The recorded history of Zakynthos starts from the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, traces of which were discovered at the Bay of Lagana.  The finds included bone fossils of the Palaeolithic era. The name Zakynthos appears in myths and legends going back to prehistoric times. Homer was the first to refer to the island, in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. From Homer's "Iliad", we can conclude that Zakynthos together with Kefallonia, Lefkada and Acarnania were parts of the domain of Odysseus, the legendary king of Ithaca. It is said that it took its name from Zakynthus, son of the king of Phrygia Dardanus. Zakynthus, along with Achaean fighters, set off from the city of Psophis in Arcadia, where his brothers reigned, to colonize the island. He built an acropolis, probably at the location where the Venetian castle is today, which he named Psophida. According to Pausanias and Thucydides, this happened around 1500 BC. The new inhabitants worshipped the Olympian gods, mainly Apollo and Diana, as suggested by the ancient coins found in the area. There are no testimonies of participation of Zakynthos in the Persian Wars of 5th century B.C. and it is quite likely that the island maintained a neutral position. During the Peloponnesian War, the Zakynthians supported the Athenian Alliance and participated in the expedition against Sicily. After the failure of the expedition, the Athenian Alliance was dissolved and Zakynthos was conquered by Sparta. Later on, it came under the influence of the Macedonians, until it finally fell into the hands of the Romans.

Zakynthos, after the division of the Roman Empire, became part of Byzantium. The spread of Christianity on the island started soon after. In The following years, the island suffered from barbaric raids, particularly in 466 A.D., when Geiseric the Lame (c. 389 – January 25, 477), completely destroyed it.

The Franks arrived in 1204, and, from then on, Zakynthos was under the rule of either Frank nobles or Venetians until 1485, when the Venetian rule was stabilized.  This rule was marked by the rebel of the lower classes against the nobles (“Rebellion of the common people (popolari)”), who fought for their democratic rights from 1628 to 1632, but finally failed. Zakynthos remained under the rule of the Venetians for three hundred years (up to 1797). During the Venetian occupation, the Greek element maintained its separate identity and in 1770, Zakynthians participated in the Rebellion against the Turks incited by the Russian Admiral Orloff (“Orlofika”). In 1797, Zakynthos along with the rest of the Ionian Islands was occupied by the French, who inspired by the ideas of the French revolution abolished the Venetian Libro d’ oro. Then, Zakynthos, like the rest of the Ionian Islands, fell briefly under Russian-Turkish rule, only to be taken over by the English in 1809.

Lithograph depicting the square of Agios Mark from I. Catwright (1821)	The total destruction caused by the earthquakes of 1953

This period was crucial for the fate of the whole of Greece. Theodoros Kolokotronis (a Greek general in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire), chased by the Turks, took shelter in Zakynthos, the British protectorate at that time, where he became a member of the “Society of Friends” (in Greek: “Filiki Eteria”, a secret organization that coordinated the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, while simultaneously enrolled in the British army. He left from Zakynthos in 1821 and went to Mani where he begun the Greek War of Independence. The Zakynthians during the years of the Revolution helped their fellow Greeks in various ways, despite the fierce disagreement of the British. In 1864, along with the rest of the Ionian Islands, Zakynthos was handed over to the Greek state.

Apart from the suffering of the two world wars, Zakynthos had to face the devastating earthquakes of 1953, which, along with the fierce fire that ensued, destroyed the city almost completely. The same fate awaited most of the villages.

Scenes from the modern city of Zakynthos. The Venetian architectural elements survived the destruction of the city in the earthquakes of 1953.

The architecture of the city includes churches with intense western influences, such as the Virgin Mary of the Angels Church built during the Venetian rule (1687) by the Guild of notaries.

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