Kérkyra Town comprises a number of distinct areas. The Historic Centre , the area enclosed by the Old Port and the two forts, consists of several smaller districts: Campiello , the oldest, sits on the hill above the harbour; Kofinéta stretches towards the Spianádha (Esplanade); Áyii Apóstoli runs west of the Mitrópolis (orthodox) cathedral; while tucked in beside the Néo Froúrio are Ténedos and what remains of the old Jewish quarter . These districts form the core of the old town, and their tall, narrow alleys conceal some of Corfu's most beautiful architecture. Mandoúki , beyond the Old Port, is the commercial and dormitory area for the port, and is worth exploring as a living quarter of the city, away from the tourism racket. The town's commercial area lies inland from the Spianádha, roughly between Yeoryíou Theotóki, Alexándhras and Kapodhistríou streets, with shops and boutiques around Voulgaréos and Yeoryíou Theotóki and off Platía Theotóki. Tucked behind Platía San Rocco and Odhós Theotóki is the old morning market which sells fish and farm produce.

The most obvious sights are the forts, the Pale?Froúrio and Néo Froúrio , whose designations ( pale?- "old", néo - "new") are a little misleading, since what you see of the older structure was begun by the Byzantines in the mid-twelfth century, just a hundred years before the Venetians began work on the newer citadel. They have both been damaged and modified by various occupiers and besiegers, the last contribution being the Neoclassical shrine of Saint George , built by the British in the middle of Pale?Froúrio during the 1840s. Looming above the Old Port, the Néo Froúrio (daily 9am-10pm; ?1.50) is the more interesting of the two architecturally. The entrance, at the back of the fort, gives onto cellars, dungeons and battlements, with excellent views over the town and bay; there's a small gallery and caf?at the summit. The Pale?Froúrio (daily 9am-7pm; ?2.40) is not as well preserved and contains some incongruous modern structures, but has an interesting Byzantine museum just inside the gate, and even more stunning views from the central Land Tower. It also hosts daily son et lumière shows.

Just west of the Pale?Froúrio, the Listón , an arcaded street built during the French occupation by the architect of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, and the green Spianádha (Esplanade) it overlooks, are the focus of town life. The cricket pitch, still in use at the northern end of the Spianádha, is another British legacy, while at the southern end the Maitland Rotunda was built to honour the first British High Commissioner of Corfu and the Ionian islands. The neighbouring statue of Ioannis Kapodhistrias celebrates the local hero and statesman (1776-1831) who led the diplomatic efforts for independence and was made Greece's first president in 1827. At the far northern end of the Listón, the nineteenth-century Palace of SS Michael and George , a solidly British edifice built as the residence of their High Commissioner (one of the last of whom was the future British prime minister William Gladstone), and later used as a palace by the Greek monarchy. The former state rooms house the Asiatic Museum (Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm; free) which is a must for aficionados of Oriental culture, although it's currently undergoing some reorganization. Amassed by Corfiot diplomat Gregorios Manos (1850-1929) and others, it includes Noh theatre masks, woodcuts, wood and brass statuettes, samurai weapons and art works from Thailand, Korea and Tibet. Opened in 1996, the adjoining Modern Art Museum (daily 9am-9pm) holds a small collection of contemporary Greek art. It's an interesting diversion, as are the gardens and caf?bar secreted behind the palace.

In a nearby backstreet off Arseníou, five minutes from the palace, is the museum dedicated to modern Greece's most famous nineteenth-century poet, Dhionysios Solomos (Mon-Fri 5-8pm). Born on Zákynthos, Solomos was author of the poem Ímnos stín Elefthería ( Hymn to Liberty ), which was to become the Greek national anthem. He studied at Corfu's Ionian Academy, and lived in a house on this site for much of his life.

Up a short flight of steps on Arseníou, the Byzantine Museum (Tues-Sun 9am-3pm) is housed in the restored church of the Panayía Andivouniótissa. It houses church frescoes and sculptures and sections of mosaic floors from the ancient site of Paleópolis, just south of Kérkyra Town. There are also some pre-Christian artefacts, and a collection of icons dating from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries.

A block behind the Listón, down Spyrídhonos, is the sixteenth-century church of Áyios Spyrídhon, whose maroon-domed campanile dominates the town. Here you will find the silver-encrusted coffin of the island's patron saint, Spyrídhon - Spyros in the diminutive - after whom about half the male population is named. Four times a year (Palm Sunday and the following Sat, Aug 11 and the first Sun in Nov), to the accompaniment of much celebration and feasting, the relics are paraded through the streets of Kérkyra Town. Each of the days commemorates a miraculous deliverance of the island credited to the saint - twice from plague during the seventeenth century, from a famine of the sixteenth century and (a more blessed release than either of those for any Greek) from the Turks in the eighteenth century.

The next most important of the town's many churches, the Mitrópolis (orthodox cathedral), perched at the top of its own square opposite the Old Port, also houses the remains of a saint, in this case Saint Theodora, the ninth-century wife of Emperor Theophilus. The building dates from 1577 and the plain exterior conceals a splendid iconostasis, as well as some fine icons, including a fine sixteenth-century image of Saint George Slaying the Dragon by the Cretan artist Mihail Dhamaskinos, and three dark, atmospheric Italianate paintings.

Kérkyra Town's Archeological Museum (Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm), just south round the coast, is the best in the archipelago. The most impressive exhibit is a massive (17m) gorgon pediment excavated from the Doric temple of Artemis at Paleópolis, just south of Kérkyra Town; this dominates an entire room, the gorgon flanked by panthers and mythical battle scenes. The museum also has fragments of Neolithic weapons and cookware, and coins and pots from the period when the island was a colony of ancient Corinth.

Just south of Platía San Rocco and signposted on the corner of Methodhíou and Kolokotróni, the well-maintained British cemetery features some elaborate civic and military memorials. It's a quiet green space away from the madness of San Rocco, and in spring and early summer is alive with dozens of species of orchids and other exotic blooms.

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