2 - UNESCO: World Heritage

DESCRIPTION
Although there must have been a great number of mansions in town (112 noble families were listed in the Libro
d' oro), very few of them are identifiable today and those bear the characteristics of an official building, while in
most of them isolated parts that bear witness of their initial use can be identified. Two of the best preserved
mansions (Ricchi and Yallina [17 th cent]) have a Renaissance porch at the front that forms a balcony at the
first floor level.
Generally speaking, the facades of the dwellings of this period display Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque
features, albeit expressed in a simple and sometimes popular manner on account of differences in scale
compared with the western prototypes. The extent to which these architectural elements were used and
interest was invested in compositional organisation depended on the type of the structure. The models followed
in the construction of official buildings and the Old Fortress exerted great influence in terms of morphological
details. Individual elements also illustrate interaction between urban and religious architecture. General
features of the appearance of the preserved buildings’ exteriors (most of which underwent extensions during
British rule or later as well) include the use of mainly flat surfaces, emphasis on horizontality (with rows of
windows, bandss, cornices, etc.) and articulation of forms on a symmetrical system of axes, not necessarily
followed in simpler structures. The colours used on the facades are the same as in Venice, red or ochre for the
plastered surfaces, off-white or yellowish for the carved members and green for the shutters.
The architectural configuration of the ground floor was considered very important. The main entrance, the
portico etc. were set off visually by the distinctive rhythmic juxtaposition of apertures, a fact justified by the
narrowness of the streets, which made it impossible to gain an overall view of multi-storey buildings.
Some of the most interesting elements of the facade designs are the Renaissance porticoes with arcades,
single or successive, located mainly along commercial streets, but also the portonia (main entrances) with
carved doorframes and occasionally a Baroque finial, the windows, which are surrounded by frames decorated
with mouldings, and the cornices. The flat facade surface is also decorated and given a sculptural quality by
the projecting porches that create an open air veranda on the first floor, the stone balconies and the external
stone staircases providing access to the first floor where a covered landing/balcony is formed (a kind of porch,
or "botzos"). Last but not least, other remarkable morphological elements included brackets, quoins (when
these are formed as dressed masonry), protruding kitchen chimney breasts and chimney tops, the coats of
arms etc.
The ground floor of dwellings were often used as shops or storerooms, whereas the main residence was
located on the upper storeys. Most dwellings have an attic, which usually covers a large part of the area
beneath the roof and could be used as a residential space. The staircase, which is usually inside the building,
is built either on the axis of the structure and is surrounded by the individual spaces, or runs along one of the
sides. Only few examples of dwellings—all of them detached—have an external stone staircase to the first floor
level. Access to the rooms was not by means of corridors, but through a central space leading to the staircase.
The kitchen usually occupied the corner of a room and included a stone hearth and a chimney (which
protruded externally onto the facade). Since no separate lavatories were available, a hole next to the sink that
lead to the sewage network served that purpose. The furniture of the urban houses of the nobility was brought
in from Venice or Trieste. Typical pieces were the rotonda (round table) and, of course, the Venetian mirror.
The Old Town of Corfu Nomination for inclusion on the World Heritage List 12
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