Ioannina had long been a sleepy medieval town when Greeks fleeing Constantinople after its capture by the Crusaders in 1204 arrived to make it the capital of the Despotate of Epirus. The first Despot, Michael I, started building the walls that over the next centuries would be enlarged and strengthened by various conquerors - Greeks, Italians, Serbs, and Turks - to become the quite magnificent walled old town that still exists.