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Preveza

It was the chief settlement of the Kassopaia, a Thesprotian tribe that broke away from the rest of the Thesprotians around 400 B.C. and formed an independent state. The size of the city, the agora, two theatres and prytaneion unearthed by the archaeologists, all indicate that it was the tribe's cultural center. Recent digs also show that the site was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age.

Bouchetion, on the Ambrakian Gulf, was the harbour of the Elean colony, the capital of which was Pandosia, a city in the valley of Acheron. The settlement was quite extensive in the first half of the 4th century B.C. but in 343/2 B.C., the state of the Eleans was demolished and all the colonies came under the control of the Epirotes. Bouchetion then reached its highest point of prosperity and in this period it was called a "polichnion". It was one of the 70 Epirote cities destroyed by the Romans, and after the foundation of Nikopolis, the site was gradually abandoned. Much later, in the 9th and, perhaps, the 13th or 14th century A.D., a smaller city was established on the same site and the old fortification was repaired and reinforced. The strategic importance of the site is demonstrated most clearly in the period of the Dictators, when it played an important role as a fortress in the struggles between the Byzantine tyrants of Epirus and the Emperors of Constantinople.

Ancient Nicopolis is located on the peninsula of Preveza. It was founded by Octavianus, after the naval battle of Actium, in 31 B.C. The inhabitants of the neighbouring cities of Epirus, Leucas, and Acarnania were then forced to settle in this area.

Preveza was conquered several times, by the Turks, the Venetians, and the French, among others. Under the Venetians and Ali Pasha,Preveza flourished and became a city. Both the Venetians and the Turks built castles to protect it, which survive to this day.

Many intellectuals of the period, such as Epictetus (A.D. 89) gathered in Nicopolis. The city continued to be inhabited during the Byzantine period. Some of the Roman monuments of the site (dated to 1st-4th centuries A.D.) have been restored. The Odeum (in 1969-1972), the north thermae (in 1973-1974), the Nymphaeum (in 1975), the large theatre, the Roman wall and the villa of Manius Antoninus which contained remarkable mosaic floors (in 1978-1984). In December 1802 the women of Souli became immortal when they danced their way over its cliffs rather than allow themselves fall into the hands of the Turks. Towering at the edge of this historic rock is a colossal stone sculpture of the dancing women by Georges Zongolopoulos (1954), which commemorates their heroism. South of this wall are the foundations of a peripheral 4th century B.C. temple, possibly dedicated to Aphrodite.

Preveza was Epirus' main commercial center until the Second World War and thus attracted people from Epirus and the lonian islands. The Italian community was also strong, with a surviving Catholic church built in 1568.

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