\ Crete (1) / \Cyclades (2) / \ Dodecanese (3) / \ Peloponnese (4) / \ Attica (5) / \ Central Greece (6) / \ Epirus (7) / \ Ionian Islands (8) / \ Thessaly (9) / \ Evia & the Sporades (10) / \ Macedonia (11) / \ Thrace (12) / \ NE Aegean (13) /

... REGION: Epirus ... Prefecture: Ioannina ... / Konitsa \ ... / Metsovo \ ... City and capital, nomss (department) of Ioannina, in the Epirus (Epiros) region of northwestern Greece. It is located on a plateau on the western side of Lake Ioannina (ancient Pambotis), facing the gray limestone mass of Mount Mitsikeli. Ioannina was first mentioned in ecclesiastical registers of the 9th and 10th centuries as an important Byzantine city. At the end of the 11th century the castle of Ioannina was occupied by the Norman Boemund and at the beginning of the 14th century the city and its surrounding area came under Byzantine rule.That period,Ioannina was to play a central role in the development of the Despotate of Epirus and the dissemination of knowledge and state education. After 1318 it reverted to the Byzantine Empire and was made a metropolitanate by Andronicus II, but in 1349 it fell to the Serbs. Subsequently it was contested by the Italians, Albanians, and Turks, to whom it succumbed about 1430.In 1430,the city surrendered to Sinan Pasha and in the year 1611,bishop Dionysus the Philosopher organized a failed revolutionary movement. At the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century the city had as administrator the Pasha Alis Tepelenlis and Ioannina acquired a special political significance within the ottoman regime.The extermination of Alis Pasha in 1822 took place at the height of his administrative power, as evidenced by the city's economic and social lifewhose revolt against the sultan's rule, although quickly suppressed by his assassination, helped trigger the War of Greek Independence (1821-29). Ioannina was long famous for its Schools, founded by Michael Philanthropinos (1682-1758), Leondati Giouma (1675-1725),and Meletios(1690), later Bp of Athens and a noted historian and geographer. They were all destroyed in the fire of 1820.Finally the city was liberated by Greek forces in 1913 and Ioannina and southern Epirus were finally united with the Greek kingdom in 1913.As a regional agricultural and commercial centre, Ioannina declined somewhat with the partition of Epirus between Greece and Albania in 1913. The city remains the commercial centre of Epirus and is noted for its metalwork and embroidery. It is the seat of a metropolitan bishop and a divisional headquarters of the Greek army. The University of Ioannina opened in 1970. And so today is a modern urban centre with a distintly human character thanks to the traditions of Epirus. As an administrative,economic and intellectual centre of northwestern Greece, it commands the attention of the international community through its university.

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