same amount of comprehension in both programs, but "Blue's Clues" viewers interacted more with "Big Bag" than inexperienced viewers. When the content of "Big Bag" was new and challenging, "Blue's Clues" viewers paid more attention, and when it was familiar, either from previous viewings or in a format they recognized, they interacted with it more. In short, Anderson and his colleagues found that "interaction in "Blue's Clues" to some extent reflects mastery" and felt that their study demonstrated that watching "Blue's Clues" changed how young children watch television. Researcher Shalom M. Fisch, however, stated that although the show attempted to be "participatory", it could not truly be so, because unlike interactive computer games, the viewers' responses could not change or influence what occurred on-screen.


title: Blue's Clues

text: In 2002, Crawley, Anderson, and their colleagues conducted another study on the effects of "Blue's Clues", this time researching whether more experienced viewers mastered the content and cognitive challenges faster and easier than first-time viewers. They surmised that experienced viewers would comprehend and interact more with the recurring and familiar segments of the show designed to aid comprehension, but they found that familiarity with the structure of an individual episode did not provide experienced viewers with an advantage over the inexperienced viewers. Crawley and Anderson also studied whether experienced viewers of "Blue's Clues" interacted more with other children's TV shows and whether the viewing behaviors they learned from "Blue's Clues" could be transferred to other shows. They found that although experienced viewers of "Blue's Clues" interacted with an episode of another series, they did not spend more time watching it than viewers unfamiliar with the show. The researchers stated, "It is apparent that, although preschoolers learn to enthusiastically engage in overt audience participation, they do not, by and large, have a metacognitive understanding of why they do so."


title: Blue's Clues

text: The 2002 studies demonstrated that experience with watching one TV series affects how children watch other programs, especially in the way they interact with them. They also showed that since children are selective in the material they attend to and that their interaction increases with comprehension and mastery, children tend to pay more attention to novel information and interact more with material they have seen before and mastered. According to Crawley and her colleagues, "Blue's Clues" demonstrated that television could empower and influence children's long-term motivation for and a love of learning. As they stated, "One need only to watch children watch "Blue’s Clues" to realize that they respond to it with enormous enthusiasm".


title: Blue's Clues

text: Erin Ryan and her colleagues performed a 2009 study on the effect of the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in "Blue's Clues" episodes. They analyzed 16 episodes over two weeks for the content and frequency of the signs used and found a high incidence of ASL use by various characters, but that it was inconsistent, especially in the connection between English words and their corresponding signs. The purpose of signed communication and its connection with ASL and the Deaf community was also not clearly explained. The researchers speculated that hearing children with no previous ASL exposure would become familiar with ASL and with deaf people by these episodes, thus reducing the stigma attached to deafness and hard of hearing individuals. Based on other research about the positive effects of teaching ASL to hearing children, the researchers also speculated that it could lead to an increase of vocabulary skills and IQ, as well as improve interpersonal communication. They surmised that deaf children would feel more included and less isolated and have more opportunities to view positive models of ASL and deaf people.


title: Blue's Clues

text: Georgene L. Troseth and her colleagues at Vanderbilt University studied how toddlers used information gained from prerecorded video and from interactions with a person through closed-circuit video, and found that two-year-old children did not learn as much from prerecorded videos because the videos lacked social cues and personal references. Two-year-olds who viewed a video with instructions about how to find a toy in an adjoining room from a non-interactive researcher did not use the information, even though they smiled and responded to questions. Troseth speculated that their research had implications for interactive educational shows like "Blue's Clues", which although was "on the right track" because the host invited interaction with the show's viewers, did not provide children with the social cues to solve real-world problems. Troseth stated that repetition, repeated exposure, and familiarity with the show's host may increase children's ability to learn facts and to use strategies they learn from "Blue's Clues" to solve new problems. Her research suggested that "Blue's Clues" engaged young children and elicited their active participation because they mimicked social interaction.


title: Blue's Clues

text: On March 6, 2018, Nickelodeon announced a revival of the series, with a new host and 20 new episodes. An open casting call for the show's new host occurred in April, and production began in the summer of 2018. On September 13, 2018, it was announced that the show would be titled "Blue's Clues & You!", and Joshua Dela Cruz would be the host of the revival. The show premiered on November 11, 2019.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: In August 1997, Harris Publications released the first issue of "XXL". It featured rappers Jay-Z and Master P on a double cover. In December 2006, "XXL" took over the struggling hip-hop producer and DJ magazine "Scratch" (another publication owned by Harris Publications), re-branding it as "XXL Presents Scratch Magazine". However "Scratch" shut down less than a year later in September 2007.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: Other titles with limited runs have been launched under the "XXL" brand, including "Hip-Hop Soul", "Eye Candy" and "Shade45". "XXL" has released many other special projects including tour programs, mixtapes and exclusive DVDs. "XXL" also maintains a popular website, which provides daily hip hop news, original content and content from the magazine.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: On October 14, 2014, Townsquare announced it would continue print publication of "XXL". In December 2014 the company reported that the magazine would be published on a monthly basis.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: The magazine's past editors include Reginald C. Dennis (formerly of "The Source"), Sheena Lester (former editor-in-chief of "RapPages" and "Vibe" music editor), Elliott Wilson (formerly of The Beat-Down Newspaper, "ego trip" and "The Source," currently locked in at #7 slot on The Source's Digital 30 list.) and Datwon Thomas (former editor-in-chief of "King)".


title: XXL (magazine)

text: In May 2009, Datwon Thomas resigned from "XXL" and executive editor Vanessa Satten, who had been with "XXL" since 1998, was named the new Editor-in-Chief.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: In August 2005, Eminem and "XXL" teamed up to release a special issue titled "XXL Presents Shade 45", designed to simultaneously give maximum exposure to his radio station Shade 45, the station's associated radio DJs, the Shady Records label as a whole, and G-Unit Records' artists. "XXL" executive publisher Jonathan Rheingold stated that typically magazines based around particular artists were not favorable, but "since Shade 45 is a truly authentic and uncensored rap radio channel, the marriage with the "XXL" brand made sense," feeling that it would interest rap fans.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: In November 2008, "XXL" released "XXL Raps Volume 1", which included music from 50 Cent, G-Unit, Common, Jim Jones, & Fabolous.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: In September 2006, "XXL" put a special 90-minute DVD called "XXL DVD Magazine Vol. 1", which featured exclusive interviews and content with big-name rappers such as 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Fat Joe, Paul Wall, & Mike Jones.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: On August 20, 2013, "XXL" marked its sixteenth anniversary by releasing its 150th issue, which featured the first solo cover on the magazine from Drake, along with rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and B.o.B reviewing classic albums.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: Beginning in 2007 (skipping 2008), "XXL" releases its annual "Freshman Class" list. The issue features ten artists-to-watch, all appearing on the cover of the magazine. The list has a history of showcasing unknown/underground rappers, as well as artists considered to be on the rise. The list creates significant marketing buzz among listeners and artists alike, and is credited for giving many artists their first taste of fame.


title: XXL (magazine)

text: Occasionally, the Freshman Class list may contain extra additions to include more rappers. The 2011, 2013, 2019 and 2021 Freshman Class lists, for example, had 11 rappers. In the case for the 2013 list, "XXL" added an honorary extra spot for Chicago rapper Chief Keef due to the artist being in a six-day jail stint and therefore being unable to attend the photo shoot in New York City. In 2014, 2020 and 2022 the Freshman Class lists included 12 rappers.


title: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

text: The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from the single-seat constituencies. The members of the upper house, the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad (the legislative council) are indirectly elected through an electoral college.


title: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

text: The budget session and the monsoon session are convened in Mumbai whereas the winter session is convened in the auxiliary capital Nagpur. In 1975 because elections were in winter season, the monsoon (second) session was convened in Nagpur and winter (third) session was convened in Mumbai.


title: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

text: The Members of 14th Maharashtra Assembly of Maharashtra were elected in the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, with results announced on 21 October 2019.


title: 88rising

text: 88rising (stylized as 88⬆), formerly known as CXSHXNLY (pronounced “cash only”), is an American music company that founder Sean Miyashiro describes as a "hybrid management, record label, video production, and marketing company".


title: 88rising

text: The company has gained popularity as a musical platform and record label primarily for Asian American and Asian artists who release music in the United States, such as Joji, Keith Ape, Rich Brian, and Niki. Miyashiro states 88rising is "The Disney of Asian hip-hop". Miyashiro also hopes 88rising can bridge the gap between Asian and American music. "The New Yorker" writes about 88rising, "With artists like Joji, Rich Brian and Higher Brothers, Sean Miyashiro's company is an authority on how to create pop-culture crossovers." "Asian rap collective 88rising has quickly become one of the most popular, and groundbreaking, crews in music.", says "Rolling Stone". A "Paper" article stated that "88rising provides not only the cultural support, but also the strategic and technical know-how to help emerging Asian artists cross over in an efficient but meaningful way." In 2019, 88rising was awarded Label of the Year by Netease, one of the largest music streaming platforms in China.


title: 88rising

text: Headquartered in New York City, the company also has offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai. Outside of its core group, the company has collaborated with many artists, most notably KOHH, CL, DPR Live, Yaeji, Phum Viphurit, Verbal, and Hikaru Utada.


title: 88rising

text: 88rising was founded in 2015 by Sean Miyashiro and Jaeson Ma The company first started as a music collective and management company called CXSHXNLY (pronounced "cash only") which oversees and began to make contact with up-and-coming artists that they found on the internet. The company's inaugural artists include Brian Puspos, Dumbfoundead, Josh Pan, and Okasian. Miyashiro said that their music collective goal is "to become the most wavy, iconic crew" and "trying to represent for not only Asian immigrants, but for all immigrants". A few months later, Dumbfoundead showed Miyashiro the music video of Keith Ape's single titled "It G Ma", Miyashiro began to work with both artists to release the remix version of the single which features A$AP Ferg, Father, and Waka Flocka Flame. The single was released on July 27, 2015 by OWSLA and the music video was premiered by "Complex".


title: 88rising

text: In May 2016, the company uploaded their first video content on YouTube as 88rising and began to work with other artists such as Rich Brian, Joji, and Higher Brothers. The name is derived from "eighty-eight" translating to "double happiness" in Chinese.


title: 88rising

text: A year later in May 2017, the label made a live performance as a collective at the Boiler Room in Los Angeles with Rich Brian, Joji, and Keith Ape all making appearances and performing at a mansion party in Beverly Hills. The Higher Brothers performed via live stream from their hometown in Chengdu, as they could not travel to the United States at the time. Several guests such as Yaeji and Ronny J also performed with the label. In November 2017, 88rising announced a tour across Asia featuring Rich Brian, Joji, and Higher Brothers with Keith Ape occasionally performing at select shows. The tour took place in nine major Asian cities: Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Jakarta.


title: 88rising

text: In May 2017, WPP plc, one of the world's largest advertising companies, announced that they had invested in 88rising.


title: 88rising

text: In February 2018, 88rising presented its inaugural North American tour at The Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, The Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, and Terminal 5 in New York City. The sold-out tour featured Rich Brian, Joji, Keith Ape with surprise guest appearances from other artists such as Charli XCX and Ski Mask the Slump God. The label also saw the debut studio releases from many of 88rising's flagship artists. On February 2, 2018, Rich Brian's released his debut album "Amen" to generally positive reviews and commercial acclaim, charting at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 in its first week. The album also made iTunes history by being the first album released by an Asian artist to top the iTunes Hip-Hop Chart. On July 20, 2018, 88rising released their first compilation album titled "Head in the Clouds". The album contains 17 compilation tracks – including the RIAA-certified Gold record "Midsummer Madness" and featuring its label core roster and guest appearances from other artists including GoldLink, Playboi Carti, BlocBoy JB, 03 Greedo, and Verbal. On October 26, 2018, Joji released his debut album "Ballads 1", which includes the RIAA-certified Platinum single "Slow Dancing in the Dark" and Gold single "Yeah Right". The album made Billboard chart history as the first album by a solo Asian artist to top the Billboard R&B / Hip-Hop charts. 88rising presented its first Head in the Clouds Festival on September 22, 2018 at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. The festival's lineup included a roster of hip-hop and R&B acts from both the United States and Asia including Rich Brian, Joji, Keith Ape, Niki, Higher Brothers, Dumbfoundead and more. The festival also hosted the debut United States performance for Japanese rapper Kohh. In its recap of the festival, Billboard called Head in The Clouds "the Asian Festival You Need To Know". The festival was followed by the 88 Degrees and Rising tour in Fall 2018, which featured a lineup including the label's roster alongside Sen Morimoto and Kohh.


title: 88rising

text: In 2019, 88rising saw a sophomore studio releases from artists Higher Brothers and Rich Brian. On February 22, 2019, Higher Brothers released "Five Stars", as their follow-up to their debut studio album "Black Cab". The album featured many prominent hip-hop collaborators, including Schoolboy Q, JID, Denzel Curry, Ski Mask The Slump God, Soulja Boy and more. "Five Stars" became the top album on Chinese streaming platform Netease in Q1 of 2019 and the Higher Brothers were crowned Hip-Hop Artist of the Year. Netease also bestowed 88rising the Label of the Year award. On July 26, Rich Brian released his second studio album, "The Sailor", which was primarily produced by Bekon and The Donuts and featured guest appearances from RZA, Joji and more. On July 17, 2019, "Billboard" announced the 2nd annual Head in the Clouds music festival for Saturday, August 17, 2019 at Los Angeles State Historic Park with an additional dance music stage and an expanded lineup of music artists. Californian food festival 626 Night Market curated the food vendors. The second festival saw the North American festival debut of K-Pop group iKon as well as performances by Joji, Rich Brian, Higher Brothers, NIKI, DPR Live and many more. The festival was dubbed by Rolling Stone and Los Angeles Magazine as the "Asian Coachella". The label also released their second compilation album, "Head in the Clouds II," on October 11, 2019, which featured artists including Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd, Jackson Wang, Phum Viphurit, Chungha and many more. A duet from the album, "I Love You 3000 II" by Stephanie Poetri and Wang, quickly topped the Billboard China Social Chart.


title: 88rising

text: Many live events were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Another Head in the Clouds festival was originally planned in March 2020 in Jakarta, but was eventually canceled due to the pandemic. Thus, 88rising held its Asia Rising Forever festival, an online concert featuring Asia talent from around the world streamed on their YouTube and Twitter accounts, on May 6. On December 3, 2020, 88rising launched a 24-hour radio channel on Sirius XM featuring music from Asian artists. Another online live stream festival under the name Double Happiness, in reference to their slogan "88 is double happiness" was also launched the same day with performances from Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge from their musical duo, Nxworries, as well as others such as AUDREY NUNA and Ylona Garcia


title: 88rising

text: In April 2022, 88rising performed at Coachella with a showcase titled Head in the Clouds Forever, including performances by CL, 2NE1, Hikaru Utada, Jackson Wang, Rich Brian, Bibi, Niki, Milli and Warren Hue. They also released a single of the same name including three tracks featuring Bibi, Utada, Hue and Rich Brian.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), nicknamed Gaben, is an American businessman and the president of the video game company Valve.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Newell was born in Colorado and grew up in Davis, California. He attended Harvard University in the early 1980s but dropped out to join Microsoft, where he helped create the first versions of the Windows operating system. He and another employee, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft in 1996 to found Valve, and funded development of their first game, "Half-Life" (1998). Harrington left in 2000, leaving Newell as the sole owner. As of 2021, he owned at least one quarter of Valve.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Newell led development of Valve's digital distribution service Steam, which launched in 2003 and controlled most of the market for downloaded PC games by 2011. He is one of the wealthiest people in the United States; in December 2021, "Forbes" estimated his net worth at US$3.9 billion.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Newell was born on November 3, 1962, in Colorado, and attended Davis Senior High School in Davis, California. He enrolled at Harvard University in 1980, but was convinced to drop out to work for Bill Gates at Microsoft by the head of sales in 1983.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft as the lead developer of the first three releases of the Windows operating systems, making him a millionaire. Newell later said he learned more during his first three months at Microsoft than he ever did at Harvard, which was one of the primary reasons why he dropped out.


title: Gabe Newell

text: In late 1995, "Doom", a 1993 first-person shooter game developed by id Software, was estimated to be installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 95. Newell said: "[id] ... didn't even distribute through retail, it distributed through bulletin boards and other pre-internet mechanisms. To me, that was a lightning bolt. Microsoft was hiring 500-people sales teams and this entire company was 12 people, yet it had created the most widely distributed software in the world. There was a sea change coming." At Microsoft, Newell led development on a port of "Doom" for Windows 95; the port is credited for helping make Windows a viable game platform.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Inspired by Michael Abrash, who left Microsoft to work on the game "Quake" at id, Newell and another employee, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to found the video game company Valve on August 24, 1996. Newell and Harrington funded development of the first Valve game, the first-person shooter "Half-Life" (1998), which was a critical and commercial success. Harrington left in 2000, leaving Newell as the sole owner.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Newell gave Valve no deadline and a "virtually unlimited" budget to develop "Half-Life 2" (2004), promising to fund it himself if necessary. Meanwhile, he spent several months developing Steam, a digital distribution service for games. By 2011, Steam controlled between 50% and 70% of the market for downloaded PC games and generated most of Valve's revenue. In December 2010, "Forbes" named Newell "A Name You Should Know", primarily for his work on Steam having partnerships with multiple major developers.


title: Gabe Newell

text: In 2007, Newell expressed his displeasure over developing software for game consoles, saying that developing processes for Sony's PlayStation 3 was a "waste of everybody's time" He appeared on stage at Sony's keynote at E3 2010; while acknowledging his criticism of console development, he discussed the open nature of the PlayStation 3 and announced "Portal 2" for the console, remarking that with Steamworks support it would be the best version for any console. Newell also criticized the Xbox Live service, referring to it as a "train wreck", and was also critical of Windows 8, calling it a threat to the open nature of PC gaming. At the 2013 LinuxCon, Newell said that the Linux operating system and open source development were "the future of gaming". He accused the proprietary systems of companies such as Microsoft and Apple of stifling innovation through sluggish certification processes.


title: Gabe Newell

text: In 2013, Newell was added to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. That March, he received the BAFTA Fellowship award for his contributions to the video game industry. In October 2017, "Forbes" listed Newell among the 100 wealthiest people in the United States, with an estimated net worth of 5.5billion. In December 2021, "Forbes" estimated that Newell had a net worth of US$3.9 billion and owned at least one quarter of Valve. According to Charlie Fish, author of "The" "History of Video Games", as of 2021 Newell was the richest person in the video game industry.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Newell formerly suffered from Fuchs' dystrophy, a congenital disease which affects the cornea, but was cured by two cornea transplants in 2006 and 2007. He married Lisa Mennet on the same day he founded Valve with Harrington. They have two sons. The birth of his eldest son in the late 1990s served as inspiration for the final boss of "Half-Life", as the couple considered childbirth to be the most frightening thing they could think of at the time. As of 2019, Newell and Mennet had divorced.


title: Gabe Newell

text: In 2011, Newell said his favorite video games included "Super Mario 64", "Doom", and a Burroughs mainframe version of "Star Trek". "Doom" convinced him that games were the future of entertainment, and "Super Mario 64" convinced him that games are a form of art. Newell is a fan of the animated series "". Newell also recorded a voice pack for "Dota 2", a Valve-developed game, which referenced many previous statements and phrases from himself in a humorous manner.


title: Gabe Newell

text: Within the gaming community, Newell has the nickname Gaben, derived from his work email address. Newell said that he has tried to grow into his public image: "They hug me when they run into me. I'm not a hugging person, but that's what they want. I was with my kids the first time that happened in public, and my kids were pretty cool with it. But I wasn't. 'Dad, roll with it.' Even now, I'm learning from our customers."


title: Gabe Newell

text: In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Newell resided in New Zealand with a group of friends electing to stay in Auckland rather than returning to Seattle once airlines travel restrictions were eased. As an expression of gratitude for New Zealand's hospitality, Newell and others planned a free event, "We Love Aotearoa", with live performances from musical artists across New Zealand. This was accompanied by VR stands for Valve games such as "" and "The Lab". The event was postponed from August to December due to a lockdown induced by a second wave of COVID-19 in the country. In October, Newell applied for permanent residency in New Zealand, but said he did not intend to take Valve offices with him. In 2021, he returned to Valve in Seattle.


title: Corfu

text: Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered by three municipalities with the islands of Othonoi, Ereikoussa, and Mathraki. The principal city of the island (pop. 32,095) is also named Corfu. Corfu is home to the Ionian University.


title: Corfu

text: The island is bound up with the history of Greece from the beginnings of Greek mythology, and is marked by numerous battles and conquests. Ancient Korkyra took part in the Battle of Sybota which was a catalyst for the Peloponnesian War, and, according to Thucydides, the largest naval battle between Greek city states until that time. Thucydides also reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth century BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth. Ruins of ancient Greek temples and other archaeological sites of the ancient city of Korkyra are found in Palaiopolis. Medieval castles punctuating strategic locations across the island are a legacy of struggles in the Middle Ages against invasions by pirates and the Ottomans. 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 successfully repulsed the Ottomans during several sieges, 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 eventually fell under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars, and was eventually ceded to Greece by the British government along with the remaining islands of the United States of the Ionian Islands. Unification with modern Greece was concluded in 1864 under the Treaty of London. Corfu is the origin of the Ionian Academy, the first university of the modern Greek state, and the "Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù", the first Greek theatre and opera house of modern Greece. The first governor of independent Greece after the revolution of 1821, founder of the modern Greek state, and distinguished European diplomat Ioannis Kapodistrias was born in Corfu.


title: Corfu

text: In 2007, the city's old town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, following a recommendation by ICOMOS. The 1994 European Union summit was held in Corfu. The island is a popular tourist destination.


title: Corfu

text: The Greek name, "Kerkyra" or "Korkyra", is related to two powerful water deities: 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 Asopos 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). They had a child they called "Phaiax", after whom the inhabitants of the island were named "Phaiakes", in Latin "Phaeaciani". Corfu's nickname is "the island of the Phaeacians".


title: Corfu

text: The name Corfù, an Italian version of the Byzantine Κορυφώ (Koryphō), meaning "city of the peaks", derives from the Byzantine Greek Κορυφαί (Koryphai) (crests or peaks), denoting the two peaks of "Palaio Frourio".


title: Corfu

text: The northeastern edge of Corfu lies off the coast of Sarandë, Albania, separated by straits varying in width from . The southeast side of the island lies off the coast of Thesprotia, Greece. Its shape resembles a sickle ("drepanē, δρεπάνι"), to which it was compared by the ancients: the concave side, with the city and harbour of Corfu in the centre, lies toward the Albanian coast. With the island's area estimated at , it runs approximately long, with greatest breadth at around .


title: Corfu

text: Two high and well-defined ranges divide the island into three districts, of which the northern is mountainous, the central undulating, and the southern low-lying. The more important of the two ranges, that of Pantokrator (Παντοκράτωρ – the Almighty) stretches east and west from Cape Falacro to Cape Psaromita, and attains its greatest elevation in the summit of the same name.


title: Corfu

text: The second range culminates in the mountain of Santi Jeca, or Santa Decca, as it is called by misinterpretation of the Greek designation "Άγιοι Δέκα" (Hagioi Deka), or the Ten Saints. The whole island, composed as it is of various limestone formations, presents great diversity of surface. Beaches are found in Agios Gordis, the Korission Lagoon, Agios Georgios, Marathia, Kassiopi, Sidari, Palaiokastritsa and many others. Corfu is located near the Kefalonia geological fault formation; earthquakes have occurred.


title: Corfu

text: Corfu's coastline spans including capes; its highest point is Mount Pantokrator (); and the second Stravoskiadi, at . The full extent of capes and promontories take in Agia Aikaterini, Drastis to the north, Lefkimmi and Asprokavos to the southeast, and Megachoro to the south. Two islands are also to be found at a middle point of Gouvia and Corfu Bay, which extends across much of the eastern shore of the island; are known as Lazareto and Ptychia (or Vido).


title: Corfu

text: The Diapontia Islands (Greek: Διαπόντια νησιά) are located in the northwest of Corfu, (6 km away) and about 40 km from the Italian coast. The main islands are Othonoi, Ereikoussa and Mathraki.


title: Corfu

text: Lazaretto Island, formerly known as St. Dimitrios, is located 1.1 km of the coast northeast of Corfu; the island has an area of and comes under the administration of the Greek National Tourist Organization. During Venetian rule in the early 16th century, a monastery was built on the islet and a leprosarium established later in the century, after which the island was named. In 1798, during the French occupation, the islet was occupied by the Russo-Turkish fleet, who ran it as a military hospital. During the period of British rule, in 1814, the leprosarium was once again opened after renovations, and following Enosis in 1864 the leprosarium again saw occasional use. During World War II, the Axis Occupation of Greece established a Nazi concentration camp there for the prisoners of the Greek Resistance movement, while remaining today are the two-storeyed building that served as the Headquarters of the Italian army, a small church, and the wall against which those condemned to death were shot.


title: Corfu

text: Homer identifies six plants that adorn the garden of Alcinous: wild olive, pear, pomegranate, apple, fig and grape vine. Of these the apple and the pear are very inferior in Corfu; the others thrive, together with all the fruit trees known in southern Europe, with addition of the kumquat, loquat and prickly pear and, in some spots, the banana. Olive trees dominate and their combination with cypress trees compose the typical Corfiot landscape. When undisturbed by cultivation, the high maquis is the major natural vegetation type followed by deciduous oak forests and to a lesser extent, pine forests. In total more than 1800 plant species have been recorded.


title: Corfu

text: Avifauna is extensive, with around 300 bird species recorded since the 19th century. Species vary in size from the greater flamingo to the goldcrest. Some species have become extinct, such as the rock partridge and the grey partridge, or no longer breed on the island, like the eastern imperial eagle, the white-tailed eagle, the Bonelli's eagle, the griffon vulture and the Egyptian vulture.


title: Corfu

text: Around 40 species of mammals live on the island and in the sea around it. Fin whales, sperm whales, Cuvier's beaked whales, common bottlenose dolphins, short-beaked common dolphins, striped dolphins and Risso's dolphins are the regularly present cetaceans. Monk seals appear from time to time without breeding here any more. Eurasian otters still survive in the lagoons and streams of Corfu. The golden jackal was very common till the 1960s but after persecution it became extinct, with the last individuals observed in the first half of the 1990s. Wild boar were exterminated after 2000 after farmers complained about crop damage. Red foxes, beech martens, least weasels, European hares, northern white-breasted hedgehogs are quite easy to see as some of the smaller mammals as well as the bats. Coypus, fallow deer, Indian crested porcupines, Siberian chipmunks have been observed recently but they are escapees and only the coypu has viable population.


title: Corfu

text: Eight species of amphibians and 31 species of reptiles live or have been recorded on and around Corfu.


title: Corfu

text: The Greek newt, the Macedonian crested newt, the common toad, the European green toad, the European tree frog, the agile frog, the Epirus water frog and the Greek marsh frog are the representatives of the Amphibia Class.


title: Corfu

text: Loggerhead sea turtles nest on the sandy beaches. On land, the Hermann's tortoise is widespread while the marginated tortoise's status is unclear. In freshwater wetlands European pond terrapins and Balkan terrapins are common but the last few years face the competition of the introduced pond slider.


title: Corfu

text: Lizard species include typical lizards and geckos like the starred agama, the Mediterranean house gecko, the moorish gecko, the Dalmatian algyroides, the common wall lizard, the Balkan wall lizard, the Balkan green lizard, the European green lizard and the snake-eyed skink as also the legless Greek slow worm and the European glass lizard.


title: Corfu

text: Of the snakes of Corfu only the nose-horned viper is potentially dangerous. The harmless snake list includes the European worm snake, the javelin sand boa, the Dahl's whip snake, the Balkan whip snake, the Caspian whip snake, the four-lined snake, the Aesculapian snake, the leopard snake, the grass snake, the dice snake, the European cat snake, the eastern Montpellier snake.


title: Corfu

text: There are 75 (plus) known species of Corfiot butterfly. Of particular interest are the Southern Swallowtail, Southern Festoon, Oberthür's Grizzled Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Eastern Orange Tip, Krueper’s Small White, Eastern Baton Blue and the Tree Grayling, many of which are of near threatened status. Before the turn of the century, not much had been published about the butterfly fauna of Corfu and there were only a few short and obscure scientific articles. Recent interest grew when a Facebook discussion page (now called Corfu Butterfly Conservation) was created on 27th April 2014. Since that time a group of responsible butterfly enthusiasts has grown (731 members at the time of writing) who share their passion for the butterflies and moths found on the island. It is through this work that more is being discovered about the distribution and abundance of butterflies across the island.


title: Corfu

text: Corfu Butterfly Conservation (CBC) was launched in April 2019. The group is composed of concerned residents, island visitors and scientists from throughout Europe. Their goals are to produce robust scientific data that can be used to influence policy and protect habitat for the benefit of Corfu’s butterflies and the wider natural environment, as well as to stimulate public interest in butterfly conservation.


title: Corfu

text: CBC launched its website (www.corfubutterflyconservation.org, funded by the Royal Entomological Society’s Goodman Award) on the 1 January 2021 to coincide with the launch of the Corfu Butterfly Survey. The website describes the 75 species of butterflies that have been confirmed by members of CBC from the island. It outlines the value of butterflies as indicators of the island’s biodiversity status and encourages enthusiasts to record their sightings on this website, as participants of the survey. On the 16 December 2021, CBC became a UK registered community interest company (No.13813164) and so its identity changed from being a project to that of an organisation.


title: Corfu

text: The earliest reference to Corfu is the Mycenaean Greek word "ko-ro-ku-ra-i-jo (""man from Kerkyra") written in Linear B syllabic script, c. 1300 BC. According to Strabo, Corcyra (Κόρκυρα) was the Homeric island of Scheria (Σχερία), and its earliest inhabitants were the Phaeacians (Φαίακες). The island has indeed been identified by some scholars with Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians described in Homer's "Odyssey", though conclusive and irrefutable evidence for this theory have not been found. Apollonius of Rhodes depicts the island in "Argonautica" as a place visited by the Argonauts. Jason and Medea were married there in 'Medea's Cave'. Apollonius named the island "Drepane", Greek for "sickle", since it was thought to hide the sickle that Cronus used to castrate his father Uranus, from whose blood the Phaeacians were descended. In an alternative account, Apollonius identifies the buried sickle as a scythe belonging to Demeter, yet the name "Drepane" probably originated in the sickle-shape of the island. According to a scholiast, commenting on the passage in "Argonautica", the island was first of all called Macris after the nurse of Dionysus who fled there from Euboea.


title: Corfu

text: According to Strabo (VI, 269), the Liburnians were masters of the island "Korkyra" (Corfu) for a time, until the 8th century BCE. They reportedly were expelled from Korkyra by the Corinthians.


title: Corfu

text: At a date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse, Corfu was peopled by settlers from Corinth, probably 730 BC, but it appears to have previously received a stream of emigrants from Eretria. The commercially advantageous location of Corcyra on the way between Greece and Magna Grecia, and its fertile lowlands in the southern section of the island favoured its growth and, influenced perhaps by the presence of non-Corinthian settlers, its people, quite contrary to the usual practice of Corinthian colonies, maintained an independent and even hostile attitude towards the mother city.


title: Corfu

text: This opposition came to a head in the early part of the 7th century BC, when their fleets fought the first naval battle recorded in Greek history: 665 BC according to Thucydides. These hostilities ended in the conquest of Corcyra by the Corinthian tyrant Periander (Περίανδρος) who induced his new subjects to join in the colonization of Apollonia and Anactorium. The island soon regained its independence and thenceforth devoted itself to a purely mercantile policy. During the Persian invasion of 480 BC it manned the second largest Greek fleet (60 ships), but took no active part in the war. In 435 BC it was again involved in a quarrel with Corinth over the control of Epidamnus, and sought assistance from Athens (see Battle of Sybota).


title: Corfu

text: This new alliance was one of the chief immediate causes of the Peloponnesian War, in which Corcyra was of considerable use to the Athenians as a naval station, but did not render much assistance with its fleet. The island was nearly lost to Athens by two attempts of the oligarchic faction to effect a revolution; on each occasion the popular party ultimately won the day and took a most bloody revenge on its opponents (427 BC and 425 BC).


title: Corfu

text: During the Sicilian campaigns of Athens Corcyra served as a supply base; after a third abortive rising of the oligarchs in 410 BC it practically withdrew from the war. In 375 BC it again joined the Athenian alliance; two years later it was besieged by a Spartan force, but in spite of the devastation of its flourishing countryside held out successfully until relieved. In the Hellenistic period Corcyra was exposed to attack from several sides.


title: Corfu

text: In 303 BC, after a vain siege by Cassander, the island was occupied for a short time by the Lacedaemonian general Cleonymus of Sparta, then regained its independence and later it was attacked and conquered by Agathocles of Syracuse. He offered Corfu as dowry to his daughter Lanassa on her marriage to Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. The island then became a member of the Epirotic alliance. It was then perhaps that the settlement of Cassiope was founded to serve as a base for the King of Epirus' expeditions. The island remained in the Epirotic alliance until 255 BC when it became independent after the death of Alexander, last King of Epirus. In 229 BC, following the naval battle of Paxos, it was captured by the Illyrians, but was speedily delivered by a Roman fleet and remained a Roman naval station until at least 189 BC. At this time, it was governed by a prefect (presumably nominated by the consuls), but in 148 BC it was attached to the province of Macedonia.


title: Corfu

text: Christianity arrived in Corfu early; two disciples of Saint Paul, Jason of Tarsus and Sosipatrus of Patras, taught the Gospel, and according to tradition the city of Corfu and much of the island converted to Christianity. Their relics were housed in the old cathedral (at the site of the current Old Fortress, before a dedicated church was built for them .


title: Corfu

text: During Late Antiquity (late Roman/early Byzantine period), the island formed part of the province of Epirus Vetus in the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. In 551, during the Gothic War, the Ostrogoths raided the island and destroyed the city of Corfu, then known as "Chersoupolis" (Χερσούπολις, "city on the promontory") because of its location between Garitsa Bay and Kanoni. Over the next centuries, the main settlement was moved north, to the location of the current Old Fortress, where the rocky hills offered natural protection against raids. From the twin peaks of the new site, the medieval city received its new name, "Korypho" (Κορυφώ, "city on the peak") or "Korphoi" (Κορφοί, "peaks"), whence the modern Western name of "Corfu". The previous site of the city, now known as "Palaiopolis" (Παλαιόπολις, "old city"), continued to be inhabited for several centuries, however.


title: Corfu

text: From at least the early 9th century, Corfu and the other Ionian Islands formed part of the theme of Cephallenia. This naval theme provided a defensive bulwark for Byzantium against western threats, but also played a major role in securing the sealanes to the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy. Indeed, traveller reports from throughout the middle Byzantine period (8th–12th centuries) make clear that Corfu was "an important staging post for travels between East and West". Indeed, the medieval name of Corfu first appears (Latinized "Coryphus") in Liutprand of Cremona's account of his 968 embassy to the Byzantine court. Corfu enjoyed relative peace and safety during the Macedonian dynasty (867–1054), which allowed the construction of a monumental church to Saints Iason and Sosipatrus outside the city wall of Palaiopolis. Nevertheless, in 933, the city, led by its archbishop, Arsenios, withstood a Saracen attack; Arsenios was canonized and became the city's patron saint.


title: Corfu

text: The peace and prosperity of the Macedonian era ended with another Saracen attack in 1033, but more importantly with the emergence of a new threat: following the Norman conquest of Southern Italy, the ambitious Norman monarchs set their sights on expansion in the East. Three times on the space of a century Corfu was the first target and served as a staging area for the Norman invasions of Byzantium. The first Norman occupation from 1081 to 1084 was ended only after the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos secured the aid of the Republic of Venice, in exchange to wide-ranging commercial concessions to Venetian merchants. The admiral George of Antioch captured Corfu again in 1147, and it took a ten-month siege for Manuel I Komnenos to recover the island in 1149. In the third invasion in 1185, the island was again captured by William II of Sicily, but was soon regained by Isaac II Angelos.


title: Corfu

text: During the break-up of the Byzantine Empire the island was occupied by Genoese privateers (1197–1207), who in turn were expelled by the Venetians. In 1214 it passed to the Greek despots of Epirus, who gave it to Manfred of Sicily as a dowry in 1259. At his death in 1267 it passed with his other possessions to the house of Anjou. Under the latter, the island suffered considerably from the inroads of various adventurers.


title: Corfu

text: The island was one of the first places in Europe in which Romani people ("Gypsies") settled. In about 1360, a fiefdom, called the "Feudum Acinganorum" was established, with mainly Romani serfs. From 1386, Corfu was controlled by the Republic of Venice, which in 1401 acquired formal sovereignty and retained it until the French Occupation of 1797. Corfu became central for the propagation of the activities of the Filiki Etaireia among the Greek Diaspora and philhellenic societies across Europe, through nobles like Ioannis Kapodistrias and Dionysios Romas.


title: Corfu

text: 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 Ottoman sieges, before passing under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars.


title: Corfu

text: Kerkyra, the "Door of Venice" during the centuries when the whole Adriatic was the Gulf of Venice, remained in Venetian hands from 1401 until 1797, though several times assailed by Ottoman naval and land forces and subjected to four notable sieges in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716, in which the strength of the city defences asserted itself time after time. The effectiveness of the powerful Venetian fortifications as well as the strength of some old Byzantine castles in Angelokastro, Kassiopi Castle, Gardiki and elsewhere, were additional factors that enabled Corfu to remain free. Will Durant claimed that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was one of the few parts of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans.


title: Corfu

text: A series of attempts by the Ottomans to take the island began in 1431 when Ottoman troops under Ali Bey landed on the island. The Ottomans tried to take the city castle and raided the surrounding area, but were repulsed.


title: Corfu

text: The Siege of Corfu (1537) was the first great siege by the Ottomans. It began on 29 August 1537, with 25,000 soldiers from the Ottoman fleet landing and pillaging the island and taking 20,000 hostages as slaves. Despite the destruction wrought on the countryside, the city castle held out in spite of repeated attempts over twelve days to take it, and the Turks left the island unsuccessfully because of poor logistics and an epidemic that decimated their ranks.


title: Corfu

text: Thirty-four years later, in August 1571, Ottoman forces returned for yet another attempt to conquer the island. Having seized Parga and Mourtos from the Greek mainland side, they attacked the Paxi islands. Subsequently they landed on Corfu's southeast shore and established a large beachhead all the way from the southern tip of the island at Lefkimi to Ipsos in Corfu's eastern midsection. These areas were thoroughly pillaged as in past encounters. Nevertheless the city castle stood firm again, a testament to Corfiot-Venetian steadfastness as well as the Venetian castle-building engineering skills. Another castle, Angelokastro, situated on the northwest coast near Palaiokastritsa (Greek: Παλαιοκαστρίτσα meaning "Old Castle place") and located on particularly steep and rocky terrain, also held out. The castle is a tourist attraction today.


title: Corfu

text: These defeats in the east and the west of the island proved decisive, and the Ottomans abandoned their siege and departed. Two years later they repeated their attempt. Coming from Africa after a victorious campaign, they landed in Corfu and wreaked havoc on rural areas. Following a counterattack by the Venetian-Corfiot forces, the Ottoman troops were forced to leave the city sailing away.


title: Corfu

text: The second great siege of Corfu took place in 1716, during the last Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–18). After the conquest of the Peloponnese in 1715, the Ottoman fleet appeared in Buthrotum opposite Corfu. On 8 July the Ottoman fleet, carrying 33,000 men, sailed to Corfu from Buthrotum and established a beachhead at Ipsos. The same day, the Venetian fleet encountered the Ottoman fleet off the Corfu Channel and defeated it in the ensuing naval battle. On 19 July, after taking a few outlying forts, the Ottoman army reached the hills around the city of Corfu and laid siege to it. Despite repeated assaults and heavy fighting, the Ottomans were unable to breach the defences and were forced to raise the siege after 22 days. The 5,000 Venetians and foreign mercenaries, together with 3,000 Corfiotes, under the leadership of Count von der Schulenburg who commanded the defence of the island, were victorious once more. The success was owed in no small part to the extensive fortifications, where Venetian castle engineering had proven itself once again against considerable odds. The repulse of the Ottomans was widely celebrated in Europe, Corfu being seen as a bastion of Western civilization against the Ottoman tide. Today, however, this role is often relatively unknown or ignored, but was celebrated in "Juditha triumphans" by the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi.


title: Corfu

text: Corfu's urban architecture differs from that of other major Greek cities, because of Corfu's unique history. From 1386 to 1797, Corfu was ruled by Venetian nobility; much of the city reflects this era when the island belonged to the Republic of Venice, with multi-storeyed buildings on narrow lanes. The Old Town of Corfu has clear Venetian influence and is amongst the World Heritage Sites in Greece. It was in the Venetian period that the city saw the erection of the first opera house (Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù) in Greece.


title: Corfu

text: Many Venetian-speaking families settled in Corfu during these centuries; they were called Corfiot Italians, and until the second half of the 20th century the "Veneto da mar" was spoken in Corfu. During this time, the local Greek language assimilated a large number of Italian and Venetian words, many of which are still common today. The internationally renowned Venetian-born British photographer Felice Beato (1832–1909) is thought to have spent much of his childhood in Corfu. Also many Italian Jews took refuge in Corfu during the Venetian centuries and spoke their own language (Italkian), a mixture of Hebrew-Italian in a Venetian or Apulian dialect with some Greek words.


title: Corfu

text: Venetians promoted the Catholic Church during their four centuries of rule in Corfu. Today the majority of Corfiots are Greek Orthodox, but the small Catholic minority (5%), living harmoniously with the Orthodox community, owes its faith to these origins. These contemporary Catholics are mostly families who came from Malta, but also from Italy, and today the Catholic community numbers about 4,000 ( of Maltese descent), who live almost exclusively in the Venetian "Citadel" of Corfu City. Like other native Greek Catholics, they celebrate Easter using the same calendar as the Greek Orthodox church. The Cathedral of St. James and St. Christopher in Corfu City is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Corfu, Zakynthos and Cephalonia.


title: Corfu

text: The island served also as a refuge for Greek scholars, and in 1732, it became the home of the first academy of modern Greece. A Corfu cleric and scholar, Nikephoros Theotokis (1732–1800) became renowned in Greece as an educator, and in Russia (where he moved later in his life) as an Orthodox archbishop.


title: Corfu

text: The island's culture absorbed Venetian influence in a variety of ways; like other Ionian islands (see Cuisine of the Ionian islands), its local cuisine took in such elements and today's Corfiot cooking includes Venetian delicacies and recipes: "Pastitsada", deriving from the Venetian "Pastissada" (Italian: "Spezzatino") and the most popular dish in the island of Corfu, "Sofrito", "Strapatsada", "Savoro", "Bianco" and "Mandolato".


title: Corfu

text: By the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio, Corfu was ceded to the French, who occupied it for two years as the "département" of Corcyre, until they were expelled by a joint Russian-Ottoman squadron under Admiral Ushakov. For a short time it became the capital of a self-governing federation of the Heptanesos ("Seven Islands"), under Ottoman suzerainty; in 1807 after the Treaty of Tilsit its faction-ridden government was again replaced by a French administration under governor François-Xavier Donzelot, and in 1809 it was besieged in vain by a British Royal Navy fleet, which had captured all the other Ionian islands.


title: Corfu

text: Following the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, the Ionian Islands became a protectorate of the United Kingdom by the Treaty of Paris of 5 November 1815 as the United States of the Ionian Islands. Corfu became the seat of the British Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. "The period of British rule led to investment in new roads, an improved water supply system, and the expansion of the Ionian Academy into a university." During this period the Greek language became official.


title: Corfu

text: Following a plebiscite the Second National Assembly of the Greeks at Athens elected a new king, Prince Wilhelm (William) of Denmark, who took the name George I and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain. On 29 March 1864, the United Kingdom, Greece, France and Russia signed the Treaty of London, pledging the transfer of sovereignty to Greece upon ratification. Thus, on 21 May, by proclamation of the Lord High Commissioner, the Ionian Islands were united with Greece.


title: Corfu

text: This is a list of the British High Commissioners of the Ionian Islands; (as well as the transitional Greek Governor, appointed a year prior to Enosis (Union) with Greece in 1864).


title: Corfu

text: During the First World War, the island served as a refuge for the Serbian army that retreated there on Allied forces' ships from a homeland occupied by the Austrians, Germans and Bulgarians. During their stay, a large portion of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and various diseases. Most of their remains were buried at sea near the island of Vido, a small island at the mouth of Corfu port, and a monument of thanks to the Greek nation has been erected at Vido by the grateful Serbs; consequently, the waters around Vido Island are known by the Serbian people as the Blue Tomb (in Serbian, Плава Гробница, Plava Grobnica), after a poem written by Milutin Bojić following World War I.


title: Corfu

text: In 1923, after a diplomatic dispute between Italy and Greece, Italian forces bombarded and occupied Corfu. The League of Nations settled this Corfu incident in Italy's favour.


title: Corfu

text: During the Greco-Italian War, Corfu was occupied by the Italians in April 1941. They administered Corfu and the Ionian islands as a separate entity from Greece until September 1943, following Benito Mussolini's orders of fulfilling Italian Irredentism and making Corfu part of the Kingdom of Italy. During the Second World War the 10th infantry regiment of the Greek Army, composed mainly of Corfiot soldiers, was assigned the task of defending Corfu. The regiment took part in "Operation Latzides", which was a heroic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stem the forces of the Italians. After Greece's surrender to the Axis, the island came under Italian control and occupation. On the first Sunday of November 1941, high school students from all over Corfu took part in student protests against the occupying Italian army; these student protests of the island were among the first acts of overt popular Resistance in occupied Greece and a rare phenomenon even by wartime European standards. Subsequently, a considerable number of Corfiots escaped to Epirus in mainland Greece and enlisted as partisans in ELAS and EDES, in order to join the resistance movement gathering in the mainland.


title: Corfu

text: Upon the fall of Italian fascism in 1943, the Nazis moved to take control of the island. On 14 September 1943, Corfu was bombarded by the Luftwaffe. The Nazi bombing raids destroyed most of the city's buildings, including churches, homes, and whole city blocks, especially in the Jewish quarter Evraiki. Other losses included the city's market (αγορά) and the hotel Bella Venezia. The worst losses were the historic buildings of the Ionian Academy (Ιόνιος Ακαδημία), the Municipal Theatre (which in 1901 had replaced the "Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù"), the Municipal Library, and the Ionian Parliament.


title: Corfu

text: Following the Nazi invasion, the Italians capitulated, and the island came under German occupation. Corfu's mayor at the time, Kollas, was a known collaborator and various anti-semitic laws were passed by the Nazi occupation government of the island. In early June 1944, while the Allies bombed Corfu as a diversion from the Normandy landings, the Gestapo rounded up the Jews of the city, temporarily incarcerated them at the old fort (Palaio Frourio), and on 10 June sent them to Auschwitz, where very few survived. Approximately two hundred out of a total population of 1,900 escaped. Many among the local population at the time provided shelter and refuge to those 200 Jews who managed to escape the Nazis. In "Evraiki" (Εβραική, meaning "Jewish quarter"), there is currently a synagogue with about 65 members, who still speak their original Italkian language.


title: Corfu

text: Corfu was liberated by British troops, specifically the 40th Royal Marine Commando, which landed in Corfu on 14 October 1944, as the Germans were evacuating Greece. The Royal Navy swept the Corfu Channel for mines in 1944 and 1945, and found it to be free of mines. A large minefield was laid there shortly afterwards by the newly communist Albania and gave rise to the Corfu Channel Incident. This incident led to the Corfu Channel Case, where the United Kingdom opened a case against the People's Republic of Albania at the International Court of Justice.


title: Corfu

text: After World War II and the Greek Civil War, the island was rebuilt under the general programme of reconstruction of the Greek Government (Ανοικοδόμησις) and many elements of its classical architecture remain. Its economy grew but a portion of its inhabitants left the island for other parts of the country; buildings erected during Italian occupation – such as schools or government buildings – were put back to civic use. In 1956 Maria Desylla Kapodistria, relative of first Governor (head of state) of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias, was elected mayor of Corfu and became the first female mayor in Greece. The Corfu General Hospital was also constructed; electricity was introduced to the villages in the 1950s, the radio substation of Hellenic Radio in Corfu was inaugurated in March 1957, and television was introduced in the 1960s, with internet connections in 1995. The Ionian University was established in 1984.


title: Corfu

text: Corfu's urban architecture influence derives from Venice, reflecting the fact that from 1386 to 1797 the island was ruled by the Venetians. The architecture of the Old Town of Corfu along with its narrow streets, the , has clear Venetian influence and is amongst the World Heritage Sites in Greece. Other notable Venetian-era buildings include the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, the first Greek opera house, and "Liston", a multi-level commercial and residential building, with an arched colonnade at ground level, lined with cafes and restaurants on its east side, and restaurants and other stores on its west side. Liston's main thoroughfare is often the site of parades and other mass gatherings. Liston is on the edge of the "Spianada" (Esplanade), the vast main plaza and park which incorporates a cricket field, a pavilion, and Maitland's monument. Also notable are the Old and New forts, the recently restored Palace of Sts. Michael and George, formerly the residence of the British colonial governor and the seat of the Ionian Senate, and the summer Palace of "Mon Repos", formerly the property of the Greek royal family and birthplace of the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Park of Mon Repos is built on part of the Palaiopolis of Kerkyra, where excavations were conducted by the Greek Archaeological Service in collaboration with academics and universities internationally. Examples of the finds can be found in the Museum of the Palace of Mon Repos and at the Archaeological Museum of Corfu.


title: Corfu

text: In 1889, Empress Elizabeth of Austria built a summer palace in the region of Gastouri (Γαστούρι) to the south of the city, naming it Achílleion (Αχίλλειον) after the Homeric hero Achilles. The structure is filled with paintings and statues of Achilles, both in the main hall and in the gardens, depicting scenes of the Trojan War. The palace, with the neoclassical Greek statues that surround it, is a monument to platonic romanticism as well as escapism. It served as a refuge for the grieving Empress following the tragic death of her only son and Crown Prince, Rudolf.


title: Corfu

text: The Imperial gardens on the hill look over the surrounding green hills and valleys and the Ionian sea. The centrepiece of the gardens is a marble statue on a high pedestal, of the mortally wounded Achilles (Greek: Αχιλλεύς Θνήσκων, "Achilleús Thnēskōn", Achilles Dying) without hubris and wearing only a simple cloth and an ancient Greek hoplite helmet. This statue was carved by German sculptor Ernst Gustav Herter.


title: Corfu

text: The hero is presented devoid of rank or status, and seems notably human, though heroic, as he is forever trying to pull Paris's arrow from his heel. His classically depicted face is full of pain. He gazes skyward, as if to seek help from Olympus. According to Greek mythology, his mother Thetis was a goddess.


title: Corfu

text: In 1898, Empress Sissi was assassinated at the age of 60 by an Italian anarchist, Luigi Lucheni, in Geneva, Switzerland. After her death, the palace was sold to the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. In contrast, at the great staircase in the main hall is a giant painting of the triumphant Achilles full of pride. Dressed in full royal military regalia and erect on his racing chariot, he pulls the lifeless body of Hector of Troy in front of the stunned crowd watching helplessly from inside the walls of the Trojan citadel.


title: Corfu

text: Following the Kaiser's purchase of the Achilleion, he invited archaeologist Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz, a friend and advisor, to come to Corfu to advise him where to position the huge statue of Achilles which he commissioned. The famous salute to Achilles from the Kaiser, which had been inscribed at the statue's base, was also created by Kekulé. The inscription read: The inscription was subsequently removed after World War II.


title: Corfu

text: German Kaiser Wilhelm II was also fond of taking holidays in Corfu. Having purchased the Achilleion in 1907 after Sissi's death, he appointed Carl Ludwig Sprenger as the botanical architect of the Palace, and also built a bridge later named by the locals after him—the "Kaiser's bridge" (Greek: η γέφυρα του Κάιζερ transliterated as: i gefyra tou Kaizer)—to access the beach without traversing the road forming the island's main artery to the south. The bridge, arching over the road, spanned the distance between the lower gardens of Achilleion and the nearby beach; its remains, a monument to imperial vanity, are an important landmark on the highway. The bridge's central section was demolished by the Wehrmacht in 1944, during the German occupation of World War II, to allow for the passage of an enormous cannon, forming part of the Nazi defences in the southeastern coast of Corfu.


title: Corfu

text: The Old Town of Corfu city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In several parts of the old city, buildings of the Venetian era are to be found. The old city's architectural character is strongly influenced by the Venetian style, coming as it did under Venetian rule for a long period; its small and ancient side streets, and the old buildings' trademark arches are particularly reminiscent of Venice.


title: Corfu

text: The city of Corfu stands on the broad part of a peninsula, whose termination in the Venetian citadel () is cut off from it by an artificial fosse formed in a natural gully, with a seawater moat at the bottom, that now serves as a marina and is called the "Contrafossa". In the old town there are many narrow streets paved with cobblestones. These streets are known as (), and the older amongst them sometimes follow the gentle irregularities of the ground; while many are too narrow for vehicular traffic. A promenade rises by the seashore towards the bay of Garitsa (Γαρίτσα), together with an esplanade between the city and the citadel known as "Spianada" with the arcade () to its west side, where restaurants and bistros abound.


title: Corfu

text: Near the old Venetian Citadel a large square called "Spianada" is also to be found, divided by a street in two parts: "Ano Plateia" (literally: "Upper square") and "Kato Plateia" (literally: "Lower square"), (Ανω Πλατεία and Κάτω Πλατεία in Greek). This is the biggest square in South-Eastern Europe and one of the largest in Europe, and replete with green spaces and interesting structures, such as a Roman-style rotunda from the era of British administration, known as the "Maitland monument", built to commemorate Sir Thomas Maitland. An ornate music pavilion is also present, where the local "Philharmonikes" (Philharmonic Orchestras) (Φιλαρμονικές), mount classical performances in the artistic and musical tradition for which the island is well known. "Kato Plateia" also serves as a venue where cricket matches are held from time to time. In Greece, cricket is unique to Corfu, as it was once a British protectorate.


title: Corfu

text: Just to the north of "Kato Plateia" lie the "Palaia Anaktora" (Παλαιά Ανάκτορα: literally "Old Palaces"): a large complex of buildings of Roman architectural style which formerly housed the Kings of Greece, and prior to that the British Governors of the island. It was then called the Palace of Saints Michael and George. The Order of St. Michael and St. George was founded here in 1818 with motto "auspicium melioris aevi", and is still awarded by the United Kingdom. Today the palace is open to the public and forms a complex of halls and buildings housing art exhibits, including a Museum of Asian Art, unique across Southern Europe in its scope and in the richness of its Chinese and Asian exhibits. The gardens of the Palaces, complete with old Venetian stone aquariums, exotic trees and flowers, overlook the bay through old Venetian fortifications and turrets, and the local sea baths (Μπάνια τ' Αλέκου) are at the foot of the fortifications surrounding the gardens. A café on the grounds includes its own art gallery, with exhibitions of both local and international artists, known locally as the Art Café. From the same spot, the viewer can observe ships passing through the narrow channel of the historic Vido island (Νησί Βίδου) to the north, on their way to Corfu harbour (Νέο Λιμάνι), with high speed retractable aerofoil ferries from Igoumenitsa also cutting across the panorama. A wrought-iron aerial staircase, closed to visitors, descends to the sea from the gardens; the Greek royal family used it as a shortcut to the baths. Rewriting history, locals now refer to the old Royal Gardens as the "Garden of the People" (Ο Κήπος του Λαού).


title: Corfu

text: In the city, there are thirty-seven Greek churches, the most important of which are the city's cathedral, the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Cave (η Παναγία Σπηλιώτισσα (hē Panagia Spēliōtissa)); Saint Spyridon Church, wherein lies the preserved body of the patron saint of the island; and finally the suburban church of St Jason and St Sosipater (Αγιοι Ιάσων και Σωσίπατρος), reputedly the oldest in the island, and named after the two saints probably the first to preach Christianity to the Corfiots.


title: Corfu

text: The nearby island, known as Pontikonisi (Greek meaning "mouse island"), though small is very green with abundant trees, and at its highest natural elevation (excluding its trees or man-made structures, such as the monastery), stands at about . Pontikonisi is home of the monastery of Pantokrator (Μοναστήρι του Παντοκράτορος); the white stone staircase of the monastery, viewed from afar, gives the impression of a (mouse) tail, which lent the island its name.


title: Corfu

text: In the city of Corfu, the ruins of the ancient city of Korkyra, also known as "Palaiopolis", include ancient temples which were excavated at the location of the palace of Mon Repos, which was built on the ruins of the Palaiopolis. The temples are: Kardaki Temple, Temple of Artemis, and the Temple of Hera. Hera's temple is situated at the western limits of Mon Repos, close to Kardaki Temple and to the northwest. It is approximately 700 m. to the southeast of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu. Hera's Temple was built at the top of Analipsis Hill, and, because of its prominent location, it was highly visible to ships passing close to the waterfront of ancient Korkyra.


title: Corfu

text: Kardaki Temple is an Archaic Doric temple in Corfu, Greece, built around 500 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra (or Corcyra), in what is known today as the location Kardaki in the hill of Analipsi in Corfu. The temple features several architectural peculiarities that point to a Doric origin. The temple at Kardaki is unusual because it has no frieze, following perhaps architectural tendencies of Sicilian temples.


title: Corfu

text: It is considered to be the only Greek temple of Doric architecture that does not have a frieze. The spacing of the temple columns has been described as "abnormally wide". The temple also lacked both porch and adyton, and the lack of a triglyph and metope frieze may be indicative of Ionian influence. The temple at Kardaki is considered an important and to a certain degree mysterious topic on the subject of early ancient Greek architecture. Its association with the worship of Apollo or Poseidon has not been established.


title: Corfu

text: The Temple of Artemis is an Archaic Greek temple in Corfu, built in around 580 BC in the ancient city of Korkyra (or Corcyra), in what is known today as the suburb of Garitsa. The temple was dedicated to Artemis. It is known as the first Doric temple exclusively built with stone. It is also considered the first building to have incorporated all of the elements of the Doric architectural style. Very few Greek temple reliefs from the Archaic period have survived, and the large fragments of the group from the pediment are the earliest significant survivals.


title: Corfu

text: The temple was a peripteral–styled building with a pseudodipteral configuration. Its perimeter was rectangular, with width of and length with an eastward orientation so that light could enter the interior of the temple at sunrise. It was one of the largest temples of its time.