Settlement nomenclature in Corfu Island and Regional Unity of Kozani in relation to diachronical landscape evolution

The interpretation of the names of the settlements in an area can lead to important information about the landscape and its functionality as well as the historic – geographical reflection in it. After the exchange of Greek – Turkish population in 1923, settlements with a foreign origin name were renamed and hellenized, particularly in the mainland of Greece. In the Ionian Islands, which were mainly under the Venetian Dominance, only a small number of the settlements were renamed. The aim of this paper is to analyse the names of the settlements in two different areas, in Corfu Island and in Regional Unity of Kozani and to investigate the relation of the settlement naming with the landscape evolution and the functionality of the area, in the frame of a historical perspective. The main data source was various selections of historical and archival documentation. As a conclusion, the influence of foreign populations is not impressed upon the settlement nomenclature in Corfu Island, due to the feudal system that was imposed by the Venetians and also to the fact that the rural areas were not a pathway (animal or commercial) as it was in Regional Unity of Kozani. The concept of landscape evolution appears better in Regional Unity of Kozani, where the hellenization of the names took place.