THE KAISER'S CASTLE IN CORFU

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2833, 26 July 1916, Page 3

THE KAISER'S CASTLE IN CORFU

A PALACE OF DREAMS

News lately came from Athens of the intention of the Allies to fill the German Emperor's "dream-castle" in Corfu with Serbian wounded. Thus the German Emperor's favourite summer palace—a Greek temple of fairy loveliness for which he paid .fliflfl.AOO—is tu-ned into a lazaret for wounded Balkan peasants. This snowwhite monument in Greek seas has had no luck, from the day that tragic Elizabeth of Austria fell in love with the site till a syndicate appijoached Franz Josef with an offer to take over Achilleion as a_ gaming saloon on Monte Carlo lines. Not in all the world will you find another dwelling so ethereal as this. Dazzling lonic columns and stately antique gods enclose a noble peristyle looking out on to waters which saw the first naval actions of the world, between half-mythi-cal Greek and Roman heroes. The'castle is framed in characteristic Corfu woods of blue olive, cactus-fig, and cypress, overgrown with giant roses in full bloom throughout the year. /

The loveliness of the place is curiously unreal—an artist's vision floating in scented air and fronting the wild fissured 'cliffs of Hyllaic Bay. .Tust opposite ija the lonely, mysterious islet of Ponticonici, moulded by Neptune from Ulysses' Shattered ship. Over half a century ago Elizabeth of Austria, came to Corfui on a visit. to the Lord Commissioner of the lonian Isles, and stayed at Mon Eepos. In 1869 she commissioned Rafael Carito, the Neapolitan architect, to build her this idyll in shining marble. Here she passed the last years of her strange life, amid columned walks and mirrored halls, a Byzantine chapel and vast stairways, Pompeiian baths and precious mosaics resurrected from Mycenae. The soft Greek uight was lit with countless electric bulbs hidden in flowers or in bubbles blown from flambeaux by wall-Cupids. Close by in the park is Elizabeth's six-column-ed Grecian temple, housing the statues of Heine and Byron, her favourite poets. But of- »ll the statues that of Achilles is the grandest, and gives its name to this dream-castle. The Empress chose this, hero as the embodiment of. strength and beautv, and because of his fine contempt for kings, traditions, and all ordinary men—a trait conspicuously shared by the lady herself. After her assassination, Achilleion remained deserted for years. Franz Josef hated the place. He never saw it, though continually coaxed to Corfu and told of the wondrous suite of rooms' made ready for him. It was a mysterious palace from the first. Not even Elizabeth's daughter, Princess Gisela of Bavaria, to whom the place was left by will, was ever invited to Achilleion. The Emperor tried to sell the castle even beforo the terriblo tragedy of Geneva. Millionaire Americans', entered into treaty and were turned away. It was suggested as a hospital, a'monastery, and a school, but all these proposals were ignored. On the other hand, Kaiser Wilhelm's bid was immediately accepted. As Crown Prince he had long been a favourite of Elizabeth, whom he often visited in Vienna. .. Thus Achilleion passed to the Hohenzollerns as a vacation retreat and a pleasure palace set in classic seas. It was also "near, -to .Sophie,".„Wilhelm's favourite sister, who was-then-Crown. Princess of Greece, and, besides, would suit Prussia's own Crown Princess Cecile, who was by no means robust and from childhood had lived much on the Riviera. So as • n place of family reunion the dream-castle was an ideal place, giving delightful summer scope to ever-increasing numbers of grandchildren'' and children-in-law. Here AVillicim w r as seeu as "Famielienvater," playing his favourite game of skat for ha'penny points, or leading the singing class. Above all, Corfu was a port-for the Imperial yacht Hdhenzollern.

Who knows what plots of "Wcltinacht" were hatched here, what submarine bases and what Balkan understandings M' "The Day"? Now the Serbian peasant lies abed in marble halls which once honied the man who /laid waste his laud. It only needs King- Peter in Franz Josef's sumptuous suite to maSe "poetic justice."