Keffalonia Page 8In Argostoli, the areas around the fruit market by the harbor have several good unpretentious tavernas: Taverna Diana, Patsoura and Tzivas near the fruit market. Near the Folklore Museum are two garden restaurants with excellent food and traditional specialties: O Mezes and Sto Psito.In Platia Vallianou, the central square of Argostoli, El Greco, Kefalos and Caliva are dependable.Most of the nightlife is in Argostoli.
Accommodations See our Greece hotels for a complete look at accommodations available on this island.
Some of the oldest tool and
artifact discoveries in all of Greece have been discovered on Kefallonia.
In Fiskardo at the northern most tip of the island in particular, items
over 50,000 years old have been retrieved. Somewhat later inhabitants
seem related to the elusive Pelasgians who also occupied parts
of Sicily, Epirus and other Aegean islands long before recorded history.
Many of the skulls found on Kefallonia show death by violent means.
Mycenaean culture was introduced by the Achaeans via the Peloponnese in the 14th C BC. The main city seems to have been Krani near Argostoli. A major Mycenaean tomb has been discovered near Poros just across from Ithika and archeologists are hoping to discover the Palace or Tomb of Odysseus there. Homer never refers to Kefallonia however, and many think that the island was part of the Kingdom of Odysseus and therefore known as part of Ithika.
Herodotus and Thucydides make first written reference to Kefallonia and its 4 independent city-states of Sami, Pali, Krani and Pronnoi all of which opposed Athens and were allied with Corinth.
The Byzantine period was good for Kefallonia, despite many piratical incursions from Sicily and as far away as Spain. The Normans under Duke Robert Guiscard unsuccessfully attempted to rest control of Kefallonia from the Byzantines but were rebuffed. The Duke died of fever in the current yacht haven of Fiskardo, which is actually named after him, but Grecianized. He was the terror of his day who sacked Rome and made emperors and kings quake in fear.
The next 760 years
found Kefallonia a victim of the machinations of the Normans, The Vatican
and the Venetians who were the most successful. Their Pirate-Robber-Count
Matteo Orsini founded a particularly heinous dynasty at the end
of the 13th Century.
In 1483 the expanding Turkish Empire captured Kefallonia only to lose it again in 1504 to the Venetians and their Spanish allies under Gran Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba who captured the the fort of Aghios Georgos and slaughtered the Turkish garrison. After repairing the fortress the nearby town became the Venetian capital but was destroyed and later abandoned after the earthquake of 1636. Argostoli became the capital in 1759.
The nascent Greek
War for Independence brought Lord Byron to Kefallonia in 1823
as an agent for the London based Greek Committee. He subsequently went
to Messolonghi to lead troops against the Turk but was smitten by fever
and died. Greeks love Lord Byron and name many of their children 'Vyron'.
Even a whole neighborhood in Athens (Vyronas) is named after
after him.
The British occupied Kefallonia and the Ionian islands for many years after the Turkish withdrawal and when in 1849 the Kefallonians revolted and demanded union with Greece.
In 1943, during WW
II, upon Italy's surrendered to the Allies, the occupying Italian Acqui
Division joined the Kefallonian Greeks in fighting the Nazis and for
eight days fought off the invasion until all were subsequently massacred
in mass executions ordered by The Furher himself. Greeks call them the Martyrs of Keffalonia. Their bodies were burned to hide the evidence
but estimates are that between 5 000 and 10,000 Italian soldiers were
killed.
For 5 days in August 1953 Kefallonia was rocked by a series of earthquakes. In all, 113 tremors turned almost all of Kefallonias' 350 villages and towns into rubble with the force of 60 Atomic bombs emanating from the very first quake. Europe rallied, as did the many Kefallonians who lived abroad and money came pouring in to help the survivors and to rebuild.
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