Tristeno

Tristeno is a village and a community of the Zagori municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform it was part of the municipality of East Zagori, of which it was a municipal district. The 2021 census recorded 55 inhabitants in the village. The community of Tristeno covers an area of 15.325 km².

Name

The village is recorded as Tristeanikon in 1319. Linguist Max Vasmer writes the village name is linked to southern Slavic toponym Trъstěnikъ, from where the form Tristeanikon arose with a rendering of the Slavic ě with ea in Greek.
Trъstěnikъ is formed from the Slavic noun trъstъ meaning 'reed' and the accusative ending -ěnъ becoming trъstěnъ and the suffix -ikъ with which accusative forms are substantivised. The form Tristeaniko later became tresteniko with replacement of ea with e through the influence of a false etymology based on Greek tri stena 'three narrows'. The new official Greek name is formed from tri ste na as Tristeno based on the village location below four hills and close to an area where three pits formed in between the geographical features.
D. Raiou writes the original placename Dresteniko is from the toponymic form Tristeno with the prefix of the Aromanian preposition n 'in' from Latin in and the Aromanian diminutive suffix -icu, meaning 'small Tristeno'. Linguist Kostas Oikonomou states though the diminutive toponymic formation is possible, it is untenable as it presupposes the existence of a 'big Tristeno' which does not exist.

History

Tristeno was first recorded in a golden edict of 1319 of Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II.
In the late 19th century Ioannis Lambridis wrote the village was located in a valley, "crossed downwards by a deep pit" and traditionally populated by Albanian shepherds, Aromanian was not spoken and the village language was Greek with many Albanian words.
Although no memories are preserved among the local population of any past Orthodox Christian Albanian presence, Albanian linguistic remnants in the local Greek speech may point that they were the first settlers of the village. This would also explain the other local Aromanian name of the village Names of the Albanians and Albania#Arbënesh/Arbëresh given by the neighbouring Aromanian area of Zagori. Linguist Thede Kahl writes the village might have been a mixed Albanian–Aromanian village, while historian Asterios Koukoudis states that it should not be included among Aromanian villages.