The village and former municipality, gets its name from the nearby fort built by the Ottoman Empire which in turn may have been inspired by the nearby mountain range. Fort Bezhani, as referenced by some groups like the US Congress Committee on Military Affairs, is known in Greek as "Bizani" (also Fort Bijan) was the location of the Battle of Bizani that took place in February 1913 as part of the Balkan Wars as the last stronghold for Ioannina and the remainder of Epirus before ending almost five centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule.