The House of Pyrsinellas
The house of Pyrsinellas (1, Aravantinou street), is one of the last few mansions to survive in Ioannina. It is owned by the Municipality of Ioannina, which comes from the entailment of the owner, Vasileios Pyrsinellas, who was also mayor of the city.
The house is located in the heart of the old shopping centre of the Ioannina. The old mansion burned down in 1820, when Ali Pasha set fire to the city and the current mansion was built on the old ruins. V. Pyrsinellas himself mentions the date of creation being 1840.
The house is three-story and its head is a "P"-shaped variant. It includes a semi-basement, where the warehouses are located, the semi-floor, where the auxiliary rooms are located, and the floor on which there is an elongated imposing bedroom, with the summer and winter rooms. The whole building is covered in a roof with Byzantine tiles. The mansion has had various uses in the past years. After 1945, families of North Epirus who stayed in Greece due to the closure of the border with Albania were hosted, while since 1953 it has been described as a monument of Special State Protection (FEK 173/B/7-8-53), it belongs to the Municipality of Ioannina and has hosted a cultural foundations and municipal services. In 1994, the administration of Municipal Theater of Ioannina was relocated there, and in 2020 the site was granted by decision of the Ioannina City Council to the continental theater body of the Municipal Theater.
It is located at the heart of the city's shopping center and hosts many artistic, educational and cultural activities.