Ioannina is a world intertwined with elements of nature and its legends. A city where the lake plays the role of both the stage designer and the storyteller. At the same time, it is a city that stands firm on its feet, like the mountains that surround it, while also immersing itself in the charm of its ancient history. Heroes, religions, myths, and memories— all are possessions and spoils of this unique Siren that has been calling us to listen to the song of this land for thousands of years.

This journey through time and place will be attempted by this publication. With intermediate "stops" in the periods before and after writing, the Byzantine and post-Byzantine eras, the conquest of the city by the Ottomans, the years of Ali Pasha and the Reforms until his fall and Liberation. With "stops" at the caves of Perama and Kastri, Dodona—the oracle of earth and sky, with the "tall oak" and the will of Zeus—, the Island—with its significant monastic state and depictions of ancient Greek philosophers in the frescoes—, the Castle, the city then and now.

At the center of this vortex of place and time always stands the human being. For this human and their anxieties—as expressed in the tablets of the oracle of Dodona when they desperately sought a prophecy, or approached, silently praying, the temple, mosque, or synagogue—little seems to have changed.

For them, time appears, as Plato said; a moving image of eternity.