Where is Ali Pasha’s treasure?

The legend of Ali Pasha’s lost treasure remains attractive to would-be gold hunters even today. According to one aspect of the legend, three mules loaded with treasure shortly before its end became disoriented and lost in the villages around the city of Ioannina.

This legend about Ali Pasha’s lost treasure led a woman to a legal adventure that lasted 7 years, as would-be gold hunters sued the woman for numerous violations of the building regulations, demanding that her house be deemed to be demolished, as they believed that at this point it was hidden the treasure of Ali Pasha. The 75-year-old, now a woman, was vindicated a few days ago at the Court of Appeal and the culprits who tormented her for so many years were sentenced.

The lawyer Amalia Tassi, who represented the woman in court, revealed to APE-MPE everything that happened. “The legend is connected to this specific case, because a well had been opened, a hole 9 meters deep and 1.5 meters in diameter, inside the neighboring residence, in the middle wall of the two houses, but also outside in the yard. This happened in October 2015. In the audience, there were hints and allusions from witnesses that the reason for the work was to search for treasure, while the neighbor claimed that he wanted to build a warehouse and a well. A witness testified that during the work that was done behind closed doors, cameras were placed around the house,” said Ms. Tassi. Finally, the 75-year-old woman was acquitted and the culprit was convicted for violating building regulations.

The treasure of Ali Pasha

Looking for information about Ali Pasha’s treasure, Fotis Rapakousi, director of the Museum of Ali Pasha and the Revolutionary Period on the Island of Ioannina, told APE-MPE: “Indeed, the feudal lord Ali Pasha was one of the richest people of the Ottoman Empire and Europe.

For example, the farms, the private villages, which he owned were 960. He had saltworks, customs houses, inns, he controlled the dervenias with the dervenages, who collected the taxes, at the entrances and exits of the cities and villages. He had 1.5 million goats and sheep, while on the coast of Epirus he had olive trees.

It should be noted that in times of crisis it maintained 40 thousand men, a mercenary army. Ali Pasha, cunning, allowed the merchants to open their business in the cities of the West and the East, but in order to return the money to his own fief, he held their wives and children hostage.

In this violent way, wealth flowed in, especially to the capital of his state, Ioannina.

This is how a lot of money came to Ioannina. Collective memory, he says. “I was born first in the chariots, the grosias and letters”.

Mr. Rapakousis points out that Ali Pasha in 1819 bought Parga from the English and annexed it to his state.

“He kept a lot of valuables. He had expensive watches, precious stones, valuable gifts, which he obtained by extortion from the consuls and diplomatic officials who served in Ioannina. He was a miser, a philanderer we would say today, he didn’t waste a dime, he ate at other people’s houses so he wouldn’t be spent” he notes.

The treasure has been wasted

After its end, in February 1822, its public property was confiscated by the imperial Ottoman army.

However, he had made sure to store in the citadel of Ioannina Castle, an incredibly large treasure of gold, silver and precious stones.

There is a serious suspicion, regarding the large green diamond exhibited in Topkapi, that it belonged to the collection of Ali Pasha. When in 1816 the deposed King of Sweden, Gustavus IV, on his way to the Holy Land, bypassed his journey and arrived in Preveza to meet the Feudal.

During the meeting, Gustavus sold Ali Pasha a rare diamond. It is possible that it is the one that adorns Topkapi.

During the siege of the Castle in 1820, the sultan’s troops, led by Hursit Pasha, seized 64 million grosci from Itz Kale and gave it to the Ottomans

The number is not particularly large for the scope of Ali’s treasure.

Much of the treasure was spent on the 18-month siege, paying a large multinational mercenary army of 40,000 men.

Another part of it was needed from 1814 onwards for the 14 castles he built from Nafpaktos to Berati in Albania.

The chamberlain of Vasiliki’s wife reports that as they were going to the island of the lake of Ioannina, waiting for his acquittal, in a boat he had 10 iron boxes, which when they reached the middle of the lake, Ali ordered them to be thrown into the water .

He spent large sums of money, when he sent his confidant Alexis Noutsos to Messolonghi, to support and encourage the Greeks to “hit” the Turkish army from the south, so that Ali Pasha could breathe in Ioannina.

Also, during the days of the siege, the Public Fund of the city of Ioannina was seized by the doctor of Mukhtar’s son, Ioannis Koletis, and disappeared.

The Minister of Finance of the State of Ali, Stavros Tsa(p)malamos from Grammeno Ioannina, grabbed part of the treasury and fled to Vienna. Also, it is known that during his siege, he sent to the English Banks of Zakynthos and Corfu, large sums of money for his two sons Mukhtar and Velis, which after the end were confiscated by the English.

When Ali Pasha’s head went to the Gate, Vasiliki was with him. According to historical sources, the Vasiliki interrogated and denounced Hurtit Pasha, as a spoil of Ali’s treasure. This was followed by the firman for the arrest of Hursit who was in Larissa. When he found out, he drank poison, ending his life.

For today’s gold hunters, Mr. Rapakousis repeats, the legends about the lost treasure of Ali are a challenge and he states that about 10 years ago a Greek-Australian, after obtaining the required permits, began excavations somewhere in Thessaly. Digging he found a precious treasure, which is none other than water.

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