Vikos-Aoos National Park is an area of protected natural wealth, north of the city of Ioannina, in Zagori, Epirus. It was officially declared a national park in 1973 and borders the Pindos-Vallia Calda National Park to the Northeast. The area has been included in the European network of protected areas natura 2000 and is distinguished for the intense alternations in the natural landscape: lush dense areas straddle steep cliffs.
Vikos gorge is one of the most famous Gorges in Greece. It is located 30 km northwest of Ioannina and is the deepest gorge, in length-width-height ratio worldwide, according to the Guinness Book of records. It is the core of the Vikos-Aoos National Park, in the area of which it finds refuge with a great variety of rare species of flora and fauna.
The gorge is about 11 km long and in many places the depth exceeds 1,000 meters. The tributary of the Aoos, Voidomatis, which runs through it, has water all seasons.
The castle of Ioannina is the fortified Old Town of Ioannina in northwestern Greece. The current fortification was largely rebuilt by Ali Pasha in the late Ottoman period, but also incorporates pre-existing Byzantine structures.
The cave of Perama is located next to the lake, four kilometers from the city of Ioannina, in Perama. It was discovered accidentally in 1940, during World War II, and after its end, it was photographed for the first time by Konstantinos Kasvikis, a gymnast and amateur speleologist.
This is how Ioannis and Anna Petrocheilou (founders of the Greek Speleological Society) learned about the cave, and began its systematic exploration and mapping, so that it became the first touristic settlement in Greece.
It consists of several successive halls and corridors with stalactites, stalagmites, curtains and impressive columns in clusters. In 1956, fossilized teeth and bones of the cave bear were found.
It occupies an area of 14,800 sq.m. and The visited route is a total of 1,100 meters.
The silversmithing Museum is located in the castle of Ioannina, specifically in the western bastion of the southeastern Acropolis (its kale). It occupies the two levels of the bastion as well as the building of the old galleys adjacent to it.
Its purpose is to save knowledge about Epirote silversmithing and to disseminate information about its technology to the general public. Also, the connection of this technology with the social data of the time around which it developed and flourished.
It is a thematic museum, since it deals with the technology of silversmithing in the pre-industrial period, but also a regional museum, since it focuses mainly on the history of silversmithing in the region of Epirus. In time, the exhibition refers mainly to the post-Byzantine period, from the 15th century onwards, but without missing references to the distant past, as the technology used for the production of silverware often goes back to much earlier periods.
The Venetian Bell and the Ottoman symbols on its four built-in plates indicate that it is a historical and cultural preserved monument. There Greek patriots were hanged on February 15, 1913 and there was raised the blue and white by members of EPON on February 21, 1944. The reason for the famous clock in the central square of Ioannina, one of the most important sights and symbols of the city, inextricably linked to its modern history.
Lake Pamvotida, this historic Lake of Ioannina, one of the oldest in the world (about 7 cm .years) is located between the city of Ioannina and Mount Mitsikeli. It is formed by the waters of various springs that gush at the foot of Mitsikeli. It is a shallow lake with an average depth of 4.5 M and a size of 24 square kilometers.
Fetichie mosque (=Mosque of conquest) is an Ottoman mosque built in Ioannina. It was built on the site of the Byzantine metropolis of the city, the Church of Taxiarchis Michael.
Its kale is located in the castle of Ioannina and today it is considered the most vibrant archaeological park of Epirus. The term ” its kale “has Turkish origin and means”inner castle”. Inside its Kale was the palace of Ali Pasha.
The Aslan Pasha Mosque is an Ottoman mosque in Ioannina. The mosque was built in 1618 in the castle of the city, replacing the Church of St. John, which was demolished after the failed uprising of 1611 led by Dionysius the Philosopher. Since 1933 the building of the mosque houses the Municipal Ethnographic Museum of Ioannina.
The Byzantine Museum of Ioannina is housed in one of the buildings of the Acropolis (its Kale) of Ioannina. The central part of the building housing the museum was constructed in the 1960s and was originally a Royal Pavilion.