Itea ( el, Ιτέα, before 1926: Βύρμπενη - ''Vyrmpeni''; mk, Врбени, translit=Vrbeni; bg, Върбени or Долно Върбени, translit=Varbeni or ), is a village and a community of the Florina municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform it was a part of the municipality of

Meliti Meliti ( el, Μελίτη, before 1926: Βοστεράνη - ''Vosterani''; bg, Овчарани or Вощарани, mk, Овчарани) is a village in the Florina regional unit, Western Macedonia, Greece, 15 km northeast of the city ...

, of which it was a municipal district. The 2011 census recorded 542 residents in the village. The community of Itea covers an area of 9.799 km².

History

In 1845 the Russian slavist Victor Grigorovich recorded ''Verbini'' as

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 ...

village. Johann Georg von Hahn in his map from 1861 marked the village as Bulgarian, too. In the book “Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Adrianople, de Monastir et de Salonique”, published in Constantinople in 1878, that reflects the statistics of the male population in 1873, Dolno Vrbeni was noted as a village with 200 households and 615 Bulgarian inhabitants. In 1886 al of its inhabitants were Greek Orthodox. In 1900 there was a Bulgarian school and church.Georgios Lithoxoou, Florina villages
/ref> According to Vasil Kanchov’s statistics, in 1900, Varbeni had 690 Bulgarian inhabitants. In 1903 all of its inhabitants were part of 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 ...

. The whole population of the village was under the supremacy of the

in the early 20th century. According to the evidences of Dimitar Mishev, the secretary of the Exarchate, there were 624 Bulgarians in Varbeni in 1905.Brancoff, D.M. "La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne". Paris, 1905, р. 176-177. In 1910 Vyrbeni had 455 inhabitants. In 1925, 50 inhabitants of the village were arrested by Greek authorities for collaborating with VMRO in the November bombing incident in Florina.

Demographics

Itea had 713 inhabitants in 1981. In fieldwork done by Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, Itea was populated by Slavophones. 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 spoken by people over 60, mainly in private. Table 3: Itea, 713; S, M3; S = Slavophones, M = macédonien" According to the 2011 census, the population of Itea was 542 people, a decrease of 14% compared to the previous census of 2001.

Notable persons

* Liolias, Greek Macedonian fighter and local chieftain * Georgi Traykov (1898–1975) - Bulgarian politician. Leader of

BANU Banu or BANU may refer to: * Banu (name) * Banu (Arabic), Arabic word for "the sons of" or "children of" * Banu (makeup artist), an Indian makeup artist * Banu Chichek, a character in the ''Book of Dede Korkut'' * Bulgarian Agrarian National Union ...

from 1947 and 1975 and head of state of Bulgaria from 1964 to 1971.

References

{{Florina div Populated places in Florina (regional unit) Florina