Preveza Attractions

The port of Préveza is attractively situated on the north side of the entrance, only 350m/380yd wide, to the Gulf of Árta (Ambracian Gulf).

A town was founded on this site about 290 B.C. by King Pyrrhos of Epirus, who named it Berenikia after his mother-in-law Berenike, wife of the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy I. In 31 B.C. the battle of Actium (Aktion) was fought in the waters south of the town, and Octavian founded the town of Nikópolis to commemorate his victory. In the late medieval period a new town was founded under the present name of Préveza, and in 1499 this town passed into the hands of Venice. From this period dates the castle which is the only substantial remnant of the town's former fortifications, and which affords an excellent general view of the gulf. In 1797, under the treaty of Campo Formio, the town passed from the Venetians to the French, but in the following year the French forces were driven out by Ali Pasha of Ioánnina. Préveza became part of Greece in 1912.

The Nikopolia festival is held annually in July and August.