Moscopole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Voskopojë | |
|---|---|
| — Municipality — | |
  Voskopojë
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| Coordinates: 40°38′N 20°35′E / 40.633°N 20.583°ECoordinates: 40°38′N 20°35′E / 40.633°N 20.583°E | |
| Country |  Albania |
| County | Korçë County |
| District | Korçë District |
| Time zone | Central European Time (UTC+1) |
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Car Plates | KO |
Moscopole (Albanian: Voskopojë, Aromanian: Moscopole, Moscopolea, Greek: Μοσχόπολις Moschopolis) is a small mountain village in southeastern Albania. In the 18th century, it was a major Balkan city and cultural and commercial center of the Aromanians,[1] having notably the first printing press in the Balkans and numerous churches. The decline of the city has been attributed to a series of raids by Muslim Albanian bands, which culminated with the destruction by Ali Pasha in 1788.[2] However, according to specific authors the main reason of its decline was the relocation of the trade routes in central and eastern Europe[3].
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[edit] Geography
Voskopoja is located at a distance of 21 km from Korçë, in the mountains of southeastern Albania, at an altitude of 1160 meters.
[edit] History
[edit] Prosperity
Although located in a rather isolated place in the mountains of southern Albania, the city rose to become the most important center of the Aromanians. Voskopojë was a small settlement until the end of the 17th century, but afterwards showed a remarkable financial and cultural development.[3]
In its glory days (1730-1760), it is said that it had a population surpassing 60,000 and was the second most important city of the Balkans in regard to population and prosperity, surpassed only by Constantinople; but this is questioned by Peyfuss.
The city is said to have been mostly populated by Vlachs/Aromanians. A 1935 analysis of the family names shows that the majority of the population were indeed Vlachs. There were also Greek merchants. According to the German historian Johann Thunmann who visited Voskopojë and wrote a history of the Aromanians in 1774, everyone in the city spoke Aromanian; many also spoke Greek (the language of the Byzantine Empire), which was used for writing contracts.
Toward the end of the 18th century, the city flourished due to commerce with Germany, Venice and Constantinople and it had various manufacturing plants, around 70 churches, banks, a printing press (the only other press of Ottoman Europe was in Istanbul), and even a university (The Greek Academy, or Hellēnikon Phrontistērion, founded in 1744). A cultural effervescence arose in Voskopojë, and many authors published their works in both the Greek language (which was the language of culture of the Balkans at the time) and Aromanian written in the Greek alphabet. In 1770, the first dictionary of four modern Balkan languages (Greek, Albanian, Vlach/Aromanian and Bulgarian) was published here. Daniel Mоscopolites a Vlach-speaking native priest of Voskopojë, compiled a quadrilingual lexicon of Greek, Vlach, Bulgarian and Albanian, that aimed at the Hellenization of the non-Greek-speaking Christian communities in the Balkans.[8][9] Due to the high level of intellectual activity and Greek education Moscopolis was nicknamed as New Athens or New Mystra.[10][11]
| Part of a series on |
| Aromanians |
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| Culture |
| Caloian List of Aromanians Etymology |
| By region or country |
| Greece · Albania Republic of Macedonia Serbia · Bulgaria · Romania |
| Major settlements |
| Moscopole · Kruševo Muzachia · Pindus Grammos · Pharsala |
| Language |
| Alphabet · Dialects |
| History |
| Self-identification Great Wallachia |
| Related groups |
| Romanians · Morlachs Megleno-Romanians Istro-Romanians |
[edit] Decline
The 1769 sacking and pillaging by Muslim Albanian[12] troops was just the first of a series of attacks, which culminated with the razing of 1788 by the troops of Ali Pasha.[13] The survivors were thus forced to flee, most of them emigrating mainly to Thessaly and Macedonia (where they returned to their ancestral occupation of animal husbandry). Some of the commercial elite moved to Austria-Hungary, especially to the two capitals Vienna and Budapest, but also in Transylvania, where they had an important role in the early National awakening of Romania.
The city never rose to its earlier status. It was destroyed again in 1916 during World War I by marauding Albanian bands[14]. The remaining buildings were razed during the partisan warfare of World War II three times: once by Italian troops and twice by the Albanian collaborationist Balli Kombëtar organization[15]. Of the old city, only six Orthodox churches (one in a very ruined state) and a monastery survive. In 2002, they were put on the World Monuments Fund's Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.
Today, Voskopoja is just a small mountain village in the Albanian District of Korçë. Memories of the city of Voskopojë still remain an important part of the culture of Vlachs.
[edit] Population
- 1750: 45,000
- 1788: 60,000
- 2000: 700
[edit] Remaining monuments
The following historic monuments remain in Voskopojë:
- Church of Saint Nicholas (Shën Kolli)
- Church of Saint Mary (Shën Mëria)
- Church of Saint Athanasius (Shën Thanasi)
- Church of Saint Michael (Shën Mëhilli)
- Church of Saint Elijah (Shën Ilia)
- Church of Saint Charalampus (Shën Harallambi), ruined
- Monastery of Saint John the Baptist (Shën Prodhromi)
[edit] Notable Moscopolites
- Nektarios Terpos
- Daniel Mоscopolites
- Theodore Kavalliotis
- Grigorios Konstantinidis
- Simon Sinas
- Georgios Sinas
[edit] Notes
- ^ Förster Horst, Fassel Horst. Kulturdialog und akzeptierte Vielfalt?: Rumänien und rumänische Sprachgebiete nach 1918.. Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999. ISBN 9783799525084, p. 33: "Moschopolis zwar eine aromunische Stadt ... deren intelektuelle Elite in starken Masse graekophil war."
- ^ Hermine G. De Soto, Nora Dudwick. Fieldwork dilemmas: anthropologists in postsocialist states. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2000. ISBN 9780299163747, p. 45.
- ^ a b Mikropoulos A. Tassos.Elevating and Safeguarding Culture Using Tools of the Information Society: Dusty traces of the Muslim culture. Earthlab. ISBN 9789602331873, p. 316
- ^ Multiculturalism, alteritate, istoricitate «Multiculturalism, Historicity and “The image of the Other”» by Alexandru Niculescu, Literary Romania (România literară), issue: 32 / 2002, pages: 22,23,
- ^ Angeliki Konstantakopoulou, Η ελληνική γλώσσα στα Βαλκάνια 1750-1850. Το τετράγλωσσο λεξικό του Δανιήλ Μοσχοπολίτη [The Greek language in the Balkans 1750-1850. The dictionary in four languages of Daniel Moschopolite]. Ioannina 1988, 11.
- ^ Peyfuss, Max Demeter: Die Druckerei von Moschopolis, 1731-1769. Buchdruck und Heiligenverehrung im Erzbistum Achrida. Wien - Köln 1989. (= Wiener Archiv f. Geschichte des Slawentums u. Osteuropas. 13), ISBN 3-205-98571-0.
- ^ Kahl, Thede: Wurde in Moschopolis auch Bulgarisch gesprochen? In: Probleme de filologie slavă XV, Editura Universităţii de Vest, Timişoara 2007, S. 484-494, ISSN 1453-763X.
- ^ Friedman A. Victor. After 170 years of Balkan linguistics. Wither the Millennuim? University of Chicago. p. 2: "...given the intent of these comparative lexicons was the Hellenization of non-Greek-speaking Balkan Christians...
- ^ Horst Förster, Horst Fassel. Kulturdialog und akzeptierte Vielfalt?: Rumänien und rumänische Sprachgebiete nach 1918. Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999. ISBN 9783799525084. p. 35, 45.
- ^ Greek, Roman and Byzantine studies. 1981
- ^ Asterios I. Koukoudēs. The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora. 2003.
- ^ Stavrianos Leften Stavros, Stoianovich Traian. The Balkans since 1453. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000. ISBN 9781850655510, p. 278.
- ^ Katherine Elizabeth Fleming. The Muslim Bonaparte: diplomacy and orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece. Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN 9780691001944, p. 36 "...destroyed by resentful Muslim Albanians in 1788"
- ^ Badlands, borderlands: a history of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Tom Winnifrith. Duckworth, 2002. ISBN 9780715632017, p. 61.
- ^ Pyrrhus J., Ruches (1965), Albania's Captives, Chicago: Argonaut, pp. 213, http://books.google.com/books?hl=el&id=2k9pAAAAMAAJ&dq=albania%27s+captives&q=Bejo&pgis=1#search_anchor
[edit] References
- Nicolas Trifon, Des Aroumains aux Tsintsares - Destinées Historiques Et Littéraires D’un Peuple Méconnu (in French)
- Asterios Koukoudis Studies on the Vlachs (in Greek and English)
- Românii din Albania - Aromânii (in Romanian)
- Steliu Lambru, Narrating National Utopia - The Case Moschopolis in the Aromanian National Discourse (in English)
- Robert Elsie, [1] (in English)
- Max Demeter Peyfuss, Die Druckerei von Moschopolis, 1731-1769: Buchdruck und Heiligenverehrung im Erzbistum Achrida, Vienna, 1989, ISBN 3-205-98571-0, reviewed in [2]. Includes not only a discussion of the printing press, but also of the city.
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