Ioannina is the capital of the Epirus region in northwestern Greece, set on the shores of Lake Pamvotida and surrounded by the Pindus mountains. The city has a layered history shaped by Byzantine rulers, Ottoman governors, and local benefactors, which is still visible in its fortified old town and lakeside architecture. One of its most famous figures is Ali Pasha of Tepelena, the Ottoman ruler who made Ioannina a regional power center in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Today, the city is known for its lively university population, silversmithing tradition, and boat trips to the lake’s inhabited islet, which houses several historic monasteries. A unique detail is that Ioannina’s castle is one of the oldest continuously inhabited Byzantine fortresses in Greece, with narrow streets that retain a sense of the city’s multicultural past.
We visited the area in the summer of 2025 and stayed for one week at a friend’s place in the nearby village of Elliniko. Before touring several of the region’s notable destinations—such as the storybook village clusters of Tzoumerka and Zagorochoria, rafting the Arachthos River, and trekking Mount Tymfi—we devoted our first day to exploring the city of Ioannina itself. In this post, I’ll share our exact one-day itinerary, along with additional recommendations for things you could do if you happen to have more time in the city.
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Where to Stay in Ioannina
If you’re planning to spend more than a day in Ioannina, here are some recommended accommodations:
- Low-budget: Egnatia Hotel – A modest, budget-friendly hotel offering simple rooms and easy access to Ioannina’s main roads and city center.
- Mid-budget: Saz City Life Hotel – A stylish city hotel featuring modern interiors, comfortable rooms, and a central location close to the lakeside and old town.
- High-budget: Kamares Boutique & Spa – A luxurious boutique hotel housed in a renovated mansion, combining historic architecture with spa facilities and refined design.
Explore more options below:
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A Lakeside Stroll
We found free parking along the littoral road a couple of hundred meters north of the castle. We left the car by the water’s edge and started south, the morning already warm enough to make the light shimmer on the cobblestones. The shore road curved gently toward Mavili Square, where the cafés had spilled their chairs and tables out into the sun. It was a weekday, yet nearly every seat was taken—old men stirring coffee with deliberate slowness, students bent over phones, couples mid-conversation, their voices dissolving into the soft roar of traffic.
Beyond the square, Pamvotida lake reasserted itself, its vastness stretching out in flashes of blue through the gaps between plane trees. Fishermen lined the shore in patient formation, their rods angled toward the water, their gazes fixed on invisible movements below the surface. Behind them rose the castle walls, massive and timeworn, their stones veined with moss and cracked by centuries of weather. From within, minaret tops pierced the thick foliage, thin and pale against the August sky, like reminders that this was still a layered, many-lived city.
The road kept close to the water, and as we walked, the mountains across the lake grew clearer, their slopes tilting steeply into the basin, their ridges sharp and hazy in the distance. The surface of the lake glowed a deep, almost electric blue, and for a moment it seemed less like water than a living thing breathing slowly under the sun.
Ioannina Castle
Having walked around the wall, we entered the castle through a southern gate. The Castle of Ioannina is one of the oldest Byzantine castles in Greece. Built in its current form during the 6th century under Emperor Justinian I, the castle has seen numerous reconstructions and played a key role during the Ottoman period, especially under the rule of Ali Pasha in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Unlike many other castles in Greece, it remains inhabited and integrated into the urban fabric, with narrow cobbled streets, traditional houses, and museums within its walls. These are the most notable sights you will find within the castle:
Its Kale & the Byzantine Museum
Its Kale, meaning “Inner Castle” in Turkish, is the fortified citadel located within the southeastern corner of Ioannina Castle, overlooking Lake Pamvotida. This section of the fortress was heavily remodeled during the Ottoman era, particularly under the rule of Ali Pasha in the early 19th century, who made it his administrative and residential center. Today, Its Kale contains several important historical structures, including the Fethiye Mosque (now Ali Pasha Museum), Ali Pasha’s tomb, and the remnants of his palace. One lesser-known detail is that archaeologists have uncovered layers of earlier Byzantine and even ancient Greek structures beneath the Ottoman-era buildings, revealing a much older history of the site. The citadel also houses the renowned Byzantine Museum, a Silversmithing Museum in the former Treasury, and a Greek Orthodox church dedicated to Saints Anargyroi.
Aslan Pasha Mosque
Located at the castle’s northern corner, the Aslan Pasha Mosque is an Ottoman-era mosque built in 1618 by Aslan Pasha, an Ottoman governor of the region, reportedly on the site of a former Christian church. The mosque served as a major religious and administrative center during Ottoman rule and today houses the Municipal Ethnographic Museum of Ioannina. Inside, visitors can see artifacts from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities, reflecting the city’s historically diverse population. The mosque’s minaret, though no longer in use for calls to prayer, remains one of the few intact minarets in the region and offers striking views of Lake Pamvotida and the surrounding mountains. The building itself is a rare example of Ottoman architecture that has been continuously repurposed rather than abandoned or demolished.
Soufari Sarai
Meaning the Horsemen’s Palace in Turkish, Soufari Sarai is a large, rectangular Ottoman-era building located just west of Aslan Pasha Mosque. Constructed in the early 19th century during the rule of Ali Pasha, it served as a cavalry school and was part of his broader effort to modernize and strengthen his military forces. The structure is notable for its two-story stone construction and austere, fortress-like appearance, which contrasts with the more ornate religious buildings of the time. Today, it houses the city’s state archives and is not generally open to the public as a museum, though the building itself is visible and occasionally used for exhibitions. Its construction marked a rare instance of organized military training in Ottoman-controlled Epirus, indicating Ali Pasha’s semi-autonomous ambitions.
Ottoman Library
The Ottoman Library in Ioannina was founded in the late 18th century by Ali Pasha as part of his broader vision to turn the city into a regional center of administration and learning. Located near the entrance to Its Kale, the small, domed structure once housed a collection of religious, philosophical, and scientific manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. Although the original texts are no longer preserved there, the building itself has survived and is occasionally used for exhibitions or cultural events. Unlike many historical libraries that evolved into institutions, this one functioned more like a private archive for the ruling elite. Its modest size can be misleading, considering the intellectual ambition it once symbolized in an otherwise militarized environment.
Ottoman Bath (Hamam)
The Ottoman Bath, or hamam, within Ioannina Castle is a well-preserved example of public bathing culture under Ottoman rule. Likely built in the 18th century, the bathhouse features the typical sequence of rooms—hot (hararet), warm, and cold—topped with small domes punctuated by star-shaped skylights. It was part of a broader complex of public buildings that served the castle’s residents and visitors, and like most hamams of the period, it also functioned as a social space, especially for women. While no longer in use, the architecture remains largely intact and gives a clear sense of the bathing rituals that were once part of daily life. The layout subtly reflects both practical concerns and religious customs, including separate spaces for purification before prayer.
A Walk in the Old Town
Exiting the castle through its elaborate, western main gate, we continued with exploring the Old Town of Ioannina. Characterized by narrow alleys, traditional stone houses, and traces of its multicultural past, the area once hosted vibrant Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities, each leaving distinct architectural and cultural marks. Today, the Old Town is less commercialized than other historic centers in Greece, retaining a lived-in, local feel with workshops, small cafes, and family homes tucked between centuries-old buildings. One notable detail is that many of the Jewish homes and synagogues survived the Nazi occupation, making Ioannina one of the last places in Greece where Romaniote Jewish heritage can still be traced in everyday spaces. The streets themselves often follow older Ottoman and even Byzantine routes, making the layout as much a historical artifact as the buildings.
We wandered into the maze of the old town, where the lanes narrowed to little more than footpaths between stone façades softened by time. Every corner seemed to reveal a charming café with a couple of tables shaded under vines, or a guesthouse with bright shutters thrown open, laundry fluttering from iron balconies. The place was full of youth—students perched on stoops with guitars, friends laughing over freddo espressos, the kind of effortless energy that makes a place feel perpetually awake. The architecture carried its patchwork history proudly: Ottoman arches sagging into neoclassical lines, wooden balconies leaning above thick stone doorframes, the faint elegance of another era lingering even in the most modest homes. It felt lived-in, but not staged, the kind of authenticity that resists polish and instead grows richer with every scuff and crack.
Checking out the View at Litharitsia Park
We ended up in Litharitsia Park, a small but historically significant green space located just above the center of Ioannina, on a hill between the modern city and the castle. The name “Litharitsia” comes from the Greek word for “small stones,” referencing the limestone used in the construction of the Ottoman-era fortifications that once stood here. In the early 19th century, the hill was fortified by Ali Pasha as part of his defensive strategy, and remnants of those military structures are still visible. Today, the park serves as a quiet urban escape, offering elevated views over the city and Lake Pamvotida. The Archaeological Museum of Ioannina, housed in a modernist building at the edge of the park, sits almost directly atop those old fortifications.
A Trip to Ioannina Island
After some shopping and a coffee by the lake, we headed to the ferry dock (location) for Ioannina Island, a small inhabited islet in Lake Pamvotida, accessible only by boat from the city of Ioannina. Despite its modest size, the island has played a notable role in local history, particularly during the Ottoman period, when it became a center of monastic life and political intrigue. It is most famously linked to the downfall of Ali Pasha, who was assassinated here in 1822 after taking refuge in a monastery—now a small museum detailing his life and death. The island is still home to several active monasteries, some dating back to the 13th century, as well as a quiet village where no cars are allowed. Interestingly, it is one of only two inhabited lake islands in Greece that I know of, the other being Agios Achilleios Island in the Small Prespa Lake.
According to the schedule posted at the dock, the ferry was supposed to depart every 30 minutes—but in practice, it seemed to leave whenever it filled up, which happened more frequently during our visit. Tickets cost €2.50 each way, and the crossing took five minutes.
The ferry nudged us onto the island with the usual small chaos of visitors spilling in different directions. Right at the disembarkation point, the atmosphere was festive, almost overwhelming: taverns crowded with lunchtime diners, waiters dashing between tables with trays of grilled trout and other local delicacies, the air thick with the mingled scents of fried fish and oregano. Shopkeepers leaned from their doorways, calling out to passersby, offering jars of spoon sweets, embroidery, and little packets of dried herbs bundled neatly with twine. It felt at first like a village braced to greet wave after wave of day-trippers, its livelihood pulsing directly from the lake’s five-minute crossing.
But as we drifted away from that lively front, the sound softened and the pace slowed. The streets grew narrower, shaded by fig and pomegranate trees, and the houses stood quietly dignified—stone walls with blue shutters, ivy spilling over gates, gardens trimmed with care. Many had tidy orchards or small vegetable plots out back, a reminder that this was not simply a tourist backdrop but a real, lived-in community. The silence was only broken by the occasional creak of a bicycle or the cry of an aquatic bird.
After walking all around the village, we followed the path to the western shore, where the settlement gave way to groves and open stretches along the shore, and where most of the island’s famous monasteries are located. We only had time to check out the first one, the Monastery of Saint Nicholas. If you have more time, a full-day trip to explore the island thoroughly would be worth it in my opinion.
By late afternoon, we were back at the dock, boarding the return ferry just as the sun began to soften over the mountains. The ride back felt shorter, the lake’s surface dappled with gold, the city walls of Ioannina growing larger with every ripple of the boat. We headed straight back home to Elliniko to rest before tomorrow’s road trip around the timeless villages of Tzoumerka.
Recommended Tours & Activities in Ioannina
Photos
View (and feel free to use) all my photographs from Ioannina and Ioannina Island in higher resolution.
