Arta is built directly on top of ancient Ambracia, a Corinthian colony founded in the seventh century BC that briefly served as the capital of Pyrrhus of Epirus — the king whose costly victories over Rome gave the language the word Pyrrhic. Most of the ancient city is buried under the modern one, but a handful of well-presented excavated patches are scattered across the centre.
The most rewarding of these is the small archaeological park behind the Church of Agia Theodora, where a stretch of the city walls, the foundations of a small temple, and a section of the ancient main street are exposed. Information panels in Greek and English link the visible stones to the larger plan of the city. The sites are open-access and free to wander.