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GREEK CITIES AND GREEK ISLANDS
ABOUT IGOUMENITSA
The largest in population - 11.680 residents - Municipality of the Prefecture of Thesprotia, covers an area of 80.808.000 m2, occupying the region around the big bay of the capital city of the Prefecture, Igoumenitsa, and up to the old mouth of Kalamas river. The plain was a result of the silts of Kalamas, while it has been claimed that the Lygia Peninsula, the Pyrgos of Ragio, etc., and small hills in the area of the river's sources, used to be islands (the Syvota, islands of Thucydides) during the historic period.

The cape of Drepano - where the homonymous municipal camping is today - which partly blocks the entrance of the bay, and the shallowness of the sea, had probably made, from the ancient times, the use of the bay as a port, problematic. (Thucydides: "Limin Erimos" (Deserted Port)) Very few stone tools of the Mid-Paleolithic era (40.000-9.000 B.C.), comprise the only indication of appearance of the prehistoric man, at the limits of the Municipality.

The excavations at the hill of the Pyrgos of Ragio showed that the area had already been inhabited since the 2nd millennium B.C. At the Lygia Peninsula, north of the bay of Igoumenitsa, during the Classic era, probably also during the period of the Peloponnise war, colonists from Kerkyra created Toroni, a colony of the people of Kerkyra on the coastline of the mainland.

Fortified with strong evenly-structured walls, The Kerkyraiki Peraia was protected, from the mainland, by the small, clearly of military nature, castle of the Pyrgos of Ragio. An indication of the early roman presence is the homestead at the position "Troube" of N.Selefkeia, on the way to Drepano. A quite extensive settlement of the first after-Christian centuries, with lime-built walls of the houses and paved roads and small squares, which was created at the cove of the bay of Igoumenitsa, in the region of Ladochori east of the new harbor, which also seems to have survived during the Palaeo-Christian period, comprises the distant ancestor of today's capital of the Prefecture. The wealthy necropolis of this settlement was located at the exit of the city towards Ioannina, in the region of the stadium and on the grounds of the Museum of Igoumenitsa. On the small island of Prasoudi - according to a tradition a rock which was thrown by the Cyclops Polyphimos to Odysseas - at the entrance of the bay of Igoumenitsa, the ruins of a Palaeo-Christian temple survive at an adequate height. The region of Igoumenitsa emerges anew to the fore during the Middle Ages, as its castle [which survives in a quite good condition] on the hill on the east side of the building of the Prefecture, kept the Enetians busy since 1204.

This castle was blown up by Morozini in 1685, after having moved its twelve canons to Kerkyra. During the period of the Turkish domination, its port was used - possibly after the deepening of its entrance - as anchorage by the Turkish fleet. The tower, which dates back to the last period of the Turkish domination (19th century), was built by the Aga of the region on a tower which protected one of the gates of the ancient castle at the Pyrgos of Ragio, so that he could supervise the extensive plain at the mouth of Kalamas.

The economy of the region is based on agriculture, stock-breeding, fish-culture, trade, craft industry, tourism and lastly, more and more, on transportation. Today, Igoumenitsa, capital city of the homonymous Municipality and of the Prefecture of Thesprotia, comprises a quite important sea-gate of entry to the Greek territory, while this preferential position of the city is being upgraded by the "Big Works": the new modern port, "Gateway of Europe", the Egnatia highway, the Western Ionion axis, the connecting of the port with the Border Station of Mavromati of Sagiada. A modern Technical Educational Institute functions, which is related with the production and the economical position of the Prefecture (tourism, trade, primary sector)

Peninsula of Lygia: walls of the three fortified walls of the classic period of the Kerkyraiki Peraia.
Pyrgos of Ragio: small, clearly of military nature,ancient castle and after-Byzantine tower, in the center of the plain.
Ladochori ("Petrelaia"): roman villa with a burialchamber with embossed sarcophaguses(2nd-3rd centuries A.C.)
Prasoudi: ruins of a small Palaeo-Christian temple.
Castle of Igoumenitsa: castle of the Byzantine times on the hill east of the building of the Prefecture.
Delta of the old mouth of Kalamas:protected marshland.
Drepano - Makrygiali: sandy beaches near Igoumenitsa.