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Arta (Municipality, Greece)

Άρτα

Presentation of Arta
Former municipality of Arta

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Presentation of Arta

The municipality of Arta (43,166 inhabitants in 2011; 43,680 ha) was formed in the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities of Arta (27,330 inh.), Amvrakikos (Αμβρακικός, 4,742 inh.), Filothei (Φιλοθέη, 5,800 inh.), Vlacherna (Βλαχέρνα, 3,326 inh.), and Xirovouni (Ξηροβούνι, 4,083 inh.).

The first settlement in the area of the modern city dates to the 9th century BC and is known as Ambracia. In 295 BC Pyrrhus of Epirus, king of the Molossians, transferred the capital of his kingdom to Ambracia, which he used as a base from which he attacked the Romans. In 146 BC, Ambracia became part of the Roman empire.
The town is not mentioned under the name of Arta until 1082. In 1204, after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders, Arta became the capital of the Despotate of Epirus. After brief conquests of the city by the Italian dynasty of Orsini (1318-1337), Serbian Empire (1337-1359), Albanian clans (1359-1416) and Italian rulers (Carlo II Tocco, Leonardo III Tocco), the Ottoman Empire conquered it in 1449 and renamed it Narda. It was occupied by Venetians in 1717 and the French in 1797, but the Ottomans retook it in 1799. The city was taken from the Ottomans and annexed to Greece in 1881 by the Treaty of Berlin.

Olivier Touzeau, 16 July 2013

Former municipality of Arta

Former flag of Arta - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 16 July 2013

The former flag of Arta (Kokkonis website) was quarterly divided, blue in the canton and in the lower fly, orange in the other parts, with a white disk in the center on which is the municipal seal.
The seal shows the Bridge of Arta, an old stone bridge that crosses river Arachthos. The bridge has been rebuilt many times over the centuries; the current bridge is probably a 17th-century Ottoman construction.

Olivier Touzeau, 16 July 2013