Ioannina is a world intertwined with elements of nature and its legends. A city with the lake as the main character, playing the role of both set designer and narrator. At the same time, it is a city that stands firm on its feet, like the mountains that surround it, while also being immersed in the charm of its ancient history. Heroes, religions, myths, and memories—all possessions and trophies of this unique Siren that has been calling us to listen to the song of this place for thousands of years.

This publication aims to traverse this journey through time and place. With intermediate "stops" being the eras before and after writing, the Byzantine and post-Byzantine times, the conquest of the city by the Ottomans, the years of Ali Pasha and the Reforms, up to his fall and the Liberation. With "stops" at the caves of Perama and Kastritsa, Dodona—the oracle of earth and sky, with the "tall" oak and the will of Zeus—the Island—with its significant monastic community and the figures of ancient Greek sages in the frescoes—the Castle, the city then and now.

At the center of this whirl of place and time stands always the human being. For this person and their struggles—as expressed on the tablets of the Dodona oracle when desperately seeking a prophecy, or silently praying as they approached the temple, mosque, or synagogue—very little seems to have changed.

For them, time seems, as Plato said, like a moving image of eternity.