Himarë
Himarë is a municipality and region in Vlorë County, southern Albania. The municipality has a total area of and consists of the administrative units of Himarë, Horë-Vranisht and Lukovë. It lies between the Ceraunian Mountains and the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast and is part of the Albanian Riviera. The traditionally perceived borders of the Himarë region gradually shrank during the Ottoman period, being reduced to the town of Himarë and the villages of the coastline, generally including only Palasë, Dhërmi, Pilur, Kudhës, Vuno, Iljas and Qeparo.
The coastal region of Himarë is predominantly populated by an ethnic Greek community. The local population is bilingual in Greek and Albanian. The town of Himarë and the villages of Dhërmi and Palasa, which together account for the bulk of the population of the region, are primarily populated by a Greek population. The villages of Iljas, Lukovë, Kudhës, Pilur and Vuno are inhabited by an Albanian population, while Qeparo is inhabited by both ethnic Albanians and Greeks. In the 2011 census, 83% of the inhabitants of the former municipality of Horë-Vranisht declared themselves as Albanians, while the rest failed to provide a reply. In the former Lukovë municipality, the population is predominantly Albanian with a small Greek minority.
Geography
The Himarë region is a strip approximately 20 km long by 5 km wide, covering a total of 132.13 km2, and bounded by the 2000-metre-high Ceraunian mountains to the northeast and the Ionian Sea to the southwest. There are long pebbled beaches and the few hills close to the sea are terraced and planted with olive and citrus trees. The traditionally perceived borders of the Himarë region gradually shrank during the Ottoman period, being reduced only to the town of Himarë and the villages on the coastline.History
Antiquity
In antiquity the region was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Chaonians. The Chaonians were one of the three principal Greek-speaking tribes of Epirus, along with the Thesprotians and the Molossians. The town of Himarë is believed to have been founded as Chimaira by the Chaonians as a trading outpost on the Chaonian shore. However, another theory suggests that it comes from Greek χείμαρρος, meaning "torrent". An oracular lamella from the Οracle of Dodona, dated to the first half of the 4th century BCE and written in the Doric Greek dialect, has the inscription "περὶ τᾶς οἰκήσιος τᾶς ἐγ Χεμαρίων πότερον αὐτεῖ οἰκέωντι;", which translates as "regarding the settlement by the inhabitants of Himarë, should they settle here?".In classical antiquity, Himarë was part of the Kingdom of Epirus under the rule of the Molossian Aeacid dynasty, which included King Pyrrhus of Epirus. When the region was conquered by the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BCE, its settlements were badly damaged and some were destroyed by the Roman General Aemilius Paulus.
Middle Ages
Himarë and the rest of the southern Balkans passed into the hands of the Byzantine Empire following the fall of Rome, but like the rest of the region it became the frequent target of various attackers including the Goths, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, Saracens and Normans. Himarë is mentioned in Procopius of Caesarea's Buildings as Chimaeriae, being part of Old Epirus and that a new fortress was built in its location. In 614, the Slavic tribe of the Baiounetai invaded the area and controlled a region from Himarë to Margariti called "Vagenetia".A local diocese of Cheimara was formed as noted in a Byzantine Taktikon of the late 10th century under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan bishopric of Nicopolis. It is unclear when Albanians and Himarë Greeks arrived in the Himarë region and when contacts between the two groups began. Nevertheless, contacts between them probably started in the 13th and 14th centuries. The use of the name "Chaonia" in reference to the region apparently died out during the 12th century, the last time it is recorded. In 1278, Nicephorus of Epirus surrendered to the Angevins the ports of Himarë, Sopot and Butrint. As a result, Charles of Anjou controlled the Ionian coast from Himarë to Butrint. It must have returned to Byzantine rule in 1281 after the battle of Berat. In c. 1360 the Latin bishop of Chimara renounced his office and his Catholic faith and submitted to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Himarë was later ruled by Serbian Empire between 1342 and 1372. In 1372, Himarë, together with Vlora, Kanina and Berat region, was given as a dowry to Balsha II due to his marriage with Comita Muzaka, the daughter of Andrea II Muzaka. After the death of Balsha II, his widow and his daughter Rugjina Balsha managed to keep possession of the region up to 1417 when the Ottomans captured Vlora. At the Battle of Kosovo of 1389, contemporary Greek authors list among participants Northern Albanians, those of Himarë, Epirus and the coast. Though in 14th century Byzantine control in Himarë was lost, the local bishop remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Early Ottoman period
In 1431 Himarë became a nahiye, an administrative division, of the Sanjak of Albania. It became a symbol of resistance to the Ottomans but suffered from an almost continuous state of warfare. Himariots participated in Skanderbeg's resistance against the Ottoman Empire. During Skanderbeg's rebellion and the rule of Gjergj Arianiti, Himarë was within the domains of the Principality of Arianiti between 1443 and 1462. In the summer of 1473 the chieftain John Vlasis, with a small unit from nearby Corfu and with native Himariot support, took control of the entire coastal region from Sagiada to Himarë, but when the ongoing Ottoman-Venetian war ended the region was again under Ottoman control. In 1481, one year after the Ottomans had landed in Otranto in southern Italy, the Himariots joined the forces of Gjon Kastrioti II in his uprising against the Ottomans. The Albanian rebellion in Himarë was led by Konstantin Muzaka with aid from Krokodeilos Kladas. The uprising failed, but the Himariots rose up again in 1488, and between 1494 and 1509, destabilizing Ottoman control but failing to liberate their territory.In 1501, Himarë was governed by its own elders, and the traditional meeting place of the region was in the locality of Spille, near the village of Qeparo; the region at this time consisted of 7 villages - Qeparo, Himarë, Vuno, Sopot, Dhërmi, Palasë and Kudhës-Perivoli. Certain villages enjoyed more privileges than others, as they were provided with Kapedana - hereditary leaders with military roles, particularly regarding recruitment. The Spiromilio family were the hereditary holders of this position in Himarë, while the Gjika family held the title in Qeparo and the Kasneci family in Vuno. Sopot also had its own Kapedan but lost the privilege prior to the other three aforementioned villages, as was observed when Neapolitan documents relating to the king's recruitments in the region during the end of the 18th century only mentioned a lieutenant and future captain called Giovanni Spiro, alongside a major by the name of Atanasio Gjika and a lieutenant called Costantino Kasneci, as well as multiple cadets. Apart from these Kapedana, the villages in the Himarë region did not have unique leaders, but rather a council made up of the heads of the local tribes or brotherhoods known as primates in relevant documents. The Albanians in southern Albania and northern Greece were not divided in fis like northern and central Albanians, but in fara or gjeri. Among the lineages was that of Himarë.
In 1532, Denis Possot, who travelled through the region, described Albania as divided into three parts: one ruled by the Ottomans, one ruled by the Venetians and the other ruled by the Albanians themselves. He included the Himarë region, which still included all of Labëria, among those ruled by the Albanians. He added that it could field 20,000 warriors against the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent personally mounted an expedition in 1537 that destroyed or captured many surrounding villages but did not manage to subdue the area. The Ottomans found it necessary to compromise with the inhabitants by giving them a series of privileges: local self-government, the right to bear arms, exemption from taxes, the right to sail under their own flag into any Ottoman port and to provide military service in time of war. However, despite the privileges, the Himariots revolted during the following conflicts: Ottoman–Venetian War, Albanian revolt of 1566–1571, Ottoman–Venetian War, Morean War, Ottoman–Venetian War and the Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th century. On the other hand, Ottoman reprisals depopulated the area and led to forced Islamizations which finally limited the area's Christian population by the 18th century to the town of Himarë and six villages. In 1567, Himariots are counted among Albanians that could be rallied against the Ottoman, as they, together with other Albanians, had caused great damage to the Ottomans since 1537.
In one occasion, in 1577, the villages of the bishopric of Himarë appealed to the Pope for arms and supplies promising to fight the Ottomans. They also promised to transfer their religious allegiance to Rome, provided that they would retain their Eastern Orthodox liturgical customs; the letter concludes with "From Himarra, i.e. Epiros of the Arvanids , on July 12th 1577". The term "Albanian" was used by the Himariots, both as an identifier of local Himariotes, and as an identifier of "otherness", which has led some to suggest that it indicated that Himariots consisted of both Albanians and non-Albanians. In various letters to European rulers the Himariots claimed that they were once ruled by leaders such as Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus of Epirus and Skanderbeg, personalities with which the Himariotes formed identitarian historical memory; as they later did with the figure of Spyros Spyromilios. The most cited figure with which the Himariots proud themselves through their past is Skanderbeg. The Himarë region was one example where Christian Albanians during the Ottoman period could carry arms and have a rather independent life. In the second half of the 16th century, Himarë was one of the cities of southern Albania that maintained the pre-Ottoman Christian character. It did not have a single Muslim family. By the end of the century, an Italian author states that the Himariots are peoples of Albania who speak Albanian and adhere to the Greek Orthodox rite.
The Ottomans managed to register the population for taxation purposes in 1583. Kristo Frashëri describes the list as having predominantly Albanian anthroponymy. The town of Himarë had 130 households and 7 orphans, where the most common names and surnames were Dhima/Dhimo, Gjon, Kont/Kond, Gjin, Gjoka; the village of Dhërmi had 50 households and 3 orphans, where most common anthroponyms were Gjin, Dhima/Dhimo, Kond, Todor; the village of Palasë had 95 households, where the most common anthroponyms were Dhima/Dhimo, Jorgo, Pali, Andrea, Nika/Niko. Oliver J. Schmitt notes that in the 16th century Ottoman registers the anthroponyms of Himarë includes not only Albanian, Greek, Orthodox but also Slavic baptismal names.
Albanians organized an uprising again in the region of Himarë on 1596 against the Ottoman Empire.
During the Ottoman period, the people of Himarë established close links to the Italian city states, especially Naples and the powerful Republic of Venice, which controlled Corfu and the other Ionian Islands, and later with Austro-Hungary. In 1743, Albanian families from Piqeras, Lukovë, Klikursi, Shën Vasil and Nivica-Bubar migrated to Italy and founded the village Villa Badessa in Abruzzo, where the Arbëreshë dialect is still spoken. After the death of Skanderbeg, successive waves of Albanians from regions such as Himarë moved to Italy, and often settled in depopulated places; they are known as Arbëreshë.
The first school in the region opened in 1627, where lessons were held in the Greek language. The following years Greek-language schools opened also in the villages of Dhërmi and Palasa. During the Ottoman period, judicial authority in Himarë and the surrounding villages was exercised by community courts also known as "councils of elders", that consisted exclusively of laymen. Their decisions was subject to the sanction of the local Orthodox bishop who belonged to the metropolis of Ioannina. In 1632 Albanian schools were founded in Himarë by Neophytos Rodinos.
In 1661, both the Muslims and the Christians of the region had joined in rebellion against the Ottomans. In 1720, the villages of Himarë, Palasa, Ilias, Vuno, Pilur and Qeparo refused to submit to the Pasha of Delvina. In 1759–1760, local leaders sent three letters to the government of the Russian Empire, stating that the population of Himarë was Orthodox Christian, Albanian-speaking and willing to join an anti-Ottoman uprising, provided the Russians would support a liberation movement of the Greece. The Himariots did revolt in 1767, laying siege to Delvinë and Vlorë, but were eventually defeated by Ottoman reinforcements from nearby regions. This defeat resulted in large numbers fleeing to Apulia and Corfu, where many were recruited as Albanian contingents for the Russian fleet.
The Italian missionary Giuseppe Schiro, who visited the region, wrote during the same period that the settlements of Himarë, Dhërmi, and Palasë were ethnically Greek, while the rest ethnically Albanian. They all wrote in the Greek dialect of the region in their "in-group" communication, mixed with Albanian, Turkish, Italian and some Arabic words. They used Greek in their correspondence with the Pope and other representatives of western countries, as well as with the Russian Empire. When they communicated in Italian, they used a translator, but signed in Greek, with Greek conferments of their names. Their preference of writing in Greek was conscious and not imposed by any conditions or a secretariat. At that time after extensive Islamization the term "Albanians" in local literature referred to the inhabitants of nearby Kurvelesh province, or as an identifier of the Islamized Himariots located in the same province, who were portrayed as adversaries of Himarë.