Himarë

Himarë (Albanian: Himarë or Himara, IPA /hi'maɹə/ or /hi'maɹa/,is the name of a town and a region on the Ionian Sea coast of Albania, in the extreme south-west of the country.

Himarë is located directly opposite the north coast of Korfuz-Corfu. The surrounding district, which includes the eponymous town of Himarë, also includes seven other villages – (Dhermi, Palase, Vuno, Pilur, Qeparo, Shen Vasil, Kudhes, Ilias).

Geography

The whole region is characterized by high mountains falling steeply to meet a crystal clear sea. There are long white sandy beaches and the few hills close to the sea are generally terraced and planted with olive, orange and citrus trees. The Himarë region as a whole is quite small, about 50 km (31 miles) long by 10 km (6 miles) wide.

At the north the region begins with the rugged mountains, (which the Roman poet Horace mentioned as beautiful and breathtaking). Then from the Llogara national park the "thunder mountains" (locally called Malet e Bubullimes) extend along the northeast with their constantly misty complexion. The national road that winds down from the Llogora canyon towards the sea is one of the steepest and most dangerous high-ways (literally speaking) in Europe. The road's lethality is graphically illustrated by numerous commemorative markers on the spots where unfortunate motorists have rolled down the canyon in the past decades. The mountainside is known locally as the Rrepire, a Albanian word meaning "ravaged" or "eaten", in reference to the deforestation that has left the seaward side of the mountain bare in contrast to the landward side, which is fully vegetated, especially with Mediterranean black pines.

The views are breathtaking on the way down to Palase, the first village encountered after passing through the "rrepire". A short distance south lies Dhermi village, the biggest in the region after the town of Himarë. The English landscape painter Edward Lear visited Palasa and Dhermi while traveling through Albania in 1844 and described them as more magnificent in their location than any other village he had seen in Himara and they resemble no little to other thousand years old Arvanite-Albanian villages in Peloponez.

The journey then continues through rugged mountainous terrain along the sea coast towards the village of Vuno before reaching the town of Himarë and further south ending in the village of Qeparo, which is the third largest hamlet in the region.

History

Ancient history

In antiquity the region was inhabited by the Chaonian -Kaonet tribe (one of many Illyrian-Albanian tribes in the area including the Molossians in the south). Roman contemporaries mention the Chaones as very warlike. Illyrian-Albanian Epirus today extends from southern Albania to northern Greece (where Albanian regions of Chameria and Arta are situated; around 4 million ethnic Albanians are believed to live throughout Greece today). The town of Himarë is believed to have been founded by the Chaons-Kaonet as a trading outpost on the Chaonian shore. Little else is known of the Chaonians, except that the men wore white kilts. Their music was also referred to as "sheep bleating", probably referring to the polyphonic musical traditions of the region which survive to this day on all of the area called Laberia. This type of singing originates from the King Gentius age and is still present in Illyrian-Epirotic (Albanian) folk music.

Himara was used by people from the backlands as a harbour to expand further in the front island (Korfuz-Kerkyra-Corfu). As this mountainous people left their highlands and started building a seaside life, the settlement began to grow further up to being a city with a naval based life and many naturally fortified surrounding villages. Fishing, shepherding and trading were the usual trade and business activities for the poeple of this region in ancient times. It is believed that these business activities created most of the main employment for most of the city men as far as the lands of Himara are to harsh and high to consider agriculture. For sure the city quickly evolved in a trading centre, mainly trading with Greek and Venetian merchants as they mostly controlled the trade in the Ionian and Aegean seas. This is the time that besides the mother tongue - Albanian, Greek and Italian started being used in Himara (in the villages of Himara, Palase and Dhermi - the most shore villages of the region) for trading purposes.

The southern Chaones were situated mainly in between the Gramoz mountains, the mountainous seaside of the Ionian sea and river Vjosa (southern Albania). There is not a clear cut definition but they are considered an Epirote tribe. The artifacts found in the modern day village of Kanina on a hill overlooking on the Adriatic ocean and Otranto channel (that separates Ionian and Adriatic waters) from the city of Vlora in Albania represent more of an Illyrian influence, being in contact more with the Amantini, and the more southern villages show Corinthian Arvanite connections from modern day Korfuz-Corfu (another Illyrian-Albanian island - today under Greek domination).

Another anecdote about the Chaonians comes in reference to their battle against Philip II of Macedon (the father of Alexander the Great) who attacked Himara in 214 BC. The Macedonians were close to being defeated completely when Phillip devised a clever ruse. He ordered the cooks of the army to prepare large quantities of food and wine. Having done so, the Macedonian army abandons the camp to the advancing Chaonian charge. Upon discovering the food and wine left behind by the enemy, the Chaonians settled down on the food and wine and pretty soon became sick with diarrhea. The Macedonians, who were apparently expecting this, counterattacked and won the battle.

Following the breakup of Alexander the Great's empire, Himarë became part of Epirus under the rule of Pyrrhus of Epirus - a famous Illyrian-Epirote of that time, known for his Pyrrhic victories against the emerging power of Rome and Greek wild tribes and cities of that time. When the region was conquered by the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BC, its settlements were badly damaged and some were destroyed by the Roman General Paulus Emilius. The remains of one of these settlements, a site close to the shore below the rruga called Via Egnatia, can still be seen today (although with difficulty, as its remains are now mostly submerged).

Local tradition identifies the area around Via Egnatia as the site of Julius Caesar's landing in Epirus in pursuit of Pompey the Great during the Roman civil war. He is said to have assembled his army at the place known today as "Pllaja e Qesarit" (Caesar's Plateau) before marching on to take the town of Oricum on the other side of the mountains, near modern Vlorë. On the journey Caesar's ship ran into a storm, during which he is famously said to have told the ship's pilot, "Go on, my friend, and fear nothing. You carry Caesar and his fortune on your boat."

Middle Ages and early modern times

Himarë and the rest of the Illyrian-Albanian Epirus 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 Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians, Saracens and Normans. The use of the name "Kaonia" in reference to the region apparently died out during the 12th century, the last time it is recorded (in a Byzantine tax collection document).

The encroaching Ottoman Empire overran the rest of Albania from the 13th century, but along with the northern enclave of Mirdite, Himarë was the only region in Albania that did not submit to Ottoman Turkish rule. It became a symbol of resistance to the Turks but suffered an almost continuous state of warfare.

In 1481, one year after the Turks had landed in Otranto in southern Italy, the Himariotes rose again yoke and helped at some extend and Gjon Kastrioti (the son of Gjergj Kastrioti - a famous christian Albanian known as Skanderbeg, renowned as the national hero of Albania) to regain the lands lost after the death of his father. This forced the Turks to abandon their campaign in Italy. The attempt failed, but the Himariotes rose again in 1488, and between 1494-1509, destabilising Turkish control but failing to liberate their territory.

The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent personally led a large army in 1537 in a particularly bloody confrontation in Himarë. The oral lyrical traditions of the region commemorate the war with many folkloric songs. One such song tells the story of the massacre of the rrepira. The Sultan apparently sent word to Palasa inhabitants hiding in the mountains that he wanted to make peace and withdraw from their land and invited them to come down to the rrepire for talks. All those who took the Sultan at his word had all four limbs amputated and the living torsos thrown down the rrepire into the depths of the ravine.

Another song tells the story of one Himariot Jannisary officer in the Ottoman service named Xhavara Beylik, who after re-discovering his true identity, cut through to the royal tent and came close to killing the sultan himself, after which point the decimated Ottoman army retreated. Suleiman instead recognized the de facto independence of Himarë as an ethnic Albanian territory, setting forth a number of laws (or venomet) to regulate the relationship with the Empire. These included such rights as the exemption of the Himaroites from taxes, the right to sail under their own Albanian flag into any Ottoman port, and the right to carry guns while travelling in Ottoman territory.

Despite this agreement, the Ottomans subsequently made several unsuccessful attempts to conquer Himara, first in 1571, then again in 1595, 1690 and 1713. In total three different Ottoman sultans personally led military campaigns against Himara, each failing in turn. During these years, the people of Himara established close links to the Italian city states, especially Naples and the powerful Republic of Venice, and later with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which controlled Corfu (Korfuz) and the other Ionian Islands. During this time and thereafter, many Himariotes emigrated to the outside world and brought valuable skills back home with them. In 1848 even a small village like Dhermi could boast two doctors graduated in Athens and Vienna. However, emigration has also been a source of tragedies and disillusions. Petro Marko a writer born in Dhermi, describes this wound:

It's said that the big stones below are the men that had returned back and had died here. While the men that had left and died abroad are transformed in clouds. They come, shed tears and leave. And the big stones, near the shore, collect their tears as the rain is collected.

From 1799 to today

In 1799, Himarë came under the rule of Ali Pasha (Tepelenë) – ironically, a fellow Albanian despite the Turkish name – who had risen from being a guerrila (Komit) leader to the position of ruler of most of southern Albania and northern Greece where ethnic Albanian Chams live and Chameria is situated.

Ali Pasha tried to create good relations with the Himariots after declaring their enclave part of his emerging semi-independent state, by financing various public works and churches. One church he built still stands today as a major tourist attraction near Himare opposite of the Porto Palermo (Hyrja e Bukur Detare) Castle and is the largest and most magnificent in the region. Local people says that through his chief commander Thanas Xhavara he ordered the stonemasons to build the most durable structure they had ever attempted to build, so durable that it could withstand earthquakes and cannon bombardment, otherwise they would pay with their lives. After the church was complete he tested if these requirements were met by firing artillery shots at it from the castle.

The story goes that Ali ordered his soldiers to set the forest above the village of Dhermi on fire. Many Himariotes from the parts that opposed Ali Pasha migrated to Italy, settling partially to already established the Arberesh villages of Piana degli Albanesi and Santa Cristina Gela.

Ali Pasha's rule over Himarë lasted about 20 years until it was abruptly terminated by his murder at the hands of the Turks in his castle of Ioannina. Himarë subsequently reverted to its status quo ante of an enclave surrounded by Ottoman territory. To emphasize the region's special status, the terms that the Himariotes had reached with Sultan Suleiman were inscribed on bronze tablets at the request of their leaders, who wanted to record the agreement on a durable medium so as to stress its importance. These tablets were inscribed in Turkish and Arberesh-Albanian and are still preserved to this day in the topkape palace museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

In 1912 Himara sent its highest representatives to the town of Vlora to join the special occasion of the proclamation of the independence of Albania from the Turkish Empire. At the same time the people of Himara raised in every village the Albanian national flag commemorating and symbolizing the birth of the new Albanian nation.

After Albanian independence was achieved in 1912, Himara was breathing freely again. It was occupied by Italy during the First World War, when the Italians used Austro-Hungarian war prisoners to build a road running through Himarë, which greatly reduced the region's isolation. Following the war, the so-called "Protocol of Himara" was forced onto Himara by the canny and brutal Greek regime of that time in 1927, trying to assimilate Himariotes into Greeks by force and corruption means. But as other occupiers before them, Greek brutal regime also failed too to subdue Himariotes. It was again occupied by Italians and Germans during the Second World War.

During the communist regime Himara gained a small local tourist industry as well as continuing to pursue the traditional local industry of fruit growing.

After the fall of communism in 1992, the people of Himarë emigrated in very large numbers, especially to Europe. Many villages were reduced to ghost towns inhabited mostly by old people. Younger people did return temporarily, though, especially during the months of summer. In recent years, the population has expanded somewhat due to a growth in the region's tourist industry. The region has benefitted from the resumption of contacts with the large Himariote diaspora around the world, with communities existing as far afield as the USA, Australia and France as well as closer to home in Greece and Italy.

Language

Himarë is a society where a great number of people are traveled and besides their mother tongue Albanian know some Greek, Italian and French.

Around 1645 in Himara was opened one of early Albanian language schools, making therefore Himara one of the early pioneers of the Albanian reinassance.

Religion

Himariotes practice Orthodox Christianity faith which is particularly practiced in this region. Their church is part of the Albanian Independent Orthodox Church.

Culture

Himariotes are a culturally homogenous people, regardless of their linguistic diversity. Most of them speak Albanian at home and some Greek for trade purposes, but the Albanian cultural and ethnic aspects of their life are pretty much the same throughout. For example, upon somebody's death, people who had known the deceased compose mourning songs or ballads (called vaie - a typical southern Albanian folk elegy singing) which summarize the legacy that the dead person leaves among those still alive.

Pirro Dhima

Himara is the home town of a famous Albanian athlete, Pirro Dhima. He is the only weight lifting athlete in the whole world who has achieved to win four olympic medals.The three medals are gold and the last one-from the Athens Olympics, 2004 - is a bronze medal. He is considered to be a national hero of Greece today - an Albanian hero indeed that helped Greek obscure weightlifting sport reach world records. But this came with a price for Pirro. He has been under constant pressure from the Greek regime to trade off living in Greece with the forced change of his name to Pirros Dhimas (and even his national identity) - which even Pirro himself consideres it a bad Greek joke that he has to live with.

40°06′N 19°45′E