Zitsa

Zitsa (Greek: Ζίτσα) is a village and a municipality in the Ioannina regional unit, Epirus, Greece.

It developed into a prosperous village in the Ottoman era and became a centre of wine production, something for which it is still renowned.

During this period, it appeared in the travelogues of various Western Europeans, including William Martin Leake (1809), Lord Byron (1809) and Henry Holland (1813).

Byron, who spent two nights in Zitsa's monastery, was so enamoured with the village that he later included a stanza about it in his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

In the post-War era, the construction of new roads and reorientation of the economy diminished the influence of Zitsa in the wider region.