Arta

Arta sits in southern Epirus on a bend of the Arachthos river, a short way inland from the Ambracian Gulf. The city stands on the site of ancient Ambracia, founded by Corinthian settlers in the 7th century BC and briefly a capital of the Molossian king Pyrrhus. Its golden age, however, came in the 13th century, when it served as the capital of the Despotate of Epirus, a Byzantine successor state that left the town a remarkable legacy of churches.

Arta's best-known monument is the Bridge of Arta, a graceful multi-arched stone bridge over the Arachthos completed in 1612. It is celebrated across Greece through a haunting folk ballad in which the master builder, unable to make the bridge stand, is told to wall up his own wife in the foundations, a legend that gave the country a byword for a task never finished. The bridge remains the city's emblem and a favourite spot for an evening stroll.

The Byzantine heritage is exceptional. The 13th-century church of Panagia Parigoritissa is an astonishing multi-storey structure with a soaring, cantilevered dome and a mosaic of Christ, unlike anything else in Greece. Nearby stand the elegant Agios Vasileios and Agia Theodora, the latter holding the tomb of the city's patron saint, while the restored medieval castle overlooks the river. Around the town spread the orange and citrus groves for which the fertile Arta plain is famous.

Most travellers visit Arta as a day trip or an overnight stop, often on the way between Ioannina, the coast and western Greece. It is an unpretentious working town rather than a resort, which is part of its appeal, and its monuments can be seen comfortably on foot in a day. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant, when the plain is green and the heat gentle; summers are hot in the lowland setting, and winters mild but damp.