Borsh

Borsh (from borë ("snow") + shi ("rain")) is a maritime village, in the Albanian Riviera, in the former Lukovë municipality, Vlorë County, Albania,[1] At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Himarë.[2] The village is inhabited by Muslim Albanians,[3] many of whom have traditionally been Bektashi. In Borsh, the Lab dialect of Albanian is spoken.

For other uses, see Borsh (disambiguation).
Borsh
Village
Borsh Castle
Borsh
Coordinates: 40°3′45″N 19°51′24″E
Country Albania
CountyVlorë
MunicipalityHimarë
Municipal unitLukovë
Elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)

Borsh borders with Fterra, Qeparo, Piqeras, Kuç, Çorraj, Kalasa, Zhulat, Tatzat, and has a population of 2500 registered inhabitants.

History
Drawing of the Sopot fortress during capture by Venetian ships in 1570

The region which Borshi is located was part of the Chaonia of the ancient region of Epirus. Borshi was probably fortified from antiquity and it belonged to Kemara (modern Himara) then part of the Chaonian tribal state, one of the main Greek tribes in Epirus.[4]

The castle remained in use in Roman times and was refortified by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. Nothing is known of the settlement in the Byzantine era, until it is mentioned as Sopotos in 1258 when it was part of the Despotate of Epirus that grew out of the failing Byzantine empire. Borsh then went through a period of considerable turmoil, changing hands several times between the Despotate of Epirus and Norman crusades invaders before being taken by the Turks in 1431.

Fifty years later it was captured by Albanians led by Skenderbeg, but was retaken by the Turks only eleven years later and heavily refortified. On June 10, 1570 the castle of Sopot was taken by James Celsi, Proveditor of the Venetian navy, who left after leaving in charge the Greek commander of Nauplion, Emmanuel Mormoris. This also triggered part of the nearby Himariotes to submit to Venetian rule.[5] The next year the Ottoman army recaptured it and took Mormori as a prisoner.

The 18th century was a turbulent economic time and due to Orthodox revolts and conflicts with Orthodox powers such as the Russian Empire, Ottoman governors at times applied pressures including drastic tax raises on the local Christian population as well as other pressures caused towns to convert.[6] Borsh converted in 1744 and followed it up by raiding nearby Piqeras, which remained Christian.[7][8]

Ruined mosque of Hajji Bendo in Borsh

The fortress was renovated again by Ali Pasha Tepelena, and it is these fortifications that visitors can view by taking the half-hour walk up to the ‘castle rock’ the limestone mount clearly visible above the old village. During Ali pasha's reign there were 700 houses at Borsh, and below the castle mount you can see a ruined mosque of Hajji Bendo and madrese (a Muslim theological school), both of which were damaged in Ali Pasha's wars but survived, only to be destroyed by fighting after 1912 when the Turks left the region.

Between 1912 and 1914 serious inter-ethnic conflict took place between Greeks and Albanians, and significant portion of the old village was destroyed, however some fine buildings remain. Modern Borsh was built after that, but became seriously depopulated, first due to malaria, and following severe reprisal killings by Germans in WW2 however, depopulation was balanced by an influx of refugees from Vlora, fleeing into partisan territory from the city which was heavily contested until late in the war.

Tourism
Ujëvara(Waterfall Restaurant) in Borsh
Albanian Riviera at Borsh

The village is very stable and growing in prosperity thanks to tourism and olive oil production. The thing that makes Borsh very popular is its beach, which is the largest beach in Ionian sea (7 km).

The tourism has begun to develop a lot thanks to village's beauty and thanks to its friendly people. Continuing in this way Borsh will become soon the best destination for tourists in the South of Albania.

Dialect
Main article: Lab Albanian dialect

The Lab dialect spoken in Borsh was reported by Albanian linguist M Totoni to possess nasal vowels,[9] a characteristic that was previously thought to have been the diagnostic difference between the major Tosk and Gheg divisions, whereby Tosk dialects such as Borsh's lab dialect were previously thought to have all lost nasal vowels when they split from Gheg dialects, which retained the nasality feature.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Location of Borsh". Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  2. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-07-02.
  3. Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. p. 51. " AM Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι”; p.53. “BORSH ΜΠΟΡΣΙ 1243 AM"
  4. The Cambridge Ancient History: The fourth century B.C. Cambridge University Press. 1994. pp. 437–443. To the norththe Chaonians... The state represented by ' Kemara ' in the list of hosts had two centres , Himarrë and Borsh , both probably fortified... Thus the north-west Greek-speaking tribes were at a half-way stageeconomically and politically, retaining the vigour of a tribal society andreaching out in a typically Greek manner towards a larger politicalorganization.
  5. Hill, George (2010). A History of Cyprus. Cambridge University Press. p. 911. ISBN 978-1-108-02064-0.
  6. Giakoumis, Kosta (2010).“The Orthodox Church in Albania During the Ottoman Rule (15th-19th century)”, in Rathberger A. [ed.] (2010), Religion und Kultur im albanisch-sprachigen Südosteuropa, preface by O. Schmitt, Frankfurt am Main: Pro Oriente – Peter Lang, pp. 69-110. Pages 75-77.
  8. Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780198142539.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  9. Totoni, Menela (1964). “E folmja e bregdetit të poshtëm”, Studime Filologjike I, Tiranë, 1964, p. 136.
  10. Paçarizi , Rrahman (2008). Albanian Language Archived 2017-07-17 at the Wayback Machine. Page 102.
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