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Preveza

Picturesque town with insular colors, as its three sides are girded by the sea. The around area is covered with plants and the trees reach till the sea. The view on the Ionian is excellent and the sunset is enchanting. At the quey, the apperance of the city, with the 17.724 inhabitants, is modern, while the inner city is picturesque with narrow ways, old houses and desolated mosques. The present name of the city is firstly mentioned in the "Chronicle of Morea". In the past, at the position of the city, there was the ancient city of Berenike -significant port in the years of king Pyrros, around the end of the third BC century. Preveza is the capital of Preveza`s prefecture as well as the province of Preveza and Nikopolis, base of homonymous municipality to which, except the city, belong eight other smaller neighboring groups of houses. Preveza is built at the entrance of Ambrakikos gulf, opposite the cape of Actio and near the ancient city of Nikopolis. Because of this position it is the port of the prefecture as well as Epirus in the Ionian Sea. In older times, this port presented remarkable trading and touristic activity. However, nowadays it has been supplanted by the port of Igoumenitsa. The main occupation of the inhabitants of Preveza is agriculture (they cultivate vegetables, fruits, citrous fruits and olives), as well as fishery and trade. Preveza is connected by ferries with Actio, the opposite coast of Aetoloacarnania. It is a relatively new city (13th century), founded after the decline of Nikopolis. Remarkable trading center which occupied area of strategical significance even since the Byzantine Times, Parga was successively conquered by the Venetians, the Turks and the Frenchmen and from 1780 till 1912 it was under the Turk`s domination. It was liberated in October of 1912.

Worth seeing places:

• The three Venetian castles.
• The churches of Agios Ioannis and Agios Nickolaos.
• The iconostasis of the church of Agios Charalampos.
• The Venetian clock, at the center of the city.
• The Museum of Art of Church with articles of worship and art of church.
• The ruins of ancient Nikopolis, 7km north-east of Preveza. One of the most significant cities of the Roman and Protochristian age. It occupied a large area which was fortified by the Romans and the Byzantines later, who fortified a smaller area. The grandeur of the city testify the Roman monuments (theater, conservatory, where performances are organized in the summer, the aqueduct and remains of the fortification walls) as well as the byzantine ones (six big royal churches with rare mosaic floors). Also, the excavations brought to light statues, sarcophagus and utensils of the Roman and the Byzantine years as well as Archaic ones. These things are exposed in the Archaeological Museum which is situated at the place where the ruins of Nikopolis are lying.
• The oldest building of Nikopolis is lying above the present village of Smyrtoula and it is a temple dedicated, according to the tradition, to the deities Apollo, Mars and Neptune.

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