Parga has a rock-built citadel and a harbour formed by a mole which the Venetians constructed in 1572.
Originally occupying the site of the ancient Toryne (or Palaeo-Parga), a short distance to the west, Parga was removed to its present position after the Turkish invasion in the 15th century.
The attempts of Ali Pasha of Iannina to make himself master of the place were thwarted partly by the presence of a French garrison in the citadel and partly by the heroic attitude of the Pargiotes themselves, who were anxious to have their city incorporated with the Ionian Republic. To secure their purpose they in 1814 expelled the French garrison and accepted British protection; but the British Government in 1815 determined to go back to the convention of 1800 by which Parga was to be surrendered to Turkey, though no mosque was to be built or Mussulman to settle within its territory.
Only the little town of Parga held out against him on the coast; and in order to obtain this he once more in 1807 entered into an alliance with Napoleon.
The French emperor, however, preferred to keep Parga, as a convenient gate into the Balkan peninsula, and it remained in French occupation until March 1814, when the Pargiots rose against the garrison and handed the fortress over to the British to save it from falling into the hands of Ali, who had bought the town from the French commander, Cozi Nikolo, and was closely investing it.
