Prospero’s Cell, Corfu
I hope you will allow me a day or two of post-holiday nostalgia. Just back from Corfu, and I thought I’d share with you this wonderful secret corner. Not that secret mind – two days running, the same English family bugged the hell out of me there by hollering about diving techniques and goggles, instead of maintaining the kind of spiritual silence I was looking for.
But head there early enough and you can have this tiny turquoise bay to yourself. Accessed by a path through the pine trees, the bay is marked only by the presence of this building. From a distance it looks like a shepherd’s hut, but it is in fact a chapel. Bolted and, I supposed, empty, on Sunday the door was open, revealing a small alter laid with notes, flowers and statues. A single glass-less window looks out over the water.
The chapel was immortalized in Lawrence Durrell’s novel about life on Corfu, Prospero’s Cell. The title refers to the theory that Corfu was the underlying setting for The Tempest. And while I was there, sheltering from a burst of rain under the chapel’s trees, I felt pretty Prospero-esque myself, like I could be a shipwrecked Duke, practicing magic while looking out over a stormy sea. The transformative power of a holiday, hey?
Naively when I thought of Corfu, i imagined 18 – 30’s package deals, drunken groups rolling around and over populated messy beaches. How wrong was I! This looks totally stunning, most definitely going to look further into visiting! Beautiful shots by the way 😉
I know – get looks of quizzical looks when I say I’m going to Corfu. But the north-east coast is beautiful and quiet x