The castle of Parga dominate a rock peninsula on the Ionian Sea, to the north-west of the modern town. In 1401, Parga became Venetian possession enjoying important privileges that contributed to its gradual commercial and economic development. Parga Castle was built by the Venetians at the beginning of the 15th century, but was again destroyed by the Ottomans in 1571 and reconstructed by the Venetians one year later after the naval battle of Lepanto. The end of Venetian rule at Parga and its occupation successively by the France, Russians-Turks and British was followed by the sale of the town to Ali Pasha of Ioannina in 1819 by Thomas Maitland, the British High Commisioner of the Ionian Islands.
Parga castle has the shape of an irregular polygon. Its stout fortification wall encloses a hill on which large areas of landfill suitable for building were created around the edges. The defense was completed by eight towers outside castle. The arched entrance gate is protected by a semicircular bastion. During the period of Ottoman occupation, Ali Pasha built an interior fortification wall with a polygonal bastion inside the castle, enclosing the citadel, which is at a higher level. A large building complex, bathhouses, cisterns and mosque were erected in the citadel, also during the Ottoman period. These building interventions entailed the demolition of large parts of the earlier defenses and of the town, and changed the form of the castle.
Source: Hellenic Ministry of Culture
