Kardaki Spring

From the top of Analypsis Hill, a narrow path runs parallel to the boundary of Mon Repos Estate and down to the sea. Just before you reach the water's edge you'll find Kardaki Spring. Locals claim that whoever drinks from it is destined to forget his homeland and always return to Corfu.

In ancient times it was an important source of water for passing ships and sometimes for the city when it ran out of water. There used to be a lion's head, symbol of the Venetian Republic, from which the water emerged. In 1822, water suddenly stopped running from the spring and the English authorities (Corfu then was under British rule) decided to do some excavations and find out the reason. They discovered that a part of the then undiscovered ancient temple of Apollon had blocked the water as a result of a landslide.

In 1898 the spring was repaired and a commemorative plaque placed below the small cave above the spring. Another plaque has since been added nearby on which can be read the verse, "Golden waters, I see you because the waters from the cold tap bewitches me, which surely runs from the holy ground. Therefore some God has decreed, And whichever foreigner wets his lips To his homeland he will never return".