History

History of Arkudila (in): Kavos – Spartera

It is a location at the southernmost end of the island of Corfu with a dense forest and a steep cliff towards the sea with a maximum height of 125 m. At a short distance from the edge of the cliff is the monastery of Panagia tou Arkoudila.

According to one, and perhaps the most powerful version in our personal opinion, the location owes its name to arkudovato, common name of the plant common or trachea, species of oak or of the plant arkudopurnaro, name of the olive plant of the oxyphyllum, a type of holly. And the plants grow in the second largest area of Lefkimmi.

The ending -ilas probably indicates a plant name. Parts calls the monastery Arkodilla, not Arkoudila but also not Akrodilla.

The name of the location, according to another version, is a combination of the letters akron and delon meaning obvious with an anagram of κ and ρ of the first compound. Therefore, the visible cape in contrast to the cape Lefkimma Akra (Alonaki), which is not visible due to its low altitude from the sea.

If one considers the name of the Arkodilla Annex to be correct, one may also be led to a third version of the origin of the name of the toponym, which wants the toponym to be a compound of the words arkos, which means a place of defense and delon, i.e. a place suitable for defense, for prevention of course with -η- and a -λ-, i.e. Arkodilas. It is a fact that the location offers, due to its dense forest for protection, a hiding place, where the inhabitants of the nearest settlements can descend in order to escape pirate raids. Arkos of course from the bear is the north, then the name of the location could mean the point that points north. According to Hesychius arkos; sufficiency. help, or the peonion. and I live it. and the desert of Artemis?

Regarding the spelling of the toponym, for which of course we cannot rely on the existing texts, and after adopting the first version we should write the toponym Arkoudilas.

The name of the place name is shown. to be the oldest as it is mentioned in a notary deed of the notary Vlasis Vassilis in the year 1562.

Ptolemy calls the cape Amphipyrgos, Muller Asprokavo, in Antigao it is called Cavo Bianco in Apakron, the Venetian maps mention it by the name Cavo Bianco and Parth White Cape. The names Aspra Vrachia, Amphipagos and Asprokavos are mentioned on today’s auric maps.

The church of Panagia or Panagia y Psili to distinguish it from Panagia in Kanali, predates 1511, August 13, according to Konstantinos of Monastriotis, when “… Mr. Dimitrios the Dragogis, from the village of Podarionos, of the office of Hierachomons to the … epolis priest to … Mr. Makarion Smoilis … all his share of the fields … he has in the area of the Most Holy Theotokos, the so-called Arkoudila …”.

According to the tradition of the church, the monastery was built by the sister of the noblewoman who built the monastery of Kyra tis Kokkinada.

In 1534, it is mentioned by the notary Turko Stamatis in a deed in which they exchange property “… Mr. Nikolas Koutroulis and his spouse Joanna … with the hieromonk Mr. Smoilis, the adjacent Municipality of this…”. The above hieromonk is found in the deeds of Andreas the Turk in 1569 several times under the name Nikodimos. We mention both as we consider them worthy. December 20 “… Mr. Stelianos Thebeos from the village of Spartaros sold … to … Mr. Nikodimos, hieromonk, the epiklion of this Smoilis, as priest and housekeeper, because it is in the monastery of Panagia Theotokos in Arkoudila, a piece that has room… , called in Piperis the Threshing floor… There is one near Pothos…, they heard that the ever-hieromonk Litzardos bought them…”.

On January 10, 1569 “… the reverend hieromonk and spiritual Mr. Nikodimos, his vicar Smoilis, as authority, housekeeper, housekeeper and priest, is in the monastery of Panagia Theotokou Piante ton Kavos, you advise him… and he does this because he is here today Mr. Anthimos, a monk from the island of Kefalonia and Mrs. Pelagia, a nun, whom I bequeathed for the love of God first and for the sake of my soul… I will and appoint and leave at my death that the above Mr. Anthimos and Mrs. Pelagia be in the monastery is governed from above by rulers… and none of my relatives should give him an obstacle and those who are found after my death, hieromonks, monks, nuns, should be balanced in a good way to be seen as a good abbot or abbess…”. Thus, the mixed monastery that the Smoilides first owned.

As it appears from the deeds of Kontomaris Stamatis of the year 1589, the nun Pelagia was Pelagia Sklavouna of Kakopsofis.

In the deeds of Kontomaris Stamatis on March 6, 1590, we read: “… from the inside… of the revered monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos… to Arkoudila… the honest noble miser Filippos the Kartanos commissary of the above monastery, as it appears in the records of the notary Stelianos Turkos (wrong name, perhaps Andrea) in the afps (1587) February f, as it is … and because of the failure of the ever Nikodimos hieromonk of Smoils abbot and founder and housekeeper of the above monastery …”.

0 Philip above with this deed proceeds to record the things of the monastery.

The monastery must have been renovated or completed in the year 1710. This appears from a relief of the coat of arms of the Quartano family and the above year on the bell tower, at the entrance of the monastery. During the census of 1753 the church belonged to the Filippo Quartano family.