Achilleion Palace

The Achilleion Palace stands on a hillside at Gastouri, a village south of Corfu Town in the Ionian Islands of Greece. Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, had it built between 1889 and 1891 as a refuge, naming it after the hero Achilles, whom she admired. The Italian architect Raffaele Caritto designed the neoclassical building, which is organised in terraces facing the sea. After Elisabeth was assassinated in 1898, the property was sold in 1907 to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who used it as a summer residence until the First World War and added a bronze statue of Achilles. Later it passed to the Greek state, served as a hospital and headquarters during the world wars, and was used as a casino in the 1960s before becoming a museum.

The interiors preserve rooms associated with the empress, including a chapel and staircase decorated with paintings and statuary on mythological themes. The garden is the most recognisable part of the site, with statues of Muses and Greek figures, among them the Dying Achilles, a marble work that Elisabeth commissioned, and the larger Achilles Triumphant, which Wilhelm II installed. Together they show two different views of the hero: suffering and victory. The palace combines Pompeian-style decoration with neoclassical architecture, and its terraced setting gives broad views of the coast.

The visit is organised as a self-guided walk through rooms, with audio guides available for an additional fee. The collection includes furniture, paintings and objects from the Habsburg and German periods. The building has needed repeated conservation, and sections of the interior have been reported closed for restoration work, so the accessible area can vary from year to year. The site remains one of the better-known historical attractions of the island, with the gardens and statues usually open even when rooms are not.