Kranë

Kranë (Greek: Κρανιά; romanized Kraniá) is a village in Vlorë County, southern Albania.[1] At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality of Finiq.[2] It is inhabited solely by Greeks.[3]

Kranë

Κρανιά
Settlement
Kranë
Coordinates: 39°53′29″N 20°05′23″E
Country Albania
CountyVlorë
MunicipalityFiniq
Elevation
65 m (213 ft)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)

History

In antiquity it was an Epirot town, known as "Elikranon" (Greek: Ελίκρανον).[4] The ancient ruins can be seen even today. The name "Krania" is firstly mentioned in the Chronicle of the Tocco in 1412.[5] In 1856, the Greek scholar Panagiotis Aravantinos writes about the village:[6] «... a village with 15 houses, of Greek origin, the spoken language is Greek and belongs to the diocese of Delvino.»

Thimios Lolis (1880-1961) was born in the village, a Greek chieftain who fought in the Macedonian Struggle in the group of Pavlos Melas, the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, the Balkan Wars and in the Greco-Italian War.[7] A monument to honour him exists in the village. Between 2018-19, the Thimios Lolis monument has been vandalized twice by Albanian nationalists.[8][9]

Demographics

According to a research of 1993, the village had a permanent population of 854, of which all were ethnically Greeks.[3] The population has now fallen dramatically, certainly under 400. This number though doubles in Easter, summer and Christmas as most people return to their village to celebrate or have holidays with their families.

References
  1. "Location of Kranë".
  2. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  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 Greek). Εκδόσεις Σιδέρης. p. 55. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  4. Κ. Παπαρρηγοπούλου, "Ιστορία του Ελληνικού έθνους". vol 2. publication of National Geographic Society, 2009-2010.
  5. E. Zachariadou, "The first thousand verses in the beginning of the Chronicle of the Tocco (Ε. Ζαχαριάδου, «Οι χίλιοι στίχοι στην αρχή του Χρονικού των Τόκκων»), Ipirotika Chronika (Ηπειρωτικά Χρονικά) 15 (1983) 158-181 (in Greek)
  6. Panagiotis Aravantinos, Χρονογραφία της Ηπείρου : των τε ομόρων ελληνικών και ιλλυρικών χωρών διατρέχουσα κατά σειράν τα εν αυταίς συμβάντα από του σωτηρίου έτους μέχρι του 1854., Εκ του Τυπογραφείου Σ. Κ. Βλαστού, Athens 1856 (in Greek)
  7. Θύμιος Λώλης: Ποιος ήταν ο θρυλικός οπλαρχηγός της Ηπείρου και γιατί ενοχλεί τους Αλβανούς [Thimios Lolis: Who was the legendary chieftain of Epirus and why Albanians are bothered of him], 4 December 2018, iellada
  8. Albanian nationalists vandalise Greek monument in Northern Epirus, 4 December 2018, Daily Hellas
  9. Albanians vandalize again Greek monument as they try to terrorize the Greek minority (photos) (Upd.), 23 July 2019, Protothema
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