Dendrochori ( el, Δενδροχώρι, old names: el, Ντύμπενη, ''Dymbeni'';

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 ...

/ Macedonian: Дъмбени, ''Dambeni'' or Д’мбени, ''D'mbeni'') is a village in the community Kastraki in the

Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...

regional unit, the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

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 Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Dendrochori is located approximately 10 km northwest of

and 6 km east of the center of the community Kastraki — the village

Ieropigi Ieropigi ( el, Ιεροπηγή, before 1927: Κοστενέτσι - ''Kostenetsi'') is a village in Kastoria Regional Unit, Macedonia, Greece. The Greek census (1920) recorded 563 people in the village. Following the Greek-Turkish population e ...

. Dendrohori has 266 inhabitants (2011).

History

According to

narrative history Narrative history is the practice of writing history in a story-based form. It tends to entail history-writing based on reconstructing series of short-term events, and ever since the influential work of Leopold von Ranke on professionalising histo ...

, the village was founded by immigrants from villages Berik, Ano Sliveni (Gorno Sliveni), Saynovo, Vevi (Banitsa) and Agia Paraskevi (Sveta Petka). In the book “Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Adrianople, de Monastir et de Salonique”, published in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

in 1878, that reflects the statistics of the male population in 1873, ''Dëmbini'' was noted as a village with 280 households and 800

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 understo ...

as inhabitants. In the same year all of the inhabitants were

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...

and none of them had turned to the

Bulgarian Exarchate The Bulgarian Exarchate ( bg, Българска екзархия, Balgarska ekzarhiya; tr, Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and th ...

. In 1886 the

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 ...

school of Dymbeni was still operating. In 1905, all of its inhabitants turned to

. Dendrohori was a

Macedonian Bulgarian Macedonians or Macedonian Bulgarians ( bg, македонци or македонски българи), sometimes also referred to as Macedono-Bulgarians, Macedo-Bulgarians, or Bulgaro-Macedonians are a regional, ethnographic group of eth ...

village of 1650 inhabitants at the beginning of the 20th century. Until 1878 the teaching in the local school was in Greek language. In 1878 Trpo Popovski from neighbour village Kosinec (Ieropigi) started to teach the local pupils the

Bulgarian language Bulgarian (, ; bg, label=none, български, bălgarski, ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians. Along with the closely related Macedonian la ...

.Поповски, Търпо. Македонски дневник,2006, с. 32 (Popovski, Trpo. Macedonian diary, Sofia 2006, p. 32) There were two

schools in the village in the beginning of 20th century.D.M.Brancoff. "La Macedoine et sa Population Chretienne". Paris, 1905, p.180-181. Subsequently, it was one of the first Slavic villages to revolt against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in the

Ilinden Uprising Ilinden (Bulgarian/ Macedonian Cyrillic: Илинден) or Ilindan ( Serbian Cyrillic: Илиндан), meaning "Saint Elijah's Day", may refer to: Events * Republic Day (North Macedonia), 2 August Geographic locations Bulgaria * Ilinden, Blagoev ...

of 1903, for which the Turkish army exacted heavy reprisals, killing many of the villagers and burning it to the ground. However a stand at the nearby

Battle of Lokvata A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

in which the villagers inflicted disproportionate casualties on a much larger Turkish force became a nationalist rallying point and served as the basis for a poem by

Lazar Poptraykov Lazar Poptraykov ( Bulgarian: Лазар Поптрайков; Macedonian: Лазар Поп-Трајков) (10 April 1878–October 1903) was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji). He was also a Bulgarian Exarchate teacher and poe ...

. The village sided with

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

during the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

and the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but became part of Greece following the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

. From the 1930s and especially 1940s many of its citizens became active in Macedonian separatist and

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

groups, the latter due to the Communists' advocacy on behalf of equal rights for ethnic minorities. The village sided with the National Liberation Front on the Communist side during 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 was destroyed when the Communists lost the war. Most villagers were forced into exile, and the village was repopulated mainly with

Vlach "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Eastern ...

refugees from

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 Heinrich ...

Notable people

, Bulgarian Macedonian

komitadji Komitadji, Comitadjis, or Komitas ( Bulgarian, Macedonian and sr, Комити, Serbian Latin: ''Komiti'', ro, Comitagiu, gr, Κομιτατζής, plural: Κομιτατζήδες, tr, Komitacı, sq, Komit) means in Turkish "committee mem ...

and poet

References

External links

Dambeni: Gone But Not Forgotten
{{coord, 40.582, N, 21.143, E, region:GR_type:city(349), format=dms, display=title Populated places in Kastoria (regional unit) Kastoria