Kastoria, one of the most important Byzantine castles, preserves unique religious and secular monuments, witnesses of its long history. This book refers to the historical topography and architecture of the city from the Byzantine era until the early 20th century.

Although in recent years it has expanded considerably, losing its traditional structure, seventy Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches are still preserved today, remnants of its walls, old mansions, and newer neoclassical houses, as well as some Ottoman monuments.

This book is the result of many years of research, during which certain aspects of Kastoria's history were approached, which remained relatively unknown, regarding its urban and architectural historiography in earlier times.

The characteristic features of the form of Byzantine Kastoria and the urban development of the city during the Ottoman rule are analyzed, in the Ottoman religious and administrative buildings, in the old school buildings and urban houses of the city in the early 20th century, in its Jewish quarter, and in its fortifications. The diachronic reading of the settlement phenomenon of a city also highlights the way in which the respective socio-economic formations develop.

As most of the architectural research on Kastoria so far has mainly focused on its religious monuments and mansions, the texts of this book come to fill in certain gaps and further enrich our knowledge, through the historical evolution of the city and the way it is revealed through its buildings.

The book also includes a wealth of archival sources, on-site research, oral testimonies, and analysis of old photographs. It also analyzes the valuable cadastral map of the city, which was drawn up in 1925 and remains unused by researchers to this day.