Párga

Párga

Párga, port and dímos (municipality), Epirus (Modern Greek: Ípeiros) periféreia (region), western Greece. It lies on the Ionian Sea (Ióvio Pélagos) opposite the island of Paxos (Paxoí). In 1401 it welcomed the Venetians, who built (1572) the mole that forms the present harbour, over which stands a Venetian fortress. For three centuries quasi-independent under Venice, it went to France in 1797 and two years later came under Russian protection after capture by a Russian fleet. It was part of the independent Ionian Republic until 1807, when, under the Treaty of Tilsit, it was returned to France. In 1814, however, the city accepted British protection.

In 1819 Britain invoked the Russo-Turkish Convention of 1800, by terms of which Párga was surrendered to Turkey, provided that no mosque be built or Muslim settle there. The Parganites regarded this British move as an act of betrayal. Rather than submit to Turkish rule, about 4,000 Parganites elected in 1819 to migrate to the Ionian Islands (Iónia Nisiá), and the Turkish government was constrained to pay them compensation. A few families returned in 1822. Párga was taken by the Greeks in the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and annexed to Greece in 1913. Oranges and olives are grown. Tourism, however, has become the town’s mainstay. Pop. (2001) town, 2,022; municipality, 12,597; (2011) town, 2,088; municipality, 11,866.