Voskopoja

Voskopojë
Voskopoja
( Designation in an indefinite and definite form )

40.633055555556 20.588888888889 1160Coordinates: 40 ° 38 ' N , 20 ° 35' E

Basic data

Qark :

Korça

Height :

1,160 m above sea level A.

Residents :

2218 (2011)

Telephone code :

(+355) 082

Postal code :

7029

Voskopoja seen from the northeast (photo from 2010)

St. Nicholas Church (2002)

Voskopoja ( Albanian also Voskopojë ; Aromanian Moscopole or Moscopolea ; Greek Μοσχόπολις Moscópolis or Moschópolis ; Turkish Timorince or İskopol ) is a village in southeastern Albania with around 700 inhabitants (2000). Voskopoja had its heyday in the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries.

geography

Voskopoja is very remote 21 kilometers west of Korça in the mountains at 1160 m above sea level. A. There are only mountain pastures and forests around the place. Only the road down to Korça connects the village with the outside world. Voskopoja belongs to the municipality of Korça.

The municipality, which was integrated into the municipality of Korça in 2015, also included the villages of Krushova and Shipska in the north and Gjonmadh and Lavda in the east. In 2011 the whole community had 1058 inhabitants.

population

The majority of the residents are of the Orthodox faith , while the area is Muslim . They are to a large extent Aromanians . To date, in addition to Voskopoja Albanian and Aromanian spoken. In July 2008 Aromanians founded an “Aromanian Council” (Consilu Armãnjlor) in the capital Tirana , which, according to the organization, should have its seat in Voskopoja.

history

A settlement has been documented by sources since around 1300. At the time of the Ottoman conquest of the country in the early 15th century, a city gradually developed through the arrival of Aromanians. The heyday of Voskopojas began in the second half of the 17th century. The basis for this was the economic success of Aromanian merchants, who at that time dominated long-distance trade on the Balkan Peninsula . Their trade relations reached as far as Germany ( Leipziger Messe ), Ragusa ( Dubrovnik ), Venice and Constantinople . In the past, the place was easy to defend due to its location and thus offered security, which, as well as a number of good water sources, favored its ascent. In no other town in the Balkans lived such a large number of Aromanian merchants as in Voskopoja around 1700. There were numerous craft shops and banks in the city. The Aromanian merchants belonging to the Orthodox Church donated numerous churches from the 17th century onwards, and Voskopoja is said to have owned around 26 churches and monasteries, most of which were built in the 18th century. In connection with this, Voskopoja was an important center of icon painting , as icons are used for the liturgy .

One of the first printing works in the Balkans was set up in the city in 1720. Many books have been published, often in Greek and Aromanian , written in Greek script . In 1744, the New Academy , the only Christian university in the Ottoman Empire, was founded. In 1770 the first dictionary of four modern Balkan languages (Greek, Albanian , Aromanian and Bulgarian ) was published in Voskopoja . Orphanodioiketerion , an orphanage established in the 18th century, was perhaps the first in the post-Byzantine Orthodox world.

There is agreement about the great importance of the city up to the middle of the 18th century, but different information is given about the population at that time. Generous estimates assume around 45,000 inhabitants for the year 1750 and 50,000 or even 60,000 inhabitants for the 1760s. Perhaps more realistic are 20,000 inhabitants or just a few thousand inhabitants. This would also call into question the often repeated claim that Voskopoja was the second largest city in European Turkey after Constantinople or even just one of the largest cities in the Balkans.

Aromanian signage during a 2010 festival

The city was not only inhabited by Aromanians, its prosperity also attracted members of other Balkan peoples. An analysis of the family names carried out in 1935 showed that Greeks , Bulgarians and Albanians also belong to the ancestors of the inhabitants. The German historian Johann Thunmann , who had visited Voskopoja and wrote about the history of the Aromanians in 1774, reported that all residents of the city spoke Aromanian and many also spoke Greek , which was the commercial language at the time.

Between 1769 and 1788, Voskopoja was repeatedly attacked and looted by gangs of thieves. After that, most of the residents left the place and Voskopoja sank back down to a village settlement. Voskopoja was replaced by the nearby Korça , which experienced a sustained upswing in the 19th century. Voskopoja, however, never regained its former meaning. During the First World War the place was destroyed again. The area around Voskopoja was the scene of armed conflicts as early as the previous Balkan Wars and also in the Second World War .

Attractions

The interior of St. Mary's Church (2009)

Restored St. Elijah basilica outside the village (2010)

Typical house architecture in Voskopoja (2010)

Five of the churches have been completely preserved, apart from the partially missing extensions. With lengths between 19 meters and 38 meters, they are unusually large three-aisled basilicas , whose domes, however, according to the Turkish arrangement, were not allowed to be seen from the outside. That is why the domes were hidden under wide gable roofs covered with stone slabs. Visible domes were usually reserved for mosques. Restraint was also required when it came to decorative motifs on the outside walls. Only the chancel, which is usually to the east, is recognizable from the outside as an apse .

The more or less still existing wall paintings show clear traces of insufficient maintenance in the past. Voskopoja's churches were included in the list of the 100 Most Endangered Cultural Assets in the World by the World Monuments Fund in 2002. The German Foreign Office and the German Embassy in Tirana support the restoration of frescoes in the churches.

Four of the churches are in a star shape no more than 300 meters away from the town center. Surrounded by pastureland, they seem isolated today. The only size of the city is difficult to imagine from a panoramic view.

The St. Nicholas Church (alb. Kisha e Shën Kollit ) is located in the center of the village and is the only one with a vestibule in the west and an archway on the southern long side to be completely preserved. The building was erected around 1722, the bell tower dates later. The roof made of stone slabs was re-covered in 2007.
The St. Marienkirche (alb. Kisha e Shën Mërisë ) is the former cathedral of the city from the year 1712 and accommodated over 1000 believers. It is one of the largest basilicas in the country.
The St. Michaelskirche (alb. Kisha e Shën Mëhillit ) is located between fields in the west of the village. An inscription gives the year of construction 1722. The arcade on the south wall is missing, instead the vestibule is built under an immensely wide hipped roof in the west.
The St. Elijah Basilica is located on a hill in the northwest. Inside there are hardly any remains of the painting to be seen, but here is the only two-tiered gable roof ( Obergaden ).
The St. Athanasius Church (alb. Kisha e Shën Thanasit ) is located a little below in the northeast and is given with the year of construction 1724. The vestibule is missing, but the arcaded porch along the south side has been completely preserved. In the arched fields there are false windows with Greek inscriptions.

The road to the east out of the village leads a few kilometers up a mountain at 1,400 m above sea level. A. to the oldest church in the area. It is the small, cross- domed church , built in 1632, of the former monastery of John the Baptist (alb. Kisha e Shën Prodhomit ). It is the only one that has a dome that is visible from the outside. Inside there are still remains of wall paintings from the 17th century. In 2006 the roof was re-covered, but the later monastery buildings have fallen into disrepair.

economy

The residents of Voskopojas live almost exclusively from livestock farming. Sheep, cattle and pigs are kept. There are only a few fields. Vegetables and fruits are grown in home gardens.

Hopes are particularly in tourism . Thanks to its quiet location in almost untouched nature, the place would be ideal for those looking for relaxation, mountain hikers and winter sports enthusiasts. The road to the monastery of John the Baptist ends a little below at a former communist pioneer camp that has been converted into a hotel.

literature

Max Demeter Peyfuss : The printing works of Moschopolis, 1731–1769. Book printing and veneration of saints in the Archdiocese of Achrida . Vienna - Cologne 1989. (= Vienna Archive for the History of Slavicism and Eastern Europe. 13), ISBN 3-205-98571-0 .
Karin Kirchhainer: The paintings in the vaulted zones of the domed basilicas of Voskopoje (Moschopolis). Acta Studia Albanica 1, 2007, pp. 60-96
Thede Kahl: Was Bulgarian spoken in Moschopolis? In: Problems de filologie slavă XV, Editura Universităţii de Vest, Timişoara 2007, pp. 484–494, ISSN 1453-763X
Maximilien Durand: Patrimoine of the Balkans. Voskopoje sans frontières 2004 . Somogy, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-85056-927-5 .
Aurel Plasari: Fenomeni Voskopojë . Tiranë 2000.
Stilian Adhami: Voskopoja dhe monumentet e saj . Tiranë 1998.
Valeriu Papahagi: Aromanii Moscopoleni şi comerţul veneţian în secolele al 17. şi al 18 . Bucureşti 1935.

Web links

Commons : Voskopoja - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Ines Nurja: Censusi i popullsisë dhe banesave / Population and Housing Census - Korçë 2011 . Results Kryesore / Main Results. Ed .: INSTAT . Pjesa / Part 1. Adel Print, Tirana 2013 ( instat.gov.al [PDF; accessed April 14, 2019]).
↑ The Mazedo-Romans (Aromanians) from the Balkan countries united in a council. Agentur-Presse, November 25, 2008, accessed October 28, 2012 .
↑ Demetrios J. Constantelos: Some Aspects of Stewardship of the Church of Constantinople under Ottoman Turkish Rule (1453-1800) . In: Anthony L. Scott (Ed.): Good and Faithful Servant: Stewardship in the Orthodox Church . St Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood 2003, ISBN 978-0-88141-255-0 , pp. 112 ( book on Google Books ).
^ Raymond Hutchings: Historical Dictionary of Albania . London 1996, p. 249 .
↑ ^a ^b Max Demeter Peyfuss: The printing works of Moschopolis 1731-1769 . S. 27-41 ( online [accessed October 28, 2012]).
↑ Miranda Vickers: Shqiptarët - Një histori modern . Bota Shqiptare, 2008, ISBN 978-99956-11-68-2 , Fillimi i rënies osmane, p. 32 (English: The Albanians - A Modern History . Translated by Xhevdet Shehu).

[instatko2011-1] Ines Nurja: Censusi i popullsisë dhe banesave / Population and Housing Census - Korçë 2011 . Results Kryesore / Main Results. Ed .: INSTAT . Pjesa / Part 1. Adel Print, Tirana 2013 ( instat.gov.al [PDF; accessed April 14, 2019]).

[2] The Mazedo-Romans (Aromanians) from the Balkan countries united in a council. Agentur-Presse, November 25, 2008, accessed October 28, 2012 .

[3] Demetrios J. Constantelos: Some Aspects of Stewardship of the Church of Constantinople under Ottoman Turkish Rule (1453-1800) . In: Anthony L. Scott (Ed.): Good and Faithful Servant: Stewardship in the Orthodox Church . St Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood 2003, ISBN 978-0-88141-255-0 , pp. 112 ( book on Google Books ).

[4] Raymond Hutchings: Historical Dictionary of Albania . London 1996, p. 249 .

[peyfuss-5] Max Demeter Peyfuss: The printing works of Moschopolis 1731-1769 . S. 27-41 ( online [accessed October 28, 2012]).

[6] Miranda Vickers: Shqiptarët - Një histori modern . Bota Shqiptare, 2008, ISBN 978-99956-11-68-2 , Fillimi i rënies osmane, p. 32 (English: The Albanians - A Modern History . Translated by Xhevdet Shehu).