IOANNINA

also spelled Yannina, or Janina city and capital, noms (department) of Ionnina, in the Epirus (piros) region of northwestern Greece. It is located on a plateau on the western side of Lake Ionnina (ancient Pambotis), facing the gray limestone mass of Mount Mitsikli. Ionnina was first mentioned in ecclesiastical registers of the 9th and 10th centuries as an important Byzantine city. At the beginning of the 13th century it was the capital of the Greek Despotate of Epirus. After 1318 it reverted to the Byzantine Empire and was made a metropolitanate by Andronicus II, but in 1349 it fell to the Serbs. Subsequently it was contested by the Italians, Albanians, and Turks, to whom it succumbed about 1430. From 1788 to 1822 it was the centre of the Albanian-born despot Ali Pasa Tepelen, whose revolt against the sultan's rule, although quickly suppressed by his assassination, helped trigger the War of Greek Independence (182129). Ionnina and southern Epirus were finally united with the Greek kingdom in 1913. As a regional agricultural and commercial centre, Ionnina declined somewhat with the partition of Epirus between Greece and Albania in 1913. The city remains the commercial centre of Epirus and is noted for its metalwork and embroidery. It is the seat of a metropolitan bishop and a divisional headquarters of the Greek army. The University of Ionnina opened in 1970. Pop. (1991 prelim.) city, 56,496; noms, 157,214.