Preveza, a Venetian fortress in Greece (original) (raw)

- Preveza (detail of a 1651 engraving by Marco Boschini)

(1900 Times Atlas of the World)	Key dates:1538 A Spanish-Venetian fleet is defeated by the Turks near Preveza (Battle of Preveza)1684 Venetians conquer Preveza 1699 Preveza is assigned to the Turks by the peace of Carlowitz1718 Preveza is assigned to Venice by the peace of Passarowitz1798 Conquered by Ali Pacha of Tepeleni

Preveza is located at the tip of a narrow peninsula which closes a large internal gulf, known as Gulf of Arta or Ambracic Gulf. Its strategic importance was such that the town changed hands several times. In the small map at the top of the page the cartographers of the 1900 Times Atlas used for Preveza the symbol meaning fortress, because at that time the town was protected by three fortresses and a moat.

(left) Venetian clock tower; (right-above) erased Venetian coat of arms which retains the word Nykopoleus; (right) ancient sarcophagus, perhaps from Nikopolis, a town founded by Emperor Augustus and located 5 miles north of Preveza

June 22, 1805. Prevyza, or Prevesa, for it is now written in both ways in Greek, though the latter form is probably Italian, contained 2,000 families, when the French arrived in 1798, but has now not more than 1200. When the Venetians took it in 1684, there are said to have been only 70; the rapid increase after that time is easily accounted for, by the commercial advantages of the position, and by the importance of this place, as well as of Parga and Vutzintro, to the safety of Corfu and its canal, which induced the Venetian government not only to protect the people against their Musulman neighbours, but to be vigilant in preventing their own proveditori and other officers from indulgeing in their accustomed rapacity. The houses are dispersed over a large space, each having a garden or small plot of ground attached to it, containing fig, walnut, and apricot trees, with a few culinary herbs. (..) All the best houses, some of which, built in the Venetian style, show the former opulence of the place, are now in ruins. Prevyza is still, however, one of the best towns in Greece, and has an agreeable appearance. William Martin Leake - Travels in northern Greece - 1835 Today Preveza is a thoroughly modern town with little evidence of its past.

## (left) Western wall of St. Andrew's Castle; (right) reliefs on its walls

The Turkish Bey, or resident of the Sultan, receives the tithe on land, which is let every year to the Greeks in lots, and the maritime customs, which, are four per cent, on exports, and two per cent, on imports, as under the Venetians. The Bey commands a garrison of thirty-six soldiers, but takes all his directions for the management of the police from the Greek magistrates, who still preserve the Maggior Consiglio and other Venetian courts. The Consiglio consists of nobles, some of whom, as in the Seven Islands, may be found digging in their olive grounds. (..) The Prevyzans express themselves very grateful to Russia, whose consul takes care that no encroachments are made on these privileges, either by Aly Pasha or by the Bey. Hence, Prevyza at present is one of the happiest towns in Rumili, though with such a neighbour as Aly there is no saying how long this condition may last. (..) The further part of the ruins of Nicopolis, are in Aly Pasha's dominions: the nearer ruins, and the lagoon called Mazoma, belong to Prevyza. Leake The fortress of St. Andrew is the only one which dates back to the Venetian period: the current set of walls and buildings however is due to an 1807 reconstruction by Ali Pacha and to many later modifications. Some worn out reliefs portraying a man and a beast were placed on the walls; because their design is very naive, it is unlikely that they came from Nikopolis (similar reliefs can be seen also in the gates of Ioanina).

## St. George's castle in Preveza

Prevyza, March 1809. - Since my visit to this place in 1805, the Porte having found that very little accrued to it from Prevyza and the other ex-Venetian places, after paying the expences of the residents and their little garrisons, was tempted to sell them to Aly Pasha, thus virtually violating the treaty of 1800, by which the Sultan engaged to maintain these places in their Venetian laws and privileges, and liable only to a fixed duty on commerce and land, to be paid to a resident Bey; instead of which, he now gives them over to a man whom he cannot control, and who has already treated them with every kind of vexation. Prevyza has been the principal sufferer. Its alliance with the French when the place was taken by assault in 1798, furnished the Vezir with an excuse for extortion and cruelty, which has lasted ever since, and the population is now reduced to less than half its number at that period. Leake Thursday, August 26th, 1813. I walked in the morning with the Consul to see the Vizir's new palace. It is very large, and the only three rooms finished were spacious; very superbly gilded, and the pannels adorned with daubs which were called landscapes. But had it been the most splendid in the world, all pleasure and admiration would have been prevented by a contemplation of the tyranny displayed in the building of it. Every day a certain number of Greeks, and on one day, in the week all in the town, were compelled to work at it gratis, having only their wretched meals afforded them. William Turner - Journal of a Tour in the Levant - 1820 St. George's castle is located at the western end of Preveza and it faces the Ionian Sea, whereas St. Andrew's Castle is inside the Gulf of Arta. It consists of a rather plain rectangular set of walls.

## Pantokrator Fortress

Tuesday, August 24th, 1813. I took a walk in the morning with my countrymen to an extensive olive-grove (stretching three miles) behind the town. Here we found many poor Greeks lying about, who have no other habitation than the shelter of the trees, New fortifications are rapidly building, (at which the Greeks are forced to work, being rigorously, watched to prevent them from emigrating,) consisting of a ditch, from 25 to 30 feet wide, and a wall supported by bastions, which latter is yet unfinished, all round the town. Turner Ali Pacha built another fortress a mile or so north of St. George's Castle; it is called Pantokrator fortress after the name of a small church built on its top (it is shown in the background of this page). The seaward rampart was added in the late XIXth century.

## Interior of the fortress

Ali Pacha had a penchant for fortresses; he built at least ten of them along the coast of Epirus. The purpose of this effort was to consolidate his power on the territories he had conquered by preventing rebellions and interventions by France, Russia, Britain and chiefly by his own master, the Ottoman Sultan. Eventually young Sultan Mahmut II restored his authority in Epirus and in 1822 Ali Pacha was beheaded in Ioanina.

## View towards the island of Santa Maura (Lefkada)

The fortress is built on a cape which protrudes from the coastline. This affords a clear view over Santa Maura. Ali Pacha made an attempt to conquer that island, but he did not reach his objective. The image above shows the battlefield of the 1538 engagement between the Ottoman fleet led by Hayruddin Barbarossa and a Christian fleet under the command of Andrea Doria: the Ottomans moved northwards from Santa Maura and although the Christian fleet was larger they forced it to flee.

#### Azio (Actium)

## Views of the fortress built by Ali Pacha at the southern entrance to the Gulf of Arta

Augustus founded Nicopolis in honour of the naval victory which he gained before the mouth of the gulf over Antony and Cleopatra, who was herself present. (..) Here are several remains of ancient buildings of Roman construction. (..) Where the Strait is narrowest, and immediately opposite to the castle of Prevyza, the Vezir has constructed a serai and small fortress. There is every probability that the Roman ruins are remains of some of the buildings of Actium, established by Augustus, for the breadth of the Strait answers perfectly to the "less than 5 stades" of Polybius, or the "something more than four" of Strabo, or the "500 Roman paces" of Pliny. (..) The Apollo here worshipped was surnamed Actius, and his temple Actium. Leake Actium is the site of the naval battle in which Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa defeated Antony and Cleopatra in an epic clash of some 800 vessels in 31 BC.

Introductory page on the Venetian Fortresses in Greece List of the fortresses