Cephalonia is one of the biggest greek islands and one of the biggest Ionian islands!
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this island!
- Cephalonia or Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian Islands
- It is in western Greece
- It is the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Evoia, Lesbos, Rhodes, and Chios
- It was formerly known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia
- It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region
- And the only municipality of the regional unit
- It was also a former Latin Catholic diocese Kefalonia- Zakynthos (Cefalonia–Zante)
- The capital of Cephalonia is Argostoli
- An aition explaining the name of Cephallenia and reinforcing its cultural connections with Athens associates the island with the mythological figure of Cephalus
- Who helped Amphitryon of Mycenae in a war against the Taphians and Teleboans
- He was rewarded with the island of Same
- Which thereafter came to be known as Cephallenia
- Kefalonia has also been suggested as the Homeric Ithaca
- The home of Odysseus
- Rather than the smaller island bearing this name today
- Robert Bittlestone, in his book Odysseus Unbound, has suggested that Paliki, now a peninsula of Cephalonia, was a separate island during the late Bronze Age
- And it may be this which Homer was referring to when he described Ithaca
- A project which started in the Summer of 2007 and lasted three years has examined this possibility
- Kefalonia is also referenced in relation to the goddess Britomartis
- As the location where she is said to have ‘received divine honours from the inhabitants under the name of Laphria’
- In the southwestern portion of the island, in the area of Leivatho, an ongoing archaeological field survey by the Irish Institute at Athens has discovered dozens of sites
- With dates ranging from the Palaeolithic to the Venetian period
- From an archaeological point of view, Cephalonia is an extremely interesting island
- Archaeological finds go back to 40,000 BP
- Without doubt, the most important era for the island is the Mycenaean era, from approximately 1500–1100 B.C.
- The archaeological museum in Cephalonia’s capital, Argostoli
- Although small, it is regarded as the most important museum in Greece for its exhibits from this era
- Wine and raisins are the oldest products exported
- Being important until the 20th century
- Today fish farming and calcium carbonate are most important
- Cephalonia has hot, sunny summers and mild rainy winters
- During winter it can occasionally snow on the mountain peaks of the island’s mountain ranges
- The winter months can experience up to 156 mm of rainfall, resulting in high levels of humidity on the island
- Winter temperature on Kefalonia average at 14-15 C the day and fall at night to an average of 8-9 C
- During the summer months there is usually little to no rainfall
- Rain in the summer can usually be seen
- But the dry air prevents it from being felt as it is evaporated before it reaches the ground
- The Ionian Islands have a musical tradition called the Ionian School
- Lixouri has the Philharmonic Orchestra (since 1836)
- And Argostoli the Rokos Vergottis Conservatory
- Richard Strauss visited Lixouri some times where he had an affair with the pianist Dora Wihan
- The novelists Nikos Kavvadias (1910–1975) and the Swiss Georges Haldas spent parts of their life on the island
- Andreas Laskaratos was a satirical poet and wrote about the society in the town of Lixouri
- Lord Byron wrote parts of “Prelude” and “Don Juan” in Livatho
- Perhaps the best known appearance of Cephalonia in popular culture is in the novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
- The novel is by the English author Louis de Bernières
- The book is believed to have been inspired by the village of Farsa, just outside Argostoli
- The love story comprising the theme of the book is set before and after the Acqui Division massacre, during the Second World War
- A film adaptation was released in 2001
- During filming there was lively debate between the production team, local authorities as well as groups of citizens, as to the complex historical details of the island’s antifascist resistance
- As a result, political references were omitted from the film
- And the romantic core of the book was preserved, without entering complex debates about the island’s history
- In 2005, Riccardo Milani made his TV movie, Cefalonia, also about the massacre, with music by Ennio Morricone
- There are five harbours and ports in the prefecture
- Four main harbours on the island, Sami, a major port with links to Patras and Ithaca
- Poros, in the south, has ferry routes to Kyllini
- Argostoli, in the west, is the largest port, for local boats and ferries to Zante and regularly to Lixouri
- Fiscardo, in the north, has links to Lefkas and Ithaca
- There is room for about 100 small boats in Argostoli
- There is a road connection to the rest of the island, but driving from Lixouri to Argostoli involves a 30 km (19 mi) detour
- Cephalonia is a distinct regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit
- The seat of administration is Argostoli, the island’s main town
- Amid the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit of Kefallinia was created from part of the former Kefalonia and Ithaca Prefecture
- During the same reform, the current municipality of Cephalonia was created from the eight former municipalities
- The municipality has an area of 786.575 km2
Got anything to add?