Benitses village

A 100 metres up the hill from the resort of Benitses is the old village of the same name, where life
goes on as it has always done beside the hustle and bustle of the tourist area. Ruins of Roman baths
indicate the age of the village. Though worth seeing, you will have to navigate a few alleyways to
find them. The early residents of the village were mainly from the mainland area of Souli in Epirus. In
1537, after the Turks’ failed attempts to take Corfu town, they seized 20,000 villagers and sold them
to slavers from Egypt and Contantinople. When the Venetians ruled Corfu they repopulated the
villages with people from the mainland to work the land. The origin of the name Benitses is shown
in documents from the period of the Angevins, before the Venetian period; when in the 13th century
the area was referred to as Penitisai, derived from the Ancient Greek “Penio”, meaning a place that
has rivers and is generally rich in waters. Benitses used to have two small rivers which reached the
sea where the harbour is now. This was the main reason for the area’s importance over the centuries.
Later, the name Penitisai changed over the years into Penitsai and finally into the current Benitses.
The church of Saint Marina is the oldest here and is celebrated on the 16th and 17th July. The festival
of Saint John, which has children leaping over a fire on June 22nd, is locally called Lampatines. A
third festival is the “Celebration of the Sardine”, in recognition of the fishing heritage of the village,
which takes place around the first ten days of August. In 1982 a cultural society was set up to
preserve the traditional customs of the village and organises events, celebrations and festivals which
include music and folklore dancing. During the month of June the annual Achillion race takes place.
Starting from the school in Kinopiastes there is a race of 10,000 metres and one of 21,000 metres
(half marathon). The athletes come from clubs from all over Greece and Italy to participate and the
route takes them through Gastouri, the mountain hills, and finishes in Benitses. All this information was kindly supplied from the books written by Steve Ford and the money raised from sales of these goes to Corfu Charities. Please use the link below to download your own copy and find more information on all the villages listed and more from Steve