The city
Ioannina is located 440 km. from Athens and 295 km. from Thessaloniki, on the western shore of Lake Pamvotida, at an altitude of 480 meters and between high peaks.
The castle of Ali Pasha, the island of Kyra-Frosini, the oracle of Dodoni, but also the modern University of Ioannina, are reference points of the city that combines the traditional with the modern, new realities with historical memory, natural beauty with the development.
On the ‘island’ of Ioannina, one of the world’s few inhabited lake islands, one can visit the Byzantine monasteries and admire excellent frescoes of the time with a special style and themes.
On the island is also the house – last refuge of Ali Pasha. His legend, inextricably linked to the tragic fate of the lady Frosini, comes to life on the shores of the lake, in the narrow streets of the medieval castle of the city of Ioannina, as well as in the acropolis, where his tomb and serai are located, today a Byzantine museum.
Traditional workshops of silversmithing and goldsmithing, which in the past flourished and were famous in East and West, operate to this day. The modern development is expressed with the University of Ioannina, the city’s hospitals, the Sports Center, Egnatia Odos, the airport, the seaplanes, the rapid commercial development and the spread of the city.
The founding of the city of Ioannina is due to Justinian, in the 6th century AD, through the resettlement of the inhabitants of Euroia. The historian Procopius (6th century) identifies the city with Nea Evroia, which was walled by Justinian, while in the minutes of the Synod of Constantinople in 879 AD. also signed by “Zacharias Bishop of Ioannina”.
Another reference to the presence of the city comes from the imperial seal of Vasilios II Voulgaroktonos (1020 AD) and from the Alexiad of Anna Komneni (1082 AD). During this period and for a long time to come, the city of Ioannina is said to be restricted, only within the fortress.
According to tradition, the castle-town took its name from its first settler, John, or from the Monastery of Agios Ioannis the Forerunner that existed inside the castle before the destruction of 1611.
During the Byzantine period we have the so-called Despotate of Epirus. In 1082, Ioannina was occupied by Bohemundos, son of Robertos Giskados. In 1185, there is a probable destruction of the Ioannina by the Norman infantry, under the leadership of William II, king of Sicily. In 1204, Ioannina was occupied by Michael Angelos Komnenos, who thus established the dynasty of despots of Epirus, with Arta as its capital.
Since then, Ioannina will follow the historical developments of the so-called Despotate of Epirus, which, extending from Durres to Nafpaktos, will play the role of a stronghold of Byzantine feudalism, in the successive invasions of the Franks, Venetians, Albanians and Serbs.
In 1265, Ioannina was granted by Nikephoros I Angelos Komnenos, to the emperor of Nicaea, Michael VIII Paleologus, in 1282, Ioannina returned to the Despotate of Epirus, under the authority of Nikephoros I Angelos Komnenos.
During this period, the transfer of the seat of the ecclesiastical archpriest of the Despotate to Ioannina, whose diocese seems to be upgraded to a metropolis, due to the establishment of a Catholic archdiocese in Nafpaktos, with the concession of the city to Philip Tarantinos, is also noted.
In 1296, with the death of Nikephoros I Angelos Komnenos, his widow Anna assumed the authority of Ioannina and Epirus as the commissioner of their son Thomas I. Ioannina submits to Byzantium, following the intervention of John Sirgiannis from Beratio, who convinced the Ioannites to submit to Andronikos II, in order to gain his favor.
The two chrysobulas (1319 and 1321) of Andronikos II are due to this agreement of submission, which are very revealing about the history of the Ioannina and the evolution of feudal relations. During the period of Byzantine rule, in Ioannina, the power was successively assumed by Nikolaos Orsini, named John II Komnenos Angelodoukas, his wife Anna Palaiologina, as the commissioner of their son Nikiforos II and finally John ‘Angelos’.
In 1339, Byzantine rule in Ioannina was interrupted by their occupation by the Serbs.
Ioannina, in 1367, accepted as their ruler Thomas Prelubos or Prelubovic, whose power proved extremely tyrannical, after he fiercely persecuted and taxed the Ioannitas, exiled their metropolitan and confiscated the ecclesiastical property, which he is said to have distributed among the Serbian followers of.
Charles I Tokkos develops Ioannina economically and spiritually and strengthens the despotate. Charles I is succeeded by Charles II Tokkos.
During the Post-Byzantine period, in 1431, the inhabitants of Ioannina became vassals to the Turks, under Sinai Pasha, and Turkish rule was established in Ioannina, which lasted for 482 years, i.e. until 1913. Until the beginning of the 17th century, Ioannina under Turkish rule shows a general decline and decline.
The 17th century is the beginning of the prosperity of the Ioannina. Which culminates in the second half of the 18th century, with the development of trade and biotechnology. This development also leads to a significant urban population concentration.
Also, Ioannina presents a brilliant spiritual tradition of centuries. The establishment of two schools in the Monasteries of Spanou and Dilio dates back to 1206, where eminent scholars and thinkers taught and studied. With these schools, Greek education was preserved in Epirus and Greek letters and oral tradition were cultivated until the era of urban transformation.
From the middle of the 17th century, the philogenous Ioannites, influenced by the European enlightenment, financed the establishment of new schools in Ioannina. Thus, in the city of Ioannina, the schools of Abbot Epiphanios (1648), called the small school, the Gouma school (1676), called the big school, Maroutsaia (1746), Kaplanios (1797) and later Zosimaia ( 1828).
Since the 18th century, Ioannina emerged as the most important spiritual center of the new Hellenism and of pre-revolutionary spiritual Greece. From 1431 until the time of Ali (1788), except for the revolutionary movement of Dionysios (1611), the invoked Skylosophus, no war or other noteworthy event took place in Ioannina.
From 1788 and for 50 years afterwards, events of exceptional importance took place in the city of Ioannina. In 1788, Ali ascends to the power of the Ioannina, inaugurating the tyrannical regime. For this period, the personal history of Ali is also the history of Ioannina and the whole of Epirus.
Ioannina, despite the harsh tyranny, is constantly developing. During the era of Ali, the urban transformation of the city reaches its peak and Ioannina is presented as the best urban center of pre-revolutionary Greece.
In particular, Ali, for his own safety and enrichment, restricts and persecutes the beys of timariou and expands the conditions for urban development of the Ioannina.
He repairs the fortress (1812-1815), opens roads to Arta, Thessaly and Paramythia, subjugates Central Greece and the Peloponnese, builds a palace, establishes a military school with French teachers, which was to be attended by the most important commanders of the Greek Revolution, and favors the development of trade relations.
During this time, the local market of Ioannina was among the most important in Greece. From 1819 onwards, Ioannina, in addition to being the spiritual center of the new Hellenism, became at the same time the most important political center of national movement and enlightenment.
Ioannina was liberated on February 21, 1913. Finally, during World War I, Ioannina was temporarily occupied by Italian troops, from May to September 1917, and from then on, it followed the fate of the rest of Greece.
For the city of Ioannina, the economy was silversmithing, dairy products, poultry farming, winemaking and marble.