Mbiemra Ne Berat

[Emir Ballard]

Himar (Albanian definite form: Himara; Greek: Χιμάρα, Chimara or Χειμάρρα, Cheimarra) is a municipality and region in Vlor County, southern Albania. The municipality has a total area of 571.94 km2 (220.83 sq mi) and consists of the administrative units of Himar, Hor-Vranisht and Lukov.[1][2] 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 Himar region gradually shrank during the Ottoman period, being reduced to the town of Himar and the villages of the coastline (Bregdet in Albanian),[3] generally including only Palas, Dhrmi, Pilur, Kudhs, Vuno, Iljas and Qeparo.[4]

The coastal region of Himar is predominantly populated by an ethnic Greek community.[5][6][7][8][9] The local population is bilingual in Greek and Albanian.[10] The town of Himar and the villages of Dhrmi 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, Lukov, Kudhs, Pilur and Vuno are inhabited by an Albanian population, while Qeparo is inhabited by both Albanians and Greeks.[11] In the 2011 census, 83% of the inhabitants of the former municipality of Hor-Vranisht declared themselves as Albanians, while the rest failed to provide a reply.[12] In the former Lukov municipality, the population is predominantly Albanian (94%) with a small Greek minority (6%).[13]

The Himar region is a strip approximately 20 km long by 5 km wide, covering a total of 132.13 km2,[14] and bounded by the 2000-metre-high Ceraunian mountains to the northeast and the Ionian Sea to the southwest. There are long white sandy beaches and the few hills close to the sea are terraced and planted with olive and citrus trees.[15] The traditionally perceived borders of the Himar region gradually shrank during the Ottoman period, being reduced only to the town of Himar and the villages on the coastline (Bregdet in Albanian).[3]

In classical antiquity, Himar 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.[citation needed]

Himar and the rest of the southern Balkans passed into the hands of the Byzantine Empire[24] 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. Himar is mentioned in Procopius of Caesarea's Buildings (544)[25] 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 Himar to Margariti called "Vagenetia".[25]

A local diocese of Cheimara (Greek: Χειμάρα) was formed as noted in a Byzantine Taktikon of the late 10th century (972-976) under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan bishopric of Nicopolis.[26] It is unclear when Albanians and Himar Greeks arrived in the Himar region and when contacts between the two groups began.[27] Nevertheless, contacts between them probably started in the 13th and 14th centuries.[28] 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 a Byzantine tax collection document).[citation needed] In 1278, Nicephorus of Epirus surrendered to the Angevins the ports of Himar, Sopot and Butrint. As a result, Charles of Anjou controlled the Ionian coast from Himar to Butrint.[29] It must have returned to Byzantine rule in 1281 after the battle of Berat.[30] In c. 1360 the Latin bishop of Chimara renounced his office and his Catholic faith and submitted to the Patriarch of Constantinople.[30] Himar was later ruled by Serbian Empire between 1342 and 1372. In 1372 Himar, together with Vlora, Kanina and Berat region was given as a dowry to Balša II due to his marriage with the daughter of John Komnenos Asen. After the death of Balša II, his widow and his daughter (who married Mrkša Žarković) managed to keep the possession of the region up to 1417 when the Ottomans captured Vlora.[31] At the Battle of Kosovo of 1389, contemporary Greek authors list among participants Northern Albanians, those of Himar, Epirus and the coast.[32] Though in 14th century Byzantine control in Himar was lost, the local bishop remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.[33]

In 1431 Himar became a nahiye, an administrative division, of the Sanjak of Albania.[34] 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.[35] During Skanderbeg's rebellion and the rule of Gjergj Arianiti, Himar 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 as well as with native Himariot support, took control of the entire coastal region from Sagiada to Himar, but when the ongoing Ottoman-Venetian war ended (1479) the region was again under Ottoman control.[36] In 1481, one year after the Ottomans had landed in Otranto in southern Italy, the Himariots joined the forces of Gjon Kastrioti II (son of Skanderbeg) in his uprising against the Ottomans.[37] The Albanian rebellion in Himar was led by Konstantin Muzaka under the aid of Krokodeilos Kladas.[38] 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, Himar 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, Himar, Vuno, Sopot (which was divided into two, Shn Vasija and Nivic Bubari), Dhrmi, Palas and Kudhs-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 Himar, while the Gjika family held the title in Qeparo and the Kasneci family held the title 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 (Spiromilio), 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 Himar 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.[39] The Albanians in southern Albania and northern Greece were not divided in fis like northern and central Albanians, but in fara' or gjeri ("common thing"). Among the lineages was that of Himar.[40]

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 Himar region, which still included all of Labria, among those ruled by the Albanians. He added that it could field 20,000 warriors against the Ottomans.[41]

In one occasion, in 1577, the villages of the bishopric of Himar 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;[45] the letter concludes with "From Himarra, i.e. Epiros of the Arvanids [Albanians], on July 12th 1577".[46][47] The term "Albanian" was used by the Himariots, both as an identifier of local Himariotes, and as an identifier of "otherness" (as for example in letters from 1532 and 1578), which has led some to suggest that it indicated that Himariots consisted of both Albanians and non-Albanians.[48] 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.[35] The Himar region was one example where Christian Albanians during the Ottoman period could carry arms and have a rather independent life.[49] In the second half of the 16th century, Himar was one of the cities of southern Albania that maintained the pre-Ottoman Christian character. It did not have a single Muslim family.[50] 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.[51]

During the Ottoman period, the people of Himar 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, Lukov, Klikursi, Shn Vasil and Nivica-Bubar migrated to Italy and founded the village Villa Badessa in Abruzzo, where the Arbresh dialect is still spoken.[57][58] After the death of Skanderbeg, successive waves of Albanians from regions such as Himar moved to Italy, and often settled in depopulated places; they are known as Arbresh.[59][60]

The first school in the region opened in 1627, where lessons were held in the Greek language. The following years (until 1633) Greek-language schools opened also in the villages of Dhrmi and Palasa.[61] During the Ottoman period, judicial authority in Himar 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.[62] In 1632 Albanian schools were founded in Himar by Neophytos Rodinos.[63][64]

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