Vrysoula - Margarona - St. Thomas

This story will take you to Preveza's north and northeastern suburbs.

Opposite the sea front of Preveza streches the small peninsula of St. Thomas.

Part of the defensive works of Preveza is the seaside bastion of Vrysoula, built around 1808, to protect the city from seaborne attacks.

Vrysoula, in Greek, is a small water spring. For centuries, there has been a fresh water spring, by the sea side, north of the bastion, which bears the same name.

Vathy is an inlet of Preveza's bay, going deep into the peninsula, hence its name, as Vathy means Deep, in Greek.

The boatyard at Vathy has a long history. It was created by the Ottomans in the late 15th century, as a naval shipyard, and it was later turned into a wooden boat shipyard, but it now serves as a sailing-boat wintering and repair yard.

The end part of the Vathy inlet has been turned into a lagoon, which is now used for sea-fish farming.

Next to the lagoon stands a small chapel, called Margarona, probably named after the family who owned the land on which it was built.

Not far from the chapel, there is a fresh water spring, which some decades ago supplied the drinking water for many houses in Preveza.

St. Thomas is a suburb of Preveza, exactly opposite the city. Fishing and agriculture are the main activities of its inhabitants.

The small harbour of St. Thomas serves, mainly, the fishermen of the community.

The cape of Actium, which gave its name to the infamous sea-battle of 31 BC, lays opposite St. Thomas.

The cape of Actium is nowadays covered with hundreds of sailing boats' masts, waiting for the summer, when their owners raise their sails.

The little church used to be the chapel of a monastery, which has faded away, and its chapel vanished into the bay.

Near the chapel of the Holy Apostles, there still exists a number of century-old oak trees, a remnant of the ancient oak forest of Preveza's peninsula.

Near the Pogonitsa Lagoon, a number of old ships have been left to die.

Every ship has a story to tell, but few are left to tell it.

This century-old way of fishing still exists and flourishes in the Amvrakikos bay.

Apart from the female grey mullets, which is the main aim of their catch, there are many species that are caught into the fishermen's nets, in a manner that is worth watching if you can visit the place.

At the end of the peninsula, on a hill of about 150 metres high, stands the Ottoman koulia of Laskara, a watching tower, as the boundary line between Greece and the Ottoman Empire was, from 1832 till 1912, the sea straits below.

It is worth climbing up the hill of Laskara, so to see the bombed castle and the astonishing views towards the Amvrakikos Bay and the Ionian Sea.