Castle of Agios Georgios

After Ali Pasha took Preveza back in late 1806, he asked his French allies how best to fortify the narrow strait into the Ambracian Gulf. Colonel Frédéric Guillaume de Vaudoncourt and Captain Ponceton proposed a fort on the southern edge of the Preveza peninsula, almost opposite Ali's existing fort at Aktio. According to their own reports, building began in early 1807 and was finished that autumn. Around 300 labourers and 200 masons, brought in as unpaid forced labour from across Ali's lands, did the work.

The fort has a single enclosure with tall polygonal bastions. Its walls lean slightly inward to deflect cannon fire. Soldiers' quarters were built into the sunny south-east side, and the main gate opens at the north-east corner, towards the town.

The Ottomans first called it Yeni Kale ("New Castle") and later Hizir Kalesi. Today's name comes from a church of Saint George that stood on the spot before the fort. In the war of 1897 the Ottomans placed a battery on it, armed with a Krupp gun. From 1912 until 2002 it housed a Greek infantry regiment. It still belongs to the army, and it has been leased to the Region of Epirus for 30 years so that it can be restored with the Ministry of Culture.