Corfu's Two Fortresses and the extent of British Demolitions, 1864

Apart from the demolition of fortifications on the island of Vido, how much did the British actually demolish on the Old Fortress  and New Fortress when they left the Ionian Islands in 1864 (the demolitions allegedly at the insistence of the Austrians and the Great Powers, in the interests of neutralisation)? Richard Pine recently consulted me about this, but I still don't know the full answer.

Gerasimos Markoras, in his poem "Ta Kastra Mas" suggests that the demolitions were on a major scale, but Arthur Foss implies that the Old Fortress was spared. Prints of the period tend to support this view.

Markoras implies that the explosions that took place were like an earthquake that caused even the stars to shake, that fire, smoke, rocks and stones belched forth from the two enormous fortresses, that England, a "law-loving" country, offloaded and dumped its armoury and practised a "scorched earth" policy before departing, leaving the blackened land "like a desert".

A touch of rhetoric and hyperbole? Kirkwall paints a grim and mortifying picture of the explosions and demolitions on Vido, and of the genuine dismay of the Corfiots. Can anyone describe in detail what buildings and fortifications were lost on the two fortresses, if any?

(first page of Markoras' poem).

Wellington Fortress, Vido Island, 1864

Facebook Posting, Alexandros Politis, November 2019