Ano Vrontou ( el, Άνω Βροντού; bg, Горно Броди, ''Gorno Brodi'') is a remote mountain village and a former community in the northern Serres 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 ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Serres, of which it is a municipal unit. Each year on August astrophotography hobbyists gather there due to the clear view of the night sky, a result of the villages high elevation. The municipal unit has an area of 47.306 km². In 2011 its population was 199. Ano Vrontou is situated in the northeastern part of the

Vrontous Vrontous ( el, Βροντούς, bg, Шарлия - Sharliya) is a mountain range in the northeastern Serres and the westernmost Drama regional units in Greece. Its highest peak is the Ali Babas ( el, Αλή Μπαμπάς) at 1,849 m elevation. ...

mountains, at about 1060 m elevation. It borders on the Drama regional unit to the north and east. Ano Vrontou is 6 km northwest of

Kato Vrontou Kato or Katō may refer to: Places *Kato, Guyana, a village in Guyana *Katō, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Katō District, Hokkaido, a district located in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan *Katowice, a city in Southern Poland, ...

, 12 km east of Achladochori, 13 km northeast of Oreini, 16 km southwest of Kato Nevrokopi and 26 km northeast of Serres.

Population

History

The finding of a Greek inscription of Roman (Imperial) times supports the conclusion that in the place of the present village there was an ancient settlement, whose residents were engaged in the exploitation of the iron mines of the mountain

. Brodi (now Vrontou) was first mentioned in the 14th century in a letter from the Serbian tsar Stefan Dušan to Rayko, the ruler of Brodi and Trilisa (now Vathytopos). The Ottomans conquered the area and ruled until 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 ...

. Prior to the Second Balkan Wars, it had a Bulgarian majority and a Turkish minority. It had around 2,700 Bulgarian inhabitants in 1873. By 1900, its population rose to 6,100

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 ...

Christians. In 1905 according to the secretary of the exarch Dimitar Mishev the settlement had around 6,480 Bulgarian exarchists and 240 Bulgarian patriarchists, making it one of the largest places in the area.Brancoff, D.M. La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne, Paris, 1905, pp. 198-199 The village had a large activity by

VMORO The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

in an Ottoman province. In 1903, the large settlement was visited by

Gotse Delchev Georgi Nikolov Delchev (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian/Macedonian language, Macedonian: Георги/Ѓорѓи Николов Делчев; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (''Гоце Делчев ...

from the Vanisha. In 1913, it had 1,100 houses and 8,000 inhabitants. In the Balkan Wars, the area was conquered and occupied by

and its residents fled northward to Bulgaria, 200 of them to Nevrokop (now

) and 300 fled to

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

. They were replaced by Greeks that fled from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).

Notable people

Dimo Hadjidimov Dimo Hadzhidimov ( bg, Димо Хаджидимов; 19 February 1875 – 13 September 1924) was a 20th-century Bulgarians, Bulgarian teacher, revolutionary and politician from Ottoman Macedonia (region), Macedonia. He was among the leaders of t ...

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

(IMRO) revolutionary leader * Tasos Stambouloglou (b. 1938), Greek poet and literary critic *

Georgi Sivkov Georgi may refer to: * Georgi (given name) * Georgi (surname) See also *Georgy (disambiguation) *Georgii (disambiguation) Georgii may refer to: ;Given name *Georgii Zantaraia (born 1987), Ukrainian judoka of Georgian origin *Georgii Karpechenko ( ...

(1909–1964) Leader of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front ''Otechstven Front''

Literature

Vasil Kanshov on Ano Vrontou (Gorno Brodi)
* Vidoeski, Bozhidar ''Gorno Vrodi, Drama'', Skopje, 1992 XVII 2, p 5-89

References

External links

Aerial Photographs of Ano Vrontou at airphotos.grAno Vrontou at the GTP Travel Pages
{{Authority control Populated places in Serres (regional unit) Geography of ancient Macedonia