Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
Byzantine Emperor Justinian founded Ioannina in the 6th century, and it became an im-
portant commercial and cultural outpost. In 1204, when Latin Crusaders sacked Con-
stantinople and dismembered Byzantium, Ioannina became capital of Michael I
Komnenos Doukas' Byzantine successor state. Ottomans conquered in 1430, but made
Ioannina, a leading cultural and artistic centre, with a Sephardic Jewish population arriv-
ing after 1492. Ioannina was (and is) known for its silver craftsmanship and, through the
16th and 17th centuries, an 'Epirot School' of religious painting also blossomed.
Crafty opportunists like Albanian warlord Ali Pasha (1741-1822) capitalised on Otto-
man decline to vie for Ioannina. In 1789, Ali made it the capital of his far-ranging fief-
dom. Despite a penchant for cruelty that sickened pious philhellene Lord Byron, Ali en-
forced the law, and Ioannina flourished. Nevertheless, in 1822, trapped at the Agios Pan-
teleimon monastery on the Island (To Nisi) in Lake Pamvotis, octogenarian Ali was fi-
nally liquidated by some very irritated Ottomans, who paraded his severed head around
İstanbul.
Greeks liberated Ioannina in the 1912-13 Balkan Wars. The 1923 population ex-
changes saw Turks replaced by Anatolian Greek refugees. Tragically, in 1943 the Nazis
deported the Jewish population to concentration camps.
Sights
Its Kale
CITADEL
(Kastro; 8am-5pm & 8-10pm Tue-Sun)
Kastro's sublime citadel rises over a long bluff
overlooking lake and mountain. It holds the
Tomb of Ali Pasha
and restored
Fetiye
Cami
(Victory Mosque), built in 1611 after a failed Greek uprising that saw Christians
expelled from the citadel.
Byzantine Museum
MUSEUM
( 26510 25989; Kastro; €3; 8am-5pm Tue-Sun)
Adjacent to the citadel, this museum
presents early Christian and Byzantine art, pottery, coins and silverware, plus post- Byz-
antine icons and manuscripts, early Venetian-produced Greek books and ornate silver
jewellery boxes with cloisonné enamel. Textual accompaniments detail Ioannina's his-
tory from the 4th to the 17th century.
