Devol ( bg, Девол) also Deabolis or Diabolis, ( el, Δεάβολις) was a medieval fortress and bishopric in western
Macedonia, located south of
Lake Ohrid
Lake Ohrid ( mk, Охридско Езеро , al, Liqeni i Ohrit , also referred as ''Liqeni i Pogradecit'';) is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of E ...
in what is today the south-eastern corner of
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
(
Devoll District
Devoll (; sq-definite, Devolli) is a municipality in Korçë County, southeastern Albania. The municipality consists of the administrative units of Hoçisht, Miras, Progër and Qendër Bilisht with Bilisht constituting its seat. As of the In ...
). Its precise location is unknown today, but it is thought to have been located by the river of the same name (today
Devoll River
Devoll ( sq, Devoll; sq-definite, Devolli) is a river in southern Albania.
It is one of the source rivers of Seman. It is long and its drainage basin is . Its average discharge is . Its source is in the southwestern corner of the Devoll munic ...
), and on the Roman
Via Egnatia
The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a continu ...
road. It is first mentioned in historical sources in
John Skylitzes
John Skylitzes, commonly Latinized as Ioannes, la, Johannes, label=none, la, Iōannēs, label=none Scylitzes ( el, Ἰωάννης Σκυλίτζης, ''Iōánnēs Skylítzēs'', or el, Σκυλίτση, ''Skylítsē'', label=none ; la, ...
' account of the
Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars under Emperor
Basil II
Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...
, whose general
Eustathios Daphnomeles
Eustathios Daphnomeles ( el, , early 11th century) was a Byzantine and patrician who distinguished himself in the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria. He ranks as one of the most prominent and successful generals in the thirty-year war between E ...
is said to have subdued some of the last Bulgarian resisting forces concentrated in Deabolis in 1018. The place is also mentioned in a 1019 charter granted by Basil to the
Bulgarian church, as a ''kastron'' (castle) under the jurisdiction of the bishop of
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 ...
.
![Devol fortress plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Devol_fortress_plan.png)
It is not precisely known when Deabolis became a bishopric. Saint
Clement of Ohrid
Saint Clement of Ohrid ( Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian: Свети Климент Охридски, ; el, Ἅγιος Κλήμης τῆς Ἀχρίδας; sk, svätý Kliment Ochridský; – 916) was one of the first medieval Bulgarian ...
(ca. 840–916), an eminent early Macedonian writer, is supposed to have been its bishop around 900, according to the saint's vita written by
Theophylact of Ohrid
Theophylact ( gr, Θεοφύλακτος, bg, Теофилакт; around 1055after 1107) was a Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid and commentator on the Bible.
Life
Theophylact was born in the mid-11th century at Euripus (Chalcis) in Euboea, at th ...
some 200 years later; however, the first independent contemporary documents confirming its status as a bishopric are of a later date.
Deabolis/Devol was the site of the
Treaty of Devol
The Treaty of Devol ( el, συνθήκη της Δεαβόλεως) was an agreement made in 1108 between Bohemond I of Antioch and Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, in the wake of the First Crusade. It is named after the Byzantine fortress of ...
between
Bohemond I of Antioch
Bohemond I of Antioch (5 or 7 March 1111), also known as Bohemond of Taranto, was the prince of Taranto from 1089 to 1111 and the prince of Antioch from 1098 to 1111. He was a leader of the First Crusade, leading a contingent of Normans on the q ...
and Byzantine Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...
in 1108. It was reconquered by the
Bulgarian Empire in the beginning of the 13th century. Byzantine control was restored in 1259 when
Michael Palaeologos besieged the city using
helepolis
Helepolis ( el, ἑλέπολις, meaning: "Taker of Cities") is the Greek name for a movable siege tower.
The most famous was that invented by Polyidus of Thessaly, and improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens, for the Siege ...
siege engines The fortress continued to play an important role until the 14th century. Its site became forgotten in modern times. It has been tentatively identified with the site of a modern Albanian village called
Zvezdë (located at ), a conjecture already proposed by the 19th century British traveller
William Martin Leake
William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the
Mediterrane ...
in 1835.
The place Deabolis/Devol on the Devoll river should not be confused with a different medieval fortress likewise called Deabolis, or
Devolgrad, situated further east in today's
Macedonia, near
Kavadarci
Kavadarci ( mk, Кавадарци ) is a town in the Tikveš region of North Macedonia. In the heart of North Macedonia's wine country, it is home to the largest winery in Southeast Europe, named after the Tikveš plain. The town of Kavadarci is ...
.
References
{{reflist
Populated places of the Byzantine Empire
Albania under the Byzantine Empire
Kutmichevitsa
Medieval Macedonia
Archbishopric of Ohrid