Parga
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Parga

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Parga

Parga (Greek: Πάργα, Párga, pronounced [ˈpaɾɣa]) is a town and municipality located in the northwestern part of the regional unit of Preveza in Epirus, northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Kanallaki. Parga lies on the Ionian coast between the cities of Preveza and Igoumenitsa. It is a resort town known for its natural environment.

The present municipality of Parga was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities of Fanari and Parga that became municipal units.

The municipality has an area of 274.796 km2, the municipal unit 68.903 km2.

In antiquity the area was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Thesprotians. Mycenean tholos tombs have been discovered in the vicinity of Parga. The ancient town of Toryne was located there during the late Hellenistic Age. It owes its name due to the shape of its beach (Greek: Τορύνη, 'ladle' in Greek).

Parga itself is mentioned for the first time in 1318; the name is most likely of Slavic origin. Two years later, the town and its sugarcane plantation proceeds were unsuccessfully offered by Nicholas Orsini, the Despot of Epirus, to the Republic of Venice in exchange for Venetian aid against the Byzantine Empire. During the Epirote rebellion of 1338/39 against the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, Parga remained loyal to the emperor. The town came under the control of Albanian ruler Gjin Bua Shpata of Arta in the 1390s. Vonko, who was also vassal of the Venetians in Fanari, was governor of Parga at this time. After Shpata's death, he tried to carve out his own fiefdom in 1400. The townspeople considered his rule tyrannical, overthrew him and asked the Venetians for protection.

The town passed under Venetian control in 1401, and was administered as a mainland exclave of the Venetian possession of Corfu, under a castellan. Ottoman raids were particularly heavy in the mid 15th century, as the senate gave the citizens of the town a 10-year tax exemption in 1454. A Romaniote Jewish community was recorded in 1496 in Venetian Parga.

Throughout the 16th century, Parga was part of the Venetian holdings in coastal Epirus. In 1570, anti-Ottoman rebels commanded by Emmanuel Mormoris that temporarily managed to overthrow Ottoman rule from the coastal regions of Epirus used Parga as a base of operations. Venetian-controlled Parga was in this period in frequent property-related conflict with neighboring, Ottoman-controlled Margariti and was the target of constant raids. The cause of friction has to do with the conflicting interests of the Venetians and the Albanian beys of Margariti for the control of the agricultural territory between the town of Parga and the inland territory. Such an attack against the coastal port was organized in 1558 by the formerly Christian spahi of Agia (today part of the municipality of Parga) and the locals of the village who according to Venetian reports harassed Parga on a daily basis. Relations between the two factions oscillated depending on political interests. The General Commander of the Venetian Fleet, Sebastiano Vernier (d. 1578) preferred a cautious policy of conflict resolution with the inhabitants of Margariti, as well as friendly relations with the Albanians loyal to Venice who controlled the area around Parga itself. In the 17th century, their relations worsened and Parga was a frequent target of attacks by the beys of Margariti, in particular in 1640-42. During these two years, the representative (bailo) of Venice in the Ottoman court submitted an official note of protest for the attacks of Margariti against Venetian Parga.

During Ottoman rule in Epirus, the inhabitants of Parga displayed continuous support for Greek revolutionary activities. Apart from brief periods of Ottoman possession, the town remained in Venetian hands until the Fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797. It then passed to France. As the relations of France with Ali Pasha deteriorated over his ambitions against the mainland exclave of Parga, the French twice considered using the men of their Albanian regiment against the mainland, but nothing came of these plans. The leading figure of political life of Parga in this transitional period was Hasan Çapari, strong adversary of Ali Pasha and very wealthy landowner from nearby Margariti, who in 1807 sought Russian support, claiming that the Royal Navy "were harassing the residents of Parga". In 1812 the adjacent settlement of Agia that belonged to Parga was captured by Ottoman general Daut Bey, the nephew of Ali Pasha. He then massacred and enslaved the local population. Daut was killed during the following siege against Parga. In 1815, with the fortunes of the French failing, the citizens of Parga revolted against French rule and sought the protection of the British. In 1819, the British ceded control the city to Ali Pasha of Ioannina (the subject of Francesco Hayez's later painting The Refugees of Parga) in exchange for a monetary settlement, and it later passed to full Ottoman rule. This decision was highly unpopular among the population of Parga, a predominantly Greek inhabited and extremely pro-Venetian settlement. Parga then ceased to provide a refuge for Klephts and Souliotes and many residents of Parga moved to nearby Corfu rather than live under Ottoman rule. As such Parga was completely abandoned by its inhabitants after the British departure and its handover to Ali Pasha in 1819. Ali Pasha brought local Albanian speakers from Chameria to repopulate Parga. In 1830, Kutahi, in his attempt to restore rule and justice in the region, invited the people of Parga to return to their homeland.

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