Labovë e Kryqit


Labovë e Kryqit is a settlement in Southern Albania, which has taken the name of its Dormition of the Theotokos Church. It consists of two neighbourhoods: Labovë e Poshtme and Labovë e Sipërme. To distinguish it from its neighbour Labovë e Madhe, the village is known by two names Labovë e Kryqit, in reference to a nearby old Byzantine church and Labovë e Libohovës. It is part of the Qendër Libohovë subdivision of the Libohovë municipality, in Gjirokastër County, southern Albania.

Name

Afanasy Selishchev, derived Labovë from the Slavic hleb’ meaning bread and Xhelal Ylli states that is not semantically possible. The suffix -ov-a is a Slavic formation. The root word of the toponym might denote the following: a Lab, an inhabitant of Labëria, the proto-Slavic *lap’ for "leaf", or Bulgarian words for plants like lop, lopen, lopuh. The proto-Slavic reflex a in the placename became o in Slavic, while in Albanian its a, with an Albanian sound change of p to b. If the toponym is derived from Lab, Ylli suggests it would mean the incoming Slavs encountered the earlier residents there, the Labs.

Demographics

In the interwar period Nicholas Hammond passed through the area and described Labovë as a place of mixed speech, with Albanian as the mother tongue. In fieldwork done by Leonidas Kallivretakis in 1992, Labovë e Kryqit had an exclusive Albanian Orthodox population.

Attractions

A Hellenistic fortified site of ancient Chaonia is located in Labovë.

Notable people