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IT'S ALL GREEK

Inside the Corfu palace King Charles will never get to live where one royal was bizarrely born on the kitchen table

The palace was once home to a member of the royal family

THERE are many royal residences from Sandringham to Balmoral with King Charles calling each of them his home at one point or another.

However, there is one palace that the monarch is unlikely to ever set up camp despite its fascinating links to the royal family.

The Mon Repos palace in Corfu was once home to Prince Philip and his family
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The Mon Repos palace in Corfu was once home to Prince Philip and his familyCredit: Alamy
The palace was the birthplace of the late royal, who was famously born on the kitchen table
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The palace was the birthplace of the late royal, who was famously born on the kitchen tableCredit: Getty
It is not believed that King Charles has ever visited the palace
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It is not believed that King Charles has ever visited the palaceCredit: AFP

You may never have heard of the exotic Mon Repos Palace in Corfu but the sprawling Greek mansion was the setting for British royal history.

Situated at the top of Analipsis Hill, near the Kanoni area of Corfu, the palace was built in 1826 by British Commissioner Frederic Adams as a gift to his wife, Nina Palatianou.

According to , the palace became the summer residence of all British governors of Corfu in 1864, it was given as a gift to King George I of Greece when the Ionian Islands were united to Greece. 

It was also the birthplace of King Charles father, the late Prince Philip, who came into the world in a rather unusual way.

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His mother famously gave birth to him on the kitchen table of the palace in 1921 after reportedly being advised to use the table rather than a bed.

According to the BBC the table now lives in a boardroom in London after it was purchased by Howe Robsinson shipbrokers.

Ownership of the house remained a subject of contention between the Greek government and the former Greek royal family until 2002 when the European Court of Human Rights at Strasburg awarded the former king Constantine of Greece a compensation of 13,7 million for the properties he lost when the monarchy was abolished in 1975.

It now exists as a tourist attraction on the Greek island.

Prince Philip was born on June 10, 1921, at the villa Mon Repos, on the Greek island of Corfu.

His parents were Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg - Queen Victoria's great-granddaughter.

He was the youngest child of the couple and was their only son. 

Philip had four older sisters, Princess Margarita, Princess Theodora, Princess Cecilie, and Princess Sophie, who have all passed away.

When Philip was still a baby, the family fled to France after his father was accused of treason and exiled while working in the army.

Philip, was educated at The Elms in Paris until 1928, when he was sent to the UK to attend Cheam School and live with grandmother Victoria Mountbatten at Kensington Palace.

He later went to boarding school Gordonstoun in Moray, Scotland after attending Schule Schloss Salem in Germany for two terms.

The Duke of Edinburgh died on the morning of Friday, April 9, Buckingham Palace announced, at the age of 99.

Ownership of the palace remained a subject of contension for many years
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Ownership of the palace remained a subject of contension for many yearsCredit: Alamy
The sprawling mansion now serves as a tourist attraction
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The sprawling mansion now serves as a tourist attractionCredit: Alamy
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