JANINA, Jannina, Joannina, or, as the name is frequently written according to its actual Albanian pronunciation, Yanina, a town of European Turkey in southern Albania, or—to retain the ancient designation—Epirus. The position of Janina is strikingly picturesque. At the foot of the grey limestone mass of Mount Mitzekeli (1500 ft.), which forms part of the fine range of hills running north from the Gulf of Arta, there lies a valley (the Hellopia of antiquity) partly occupied by a lake; and on the slopes of a slight eminence, stretching down to the western shore, stands this town of St John. It has greatly declined from the state of barbaric prosperity which it enjoyed in the beginning of this century, when it was the seat of Ali Pasha, estimated to have from 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants. The fortress—Demir-Kule or Iron Castle, which like the principal seraglio was built on a promontory jutting down into the lake—is now in ruins. But the town still possesses fourteen mosques, each embosomed by a cluster of trees, and there are also seven churches, two synagogues, a Greek college, a library, and a hospital. As the centre of a vilayet it contains a governor’s residence (rebuilt in 1870). Sayades (opposite Corfu) and Arta are the places through which it receives its imports. A considerable activity in trade and industry is maintained by the Greek population, the rich gold and silver embroidery for which the town has long been famous being still one of the notable articles in its bazaar. According to M. Moreau, the French consul (BuU. de la Soc. de G.eogr., Faris, 1876), Janina contained 16,230 inhabitants in 1875, of whom 4136 were Mahometans, 8989 Christians, and 3105 Jews. Synvet (Les Grecs de l' Empire Ottoman, Constantinople, 1878) reckons the Greeks alone at ...