Agios Germanos, ( el, Άγιος Γερμανός), is a village in the

Prespes Prespes ( el, Πρέσπες) is a municipality in the Florina regional unit, Western Macedonia, Greece. Its population in 2011 was 7,380. The seat of the municipality is in Laimos. It was named after Lake Prespa The Lake Prespa is located o ...

Municipality in

West Macedonia Western Macedonia ( el, Δυτική Μακεδονία, translit=Ditikí Makedonía, ) is one of the thirteen regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Macedonia. Located in north-western Greece, it is divided into the regional unit ...

, Greece. Agios Germanos is located at an altitude of approximately 1,100 meters (3,606 feet), on a hillside, part of the Varnoundas Mountains. It is from the Prespes lakes, which can be seen from a panorama location of the village. Agios Germanos lies from

Florina Florina ( el, Φλώρινα, ''Flórina''; known also by some alternative names) is a town and municipality in the mountainous northwestern Macedonia, Greece. Its motto is, 'Where Greece begins'. The town of Florina is the capital of the F ...

, and from

Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria regional unit, in the geographic region of Macedonia. It is situated on a promontory on the weste ...

Name

Until 1926, the village was known as ''German'' ( gr, Γέρμαν). In Macedonian and

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

, it is known as Герман, ''German'' and the name of the settlement comes from the old village church ''Sveti German'' ( Saint Germanus). In Albanian, the village is called Gjerman. The modern Greek name Agios Germanos means "Saint Germanus".

Features

The village is the only village in the

region that has preserved all of the old stone houses. The

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

church that forms the nucleus of the present village dates to the beginning of the 11th century. It has very interesting frescos painted in three different phases. Nearby, the church of Agios Athanasios was built at the end of the 18th century. The village is especially known among tourists for hiking, bird watching and the Agios Germanos river with falls, which has the endangered species of Prespa trout. Agios Germanos river is on the northeast of the village. One can also see the restored water mills along the river. Following the paths, one can reach the impressive mixed fir-beech forests, and the summits of Kitsevo or Despotiko (2,177m). The

Sarakatsani The Sarakatsani ( el, Σαρακατσάνοι, also written Karakachani, bg, каракачани) are an ethnic Greek population subgroup who were traditionally transhumant shepherds, native to Greece, with a smaller presence in neighbourin ...

, nomadic shepherds from

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

, have the tradition of bringing their herds to graze on these mountains every year from May to October. Just north of the village is an early 20th-century church built by Steven Doinidis. This church is kept up by the villagers, who number just over 200 as of 2008.

Demographics

According to Bosnian ethnographer Stefan Verković, in 1889 the village had 213 households and a population of 1016

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...

.Стефан Веркович
''Топографическо-этнографический очерк Македонии''.
СПб, 1889. с. 302 In 1900, 680 Slavonic speaking Christians and 125 Albanian Muslims lived in the village. In 1905 the population had gone up to 1250 with 90 of them being

Arnauts Arnaut ( ota, ارناود) is a Turkish ethnonym used to denote Albanians. ''Arvanid'' (), ''Arnavud'' (), plural: ''Arnavudlar'' (): modern Turkish: ''Arnavut'', plural: ''Arnavutlar''; are ethnonyms used mainly by Ottoman and contempor ...

(Albanians) and the rest – Bulgarians.D.M. Brancoff
''La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne''.
Paris, 1905. р.170 The Greek census (1920) recorded 1549 people in the village and in 1923 there were 135 inhabitants (or 17 families) who were Muslim. The Albanian village population was present until 1926 when it was replaced with ''prosfiges'' (Greek refugees), due to the

Greek-Turkish population exchange The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the " Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...

. A separate neighbourhood of the village named ''Shaoftsi'' ( mk, Шаофци) was inhabited by Muslims and later repopulated by Greek refugees. "Герман... Пред селото имало маало Шаофци во кое жибееле мусл., а потоа Просвиги. Во 1900 год. во селото имало 680 М. и 125 мусл. А. Сега живеат во селото само ок. 20 мак. фамили. Во селото се наога црква Св. Герман... Името е примарно, меморијално, дадено по името на црквата." In 1926, there were 909 refugee families from

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

in the village. The Greek census (1928) recorded 162 village inhabitants. After the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

, the Macedonian speaking population decreased and in their place

Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and ...

and

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

settled in the village. "Во 1900 год. само во с. Роби, Попли и Герман имало Албанци, на чие место во 1926 год. дошле Просвиги. По револуцијата мак. население по селата е познато помало, на местото од исбеганите Македонци се дојдени Власи и Грци." The Aromanians originated from

Giannitsa Giannitsa ( el, Γιαννιτσά , in English also Yannitsa, Yenitsa) is the largest city in the regional unit of Pella and the capital of the Pella municipality, in the region of Central Macedonia in northern Greece. The municipal unit Gian ...

and the region of

Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinri ...

. "1,700 Vlach nomad pastoralists were resettled in Prespa. Those from Epirus and Yiannitsa were resettled in Ayios Germanos and Kallithea" In the early 1970s, some 20 Christian Macedonian-speaking families resided in the village. Agios Germanos had 237 inhabitants in 1981. In fieldwork done by Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, Agios Germanos was populated by

, Slavophones and a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

population descended from Anatolian Greek refugees who arrived during the Greek-Turkish population exchange. The

Macedonian language Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...

was used by people of all ages, both in public and private settings, and as the main language for interpersonal relationships. Some elderly villagers had little knowledge of Greek. The

Aromanian language The Aromanian language (, , , or ), also known as Macedo-Romanian or Vlach, is an Eastern Romance language, similar to Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian and Romanian, spoken in Southeastern Europe. Its speakers are called Aromanians or Vl ...

was spoken in the village by people over 30 in public and private settings. Children understood the language, but mostly did not use it. Table 1: Réfugiés grecs; Footnote 2: Le terme « réfugié » est utilisé ici pour désigner les Grecs d’Asie Mineure qui se sont établis en Grèce dans les années vingt après l’échange de population entre la Turquie et la Grèce (Traité de Lausanne, 1924). Table 3: Agios Germanos, 237; V, S, R, M1, V2; V = Valaques (Aroumains), S = Slavophones, R = Refugiés, M = macédonien, V = valaque (aroumain)"

Gallery

File:View from garden in Agios Germanos.JPG, Across Agios Germanos looking toward

Small Prespa Lake Small Prespa Lake ( el, Λίμνη Μικρή Πρέσπα, ''Limni Mikri Prespa''; sq, Prespa e Vogël; mk, Мало Преспанско Езеро, ''Malo Prespansko Ezero'') is a lake shared between Greece (138 km² drainage area; 42.5 ...

File:View from Room in Ag Germanos.JPG, Agios Germanos with Small Prespa Lake in the background

References

External links

Prespes website
{{Authority control Populated places in Florina (regional unit)