Tuesday 15 June 2010

Corfu in detail 8: A milestone in the Esplanade across Pentofanaro

  Remember a last March post about a milestone right outside Villa Rosa? Well, there is another one, more well known but equally overlooked detail. It is situated in the very heart of Corfu Town, across the busy and central Pentofanaro, a meeting place and a hangout for the youth.
  But why there is a stone like that placed at the northwestern corner of the Esplanade? It is simply placed there to mark the very heart of the town and of the whole island. It is the central point from which distances are being counted. London has Charing Cross juction in Trafalgar square and Athens has Syntagma square. In old Corfu town, the most important point of the road network wasn't Sarocco Square but this corner across Pentofanaro and Liston where Eugeniou Voulgareos (Calle D'acques) meet Kapodistriou and the promenade of Liston, all important throughfares in the past centuries.
  Looking at this ancient milestone closer we could easily see the number "0" carved on the side which faces Pentofanaro. That number should have denoted the "central point", the zero kilometre or mile from which distances started to be counted. Right about that figure, there is something written in greek but is no more readable.


  Does anybody know how old is that milestone and what that greek lettering read? I searched the net but could not find anything!

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