You are standing in front of an 18th century building housing the oldest continuously operating intellectual institution in modern Greece, the Corfu Reading Society. Founded in 1836 by a group of 14 young Corfiots who had studied abroad, it was modelled on the Swiss Societé de Lecture de Genève, of which Ioannis Kapodistrias, the poet Andreas Kalvos and other Ionian citizens were members. At its core were the liberal Western European ideas of the early 19th century, and the society developed a social, educational, political and patriotic character, occupying an important place in the intellectual and social life of the Ionian region.