History of Gouvia!

Gouvia is the name of a small village laying on a side of the bay of Gouvia or Govino. It is at 7 km from Corfu Town and it is a part of its municipality. Gouvia bay is a closed bay and thus a natural port.

While standing on the pebble beach of Gouvia, one can see in the horizon the low hills and also high mountains of both Albania and mainland of Greece. Also on the other side of the bay, towards the North-East, you may see the residential area of Kommeno, with more and more villas every year.

In the middle of the bay lies the small church of Ipanpandi (Presentation to the temple of Jesus Christ) linked to the land by a causeway. This church used to belong to the Noble family Scarpa and was given to the parish of Gouvia by the last representatives of this family. Since then and under the control of the Byzantine Ephorate (service of Byzantine Archeology) the little church was restored with the generous donations of the inhabitants of Gouvia. It became one of the favorite churches to celebrate weddings and baptism. On the 2nd of February of each year, the people of Gouvia used to take their fishing boats to cross the bay and celebrate the feast of the little church. Especially married women who wanted to get a child used to make a wish there.

Before 1981 there was no real beach in Gouvia but thanks to the good will of both Mr. Ioannis Kourkoulos, mayor of Corfu and the village council, two very important projects were accomplished: 1st is the "creation" of a non-existing beach which gave life to Gouvia and made it one of the most famous summer resorts on the island and 2nd is the installation of the first sewage plant on the island of Corfu but it was also the first one built in a village in whole Greece ! Since then Corfu was doted by a huge modern sewage plant serving all Corfu town and its suburbs including Gouvia.

According to the local religious tradition, during one of the Ottoman Turks attacks in the 16th century, the Turkish fleet entered the bay of Gouvia to disembark and then march towards Corfu town to make its siege. At a certain moment a big storm blew and their fleet was in danger but also their gun powder got wet. So they had to lift the siege and leave promptly Corfu. The people saw in this a miracle of St Spiridon, the patron saint of the island.

Along the beach of Gouvia towards the South, you may find the monument of the Serbs made of granite on which an inscription is graved in three languages: Serbian, Greek and French. It was erected by the Serbs to commemorate the disembarkation of the Serbian navy during the 1st World War on their head General Putnik coming on exile to Corfu. Every year in May and September many groups of Serbians coming by coaches visit this monument on which they put a big crown of bay leaves.

Around 1935 Gouvia has been the home of the Air France seaplane base. The base closed in 1940. It used to function as a refueling base for the sea planes of Air France which started their trips from France in destination of Indochina. Nowadays one can still see what remains of the pier where the seaplanes ported as well as what used to be the radio center of the base. Where now is located a simple football field used to lie a big shed belonging to the seaplne base of Air France, which is actually exhibited in western airport of Athens.

Just on in the same area one could see until today the huge arches of the Venetian Shipyard from the beginning of the 18th century. Unfortunately there was no restoration done since a long time .During the summer, the municipality of Corfu organizes some youth camps in tents under the arches. The shipyards were built by the Venetians in Gouvia bay as it is a natural port in which they could repair their ships and preserve them against storms and foreign attacks. For that matter they built at the entrance of the bay, in Kommeno a small fort, known by the inhabitants of Gouvia as the Fort of SCARPA. Some remains of the towers where they had cannons (called "Batteries") still exist in a private property.