Ioannina, the city on the lake
The capital of Epirus on Lake Pamvotis, with a castle, an island and silverwork.
- Distance
- About 1 hour from Arta
- Lake
- Pamvotis, altitude about 500 m
- Castle
- Its Kale, Fethiye Mosque, Ali Pasha's tomb
- Residents
- 64,896 (city, 2021)
Ioannina is the capital of Epirus, on the western shore of Lake Pamvotis, at about 500 m. The city had 64,896 residents in 2021.
Castle and island
The castle, on a rocky peninsula on the lake, was the administrative heart of the Despotate of Epirus and of the Ottoman vilayet. In the south-eastern citadel, the Its Kale, stand the Fethiye Mosque, Ali Pasha's tomb and the Byzantine Museum. On the island, a short ferry trip away, there are six monasteries. In the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon Ali Pasha spent his last days and was assassinated in 1822.
Museums and products
Ioannina has a Municipal Ethnographic Museum in the Aslan Pasha Mosque, a Byzantine Museum, a Silversmithing Museum and an Archaeological Museum with finds from Dodona. The city is known across Greece for its silverwork, and the region for feta, Zagori spring water and baklava.
