Devoll District

District of Devoll
Rrethi i Devollit
District
Map showing the district within Albania
Map showing the district within Albania
Country Albania
CountyKorçë County
CapitalBilisht
Area
 • Total
429 km2 (166 sq mi)
Population
 (2010)[1]
 • Total
33,785
 • Density78.8/km2 (204/sq mi)

Devoll District(Rrethi i Devollit) was one of the thirty-six districts of Albania (which were dissolved in 2000) that is now part of Korçë County. It derives its name from the Devoll river flowing through the valley. It had a population of 33,785,[2] and an area of 429 km². It is in the southeastern corner of the country, and its capital is Bilisht.[3] Its busy border point Kapshticë/Krystallopigi connects the district with the Greek regional units of Florina and Kastoria to the east and southeast. Devoll borders the district of Kolonjë to the southwest and Korçë to the west and north. Devoll is also considered a traditional or "ethnographic" region with borders similar to the former district.

History

Excavations at Tren cave unearthed Mycenaean Greek pottery of the Late Bronze Age. This appears to be of possible local manufacture.[4]

The district is known in history for the Devol fortress, where the Treaty of Devol between Bohemond I of Antioch and Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos was held in 1108. Its site became forgotten in modern times, however it has been tentatively identified with the site Zvezdë[5] (located at 40°43′N 020°51′E / 40.717°N 20.850°E / 40.717; 20.850[6]), a conjecture already proposed by the 19th century British traveller William Martin Leake in 1835.[7]

It was in Devoll, while the region was within the Serbian Empire, that Emperor Stefan Dušan died in 1355.

In late Ottoman times and early Independence era, much of the Christian population emigrated abroad and then returned, and later a part of the Muslim population did the same. Today, there is again mass emigration, although this time the local Muslim population is emigrating in larger numbers and higher proportions than the Christian population, a reverse of the "Kurbet" of the previous century.

Population

The population is overwhelmingly ethnically Albanian, with the majority of Albanians there having been Muslim (many of these belonging to the Halveti Order) at the end of the Ottoman era, while a minority of the Albanians, especially those that resided especially in high altitude areas, remained Orthodox Christian. The Albanian Christian population lives mostly in the upper valley of the Devoll river, in the town of Hoçisht,[8] in Bilisht and in the village of Tren, and insist on being called only Albanian and not Greek.[9] Additionally, a part of the original post-Ottoman Albanian Muslim population has converted to Orthodoxy as part of emigration to Greece.[10] The village of Vërnik (Bulgarian: Връбник, Macedonian: Врбник, Vrbnik) is inhabited by Slavs, who were historically referred to, and referred to themselves, as Bulgarians,[11][12] including by their immediate Albanian neighbors, who casually call them bullgare and currently may self-identify as Bulgarians or (ethnic) Macedonians. Vërnik took active part in the Bulgarian Ilinden Uprising, with all 80 houses in the village being burnt down by the Ottoman forces.[13] The village accepted the supremacy of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1904.[14] In 1925, the village elders sent a petition to the Prefecture of Korça asking for the opening of a Bulgarian school in the village and participated in the 1935 request on behalf of the Bulgarians in Albania to the Bulgarian tsaritsa Giovanna requesting her intervention for the protection of the Bulgarian people in Albania - at that time an Italian protectorate.[15][16] Vërnik is also populated by Roma people, who are mainly Muslim . In modern times, among the Albanian population, there has been extensive intermarriage between the Muslim and Christian populations, with the result being that many of the ethnically Albanian youth in the area identity with both traditions, as "half-Muslim, half-Christian". Like elsewhere in Albania, actual religious observance is typically lax although due to Ottoman history even among some non-practicers, religious identity may still plays a role in social relations, being more significant among the older generations.

The Albanian population speaks with a Tosk dialect, while the Slavic population speaks the Kostur dialect of the Macedonian / Bulgarian language. The entire Slavic population is also bilingual in Albanian nowadays.[17]

Administrative divisions

The district consisted of the following municipalities:

Devoll Municipality

Note: - urban municipalities in bold

Communities and subdivisions

Notable people

References

  1. ↑ "POPULLSIA SIPAS PREFEKTURAVE, 2001–2010". Albanian Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  2. ↑ "POPULLSIA SIPAS RRETHEVE, 2001-2010". Albanian Institute of Statistics. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  3. ↑ Albania Government - Flags, Maps, Economy, Geography, Climate...
  4. ↑ Wardle, Nicola M. H. (2005). Centre and Periphery: The Impact of Mycenaean Civilization on its Neighbours (PhD thesis). University of Bristol. p. 9. Albania too has recently been the focus of increasing archaeological activity with excavations at sites such as the Tren cave and the Barc cemetery in the Koritsa basin, which indicate that Mycenaean pottery (when it is found) is sometimes of crude and possibly local manufacture.
  5. ↑ Talbert, Richard J. A., and Roger S. Bagnall, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, Princeton University Press, 2000. p.752
  6. ↑ US National Geospacial Intelligence Agency, Search GNS Search Archived June 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Leake, William M., Travels in Northern Greece. London: J. Rodwell, 1835. p. 339.
  8. ↑ de Rapper, Gilles (2010). "Religion on the border: sanctuaries and festivals in post-communist Albania". HAL: Sciences humaines et sociales. pp. 2–3, 6, 8, 12–13.
  9. ↑ De Rapper. 27 June 2008. "'The son of three fathers has no hat on his head'. Page 2: "The Devoll, the Albanian district in which Vërnik is included, is mainly Muslim. Christian villages are located in the upper valley of the Devoll River, and do not have relations with Vërnik. They are all Albanian-speaking Christians, although some old people have been to Greek village schools by the beginning of the 20th century. They are insisting on being Albanian and not Greek. Christians can also be found in the town of Bilisht, very close to Vërnik, and in the village of Tren, two hours from Vërnik (footpath). "
  10. ↑ De Rapper, Gilles. 2005. Better than Muslims, not as good as Greeks. Page 1: "My first encounter with Albanian emigration happened in 1995-96, when I was doing fieldwork in the border district of Devoll, in south-eastern Albania. I was staying in an Albanian-speaking Christian village, up in the mountains and close to the Greek border. Villagers told me about people from the closest Muslim village, down in the valley: 'Look at them, down there. At the time of the cooperative, they used to insult us by calling us "damned Greeks", "bloody Greeks". But today they all work in Greece and have Greek names, while we did not go to Greece. Who is Greek then?' As a matter of fact, people from the Christian villages – who insist on their Albanian national identity and refuse to be called Greek – have been moving to the town and even more to the United States, where they retain links dating back to the time of the pre-World War II migration known as kurbet. Meanwhile, their Muslim neighbours started in the early 1990s to migrate to Greece, where most of them changed their names and some converted to Orthodoxy. "
  11. ↑ "Makedonija. Etnografija i statistika - 2.43". www.promacedonia.org.
  12. ↑ „Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г.“ Македонски научен институт, София, 1995, стр.106-107 и 110-111.
  13. ↑ Kitanoski, Mišo; Donevski, Gjorgi (2003). Ilindenskoto vostanie vo Egejska Makedonija. ISBN 9789989891120.
  14. ↑ "Хр. Силянов, Освободителните борби в Македония, II - 12". www.promacedonia.org.
  15. ↑ Елдъров, Св. Българите в Албания 1913-1939. Изследване и документи, София, 2000, стр. 324-326.
  16. ↑ "Lutje e pleqësisë së katundit Vërnik (Bilisht) dërguar Prefekturës së Korçës ku kërkojnë t'iu jepet e drejta e hapjes së një shkolle bullgare, si dhe korrespondenca përkatëse me Ministrinë e Punëve të Brendshme. | Katalogu Online - arkiva.gov.al". katalogu.arkiva.gov.al.
  17. ↑ De Rapper. 27 June 2008. "'The son of three fathers has no hat on his head'. Life and social representations in a Macedonian village of Albania". Page 2-3

40°35′N 20°56′E / 40.583°N 20.933°E / 40.583; 20.933

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