Antiquity , by
Laureys a Castro (1672); oil painting in National Maritime Museum of Greenwich, London (Director's Office) (1538) by Ohannes Umed Behzad, painted in 1866 In
antiquity, the south-southwestern part of
Epirus was inhabited by the
Greek tribe of Cassopeans, part of a larger tribe, the
Thesprotians. Their capital city was
Cassope (today, near the village of
Kamarina). At the southernmost part of Epirus, king
Pyrrhus founded, in 290 BC, the town of
Berenike or
Berenice, named after his mother-in-law
Berenice I of Egypt. Today, it is believed that Berenike lies on the hills near the village of Michalitsi, following the excavations by Sotirios Dakaris in 1965. The Ionian Sea, near Berenike, was the site of the naval
Battle of Actium, on 2 September 31 BC, in which
Octavian's forces defeated those of
Mark Antony and queen
Cleopatra of
Egypt. The city of
Nicopolis (, "Victory City") was built nearby by Augustus to commemorate his victory. The city is believed to have, at its peak, a population of 150,000. In AD 90,
Epictetus arrived at Nicopolis, after he had been banished by the Roman emperor
Domitian and established a school of philosophy. One of his students
Arrian became a famous historian and recorded all of his works.
Medieval period The name
Preveza was first attested in the
Chronicle of the Morea for the year 1292, when the
Genoese allies of
Byzantine emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos raided its port of Saint Nicholas. However, it likely dates to the abandonment of Nicopolis after the
Uzes raids in Greece in the 1060s. Preveza is not mentioned thereafter until the 15th century, indicating that it was likely abandoned or was of negligible importance. No medieval monuments survive, either. The modern city likely traces its sources to a foundation (or at least fortification) after the
Ottoman conquest of the region, likely , followed by a second fortification in 1495. Therefore, it is most unlikely that Preveza constitutes the continuation of ancient Nicopolis, as earlier scholars have suggested.
First Ottoman period The Ottomans refounded Preveza probably in 1477, with a subsequent strengthening of the fortifications in 1495. The naval
Battle of Preveza was fought off the shores of Preveza on 29 September 1538, where the Ottoman fleet of
Hayreddin Barbarossa defeated a united Christian fleet under the Genoese captain
Andrea Doria. This day is a Turkish Navy National Holiday, and some of today's Turkish submarines are called "Preveze".
Venetian intervention and Preveza by the Venetians in November 1717 Preveza was hotly contested in several
Ottoman-Venetian Wars. In September 1684, in the early phase of the
Morean War, the Venetians, aided by Greek irregulars, crossed from the island of
Lefkada (Santa Maura) and captured Preveza as well as
Vonitsa, which gave them control of
Acarnania – an important morale booster towards the main campaign in the
Morea. However, at the end of the war in 1699 Preveza was handed back to Ottoman rule. Venice captured Preveza again in 1717, during its
next war with the Ottomans and was this time able to hold on to the town and fort it – a meager achievement in a war which otherwise went very badly for the Republic. Venetian rule would persist until the very end of the Venetian Republic itself in 1797. During this period, in 1779, the Orthodox missionary
Kosmas visited Preveza where it is said he founded a Greek school, which would be the only school of the city during the 18th century. At the end of the 18th century, Preveza became a transit center of trade with western Europe (particularly France), which resulted in the increase of its population to approximately 10,000–12,000.
French rule Following the
Treaty of Campo Formio, where
Napoleon Bonaparte decreed the final dissolution of the
Venetian Republic, Preveza – like other Venetian possessions in Greece and
Albania – was ceded to
Revolutionary France. 280 French
grenadiers arrived in Preveza under the commands of General La Salchette. The people of Preveza welcomed the French troops, and formed a pro-French civic militia. Around this same time the poet
Rigas Feraios was combining support for the ideas of the French Revolution with calls for a Greek uprising against Ottoman rule. He was intercepted and killed by the Ottoman authorities when en route to meet Napoleon and directly ask for his help for the Greek cause. Napoleon Bonaparte, however, focused his attention in another direction, launching the
French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, placing France at war with the
Ottoman Empire and giving little thought to the fate of the small Preveza garrison exposed on the edge of Ottoman territory. In October 1798, the local Ottoman governor
Ali Pasha Tepelena – having great ambitions to make himself a semi-independent ruler – attacked Preveza with an overwhelming force. In the
Battle of Nicopolis on 12 October 1798 the troops of Ali Pasha and his son Mukhtar completely overwhelmed the French troops and their local allies. Over the next two days, 13–14 October 1798, a major massacre of the French troops and the local Greek population which defended the city took place in Preveza and Port Salaora, on the
Ambracian Gulf, starting before Ali Pasha entered Preveza on 13 October but also continuing in his presence. On 14 October, Ali Pasha called on those citizens of Preveza who had escaped to the
Acarnanian Mountains to return to the city, and declared that they would be in no danger. However, upon their return, 170 of them were executed by the sword at the Salaora Port Customs. Many prisoners who survived the massacre died from the hardships on the road to
Ioannina. In the grand return and reception held for his victorious troops, which Ali Pasha organized at Ioannina, surviving French and rebel prisoners were given the unpleasant role of walking at the head of the procession, holding the cut and salted heads of their companions, under the shouts and jeers of Ioannina's pro-Ottoman residents. From Ioannina, nine captured French grenadiers, and two officers were sent chained to
Istanbul for questioning. One of them, Captain
Louis-Auguste Camus de Richemont, was later released, possibly mediated by the mother of Napoleon Bonaparte, Maria
Letizia Bonaparte, and eventually became a general. Some popularly circulating tales, of doubtful historical authenticity, link this incident with the origins of the
Spoonmaker's Diamond, one of the most closely guarded treasures of Istanbul's
Topkapı Palace. |right Though Preveza would remain under Ottoman rule for more than a century, this event – both the short period of Greek militias active in the city and the shock of the massacre that followed – and the influence of the ideas of the
French Revolution had a part in the development of
Greek nationalism towards the
Greek War of Independence, which broke out three decades later.
Second Ottoman period which documents possession of a state farm in Preveza passing to the Sultan's ownership From 1798 to 1820, Preveza was under the rule of the semi-independent
Ali Pasha. Following his death in 1822 in Ioannina, Preveza was more directly controlled from Constantinople. Preveza became the seat of a province (the
Sanjak of Preveze) in 1863, until the year 1912 when the city joined
Greece. In 1835, educational activity in the city revived with the foundation of a new
Greek school, the
Theophaneios, named after its sponsor, Anastassios Theophanis. In the following decades, this school became a centre of education in the surrounding area and in 1851 it also hosted a female and a secondary school. According to the
Congress of Berlin in 1878, parts of southern Epirus, including Preveza, were to be ceded by the Ottoman Empire to the
Kingdom of Greece. Under this context, five meetings were held in Preveza, between Greek and Ottoman representatives, but all of them failed to reach an agreement. Even before negotiations started, the Ottoman side used a number of Albanian national figures for delaying purposes and appointed
Abedin bey Dino, member of the
League of Prizren and representative of the Albanian national movement, as Ottoman foreign minister. Moreover, Abedin Dino managed to gather various Albanian personalities in Preveza, from all over Albania and Epirus, who believed that the Ottomans will provide full support to the Albanian movement and were against annexation of Epirus to Greece. They also organized a
meeting there in January 1879 and on 28 February 1879, signed a petition with a threat to take arms to prevent an annexation of Preveza to Greece. As a result of the unrest created, led by
Abdyl Frashëri, another Albanian national figure, the local Ottoman governor was recalled. Abedin Dino was also recalled from Preveza, while the recently arrived Albanians left the city and returned to their homelands. The discussions between the two sides continued later in Constantinople, but the Ottoman side disagreed with the proposed border by using as an excuse the unrest created by Albanian representatives. In March 1881, the Ottoman side proposed the cession of
Thessaly and Arta regions, a proposal that ignored the Albanian positions, and was finally accepted by Greece, although most of Epirus was still outside Greece. On the other hand, the Greek organisation,
Epirote Society, founded in 1906 by members of the Epirote diaspora,
Panagiotis Danglis and
Spyros Spyromilios, aimed at the annexation of the region to Greece by supplying local Greeks with firearms. From 1881 to 1912 the main sectors of the local economy witnessed dramatic decline and the port of the city lost most of its former commercial significance. However, education was still flourishing with two schools operating: one boys' and one girls' school. The school system of the city was primarily financed by Anastasios Theofanis, notable member of the diaspora.
Balkan Wars at the
Castle of Saint Andrew|right The city of Preveza remained under Ottoman control until finally taken by the
Greek Army on 21 October 1912, during the
First Balkan War. The city was liberated after the
Battle of Nicopolis, by the Greek forces under Colonel Panagiotis Spiliadis. A garrison of the
8th Infantry Division was stationed in the city by December. Later on in the same war, on 8 February 1913, the inhabitants of Preveza were involved in the first instance in world history of a pilot being shot down in combat. The Russian pilot , flying for the Greeks, had his biplane hit by ground fire following a bomb run on the walls of Fort
Bizani near
Ioannina. He came down near Preveza, and with the help of local townspeople repaired his plane and resumed his flight back to base. In the following months there arrived in Preveza the famous
Swiss photographer
Frederic Boissonnas, and a lot of photographs from this period are available today. Preveza along with the rest of southern
Epirus formally became part of Greece via the
Treaty of London in 1913. After the
Balkan Wars the harbor of Preveza became a significant regional commercial center in western Greece. Moreover, local labor unions were created during the Interwar period. After the departure of the
Wehrmacht from Preveza, in September 1944, an episode of the
Greek Civil War known as the
Battle of Preveza took place, lasting for 16 days, between armed partisans of the right-wing
EDES and the left-wing
EAM-ELAS. The fights stopped after the
Caserta Agreement between Great Britain and the two main Greek resistance groups, EDES and ELAS.
Modern period Today Preveza is a commercial harbor and tourist hub, with a marina, four museums, two cinemas, an open theatre, a music Hall (OASIS), many clubs, taverns, and cafes, benefiting from its proximity to the nearby
Aktion National Airport and the nearby island of
Lefkada, a major tourist destination. There are in the city the university department of Financial (department of
university of Ioannina) and Commercial
Navy Academy. The
Aktio-Preveza Immersed Tunnel, opened on 2002, is an important work of infrastructure for what has traditionally been a remote and underdeveloped region, and links Preveza to
Actium (,
Aktio) on the southern shore of the
Ambracian Gulf, greatly shortening the distance of the trip to
Lefkada. In July 2022, Preveza was affected by the
large wildfires. ==Main sights==