Pandosia

The ancient acropolis of Pandosia crowns a hill above the village of Kastri, near Parga, its ruins now all that remain of a city with a long and varied life. Founded as a colony of Elis in the 4th or 3rd century BC, it later served as the capital of the Epirote League around 168 BC. Its fortunes waned after 31 BC, when its population was compelled to relocate to the new Roman city of Nikopolis, leaving it deserted for roughly 150 years before a recovery during the imperial period. The fortifications were strengthened in the 6th century under Emperor Justinian, and again in the 15th century by the Venetians, who held the region from 1401 to 1797 and converted the site into a fortress. This made strategic sense, as the hill stands only 200 metres from the Acheron river, the border with Ottoman territory. Most surviving remains date from that Venetian phase. The walls, enclosing 33 hectares with a perimeter of 1,600 metres, include 22 towers, many still visible, and two gates on the east side, with a possible third to the northwest.