ART A (Narda, i.e., w"Ap8a, or Zarta, i.e., elς x Apτa, the ancient Ambracia), a town of Albania, in the eyalet of Joannina, deriving its present designation from a corruption of the name of the river Arachthus on which it stands. It is a place of some six or seven thousand inhabitants, who are mostly Greek. There are a few remains of its old cyclopic walls; and the town contains a castle, built on the lofty site of the ancient citadel by Nicephorus (1357); a palace belonging to the Greek Metropolitan; and a number of mosques, synagogues, and churches, the most remarkable being the church of the Virgin of Consolation, founded (1071) by Michael Ducas. The streets of the town were widened and improved in 1869. Manufacture of woollens, cottons, Russian leather, and embroidery is carried on, and there is trade in cattle, wine, tobacco, hemp, hides, and grain. Much of the neighbouring plain is very fertile, and the town is surrounded with gardens and orchards, in which the orange, lemon, and citron come to great perfection. In 1083 Arta was taken by Bohemund of Tarentum; in 1449 it fell into the hands of the Turks, and in 1688 it was captured by the Venetians. In 1797 it was held by the French, but in the following year, 1798, Ali Pasha of Joannina made himself master of it. During the Greek struggle for independence it suffered severely, and was the scene of several conflicts, in which the ultimate success was with the Turks. An insurrection in 1854 was at once repressed.