Syvota ( el, Σύβοτα, , before 1940: Μούρτος ''Mourtos/Volia'' ) is a village and a former municipality in

Thesprotia Thesprotia (; el, Θεσπρωτία, ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Epirus region. Its capital and largest town is Igoumenitsa. Thesprotia is named after the Thesprotians, an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality

Igoumenitsa Igoumenitsa ( el, Ηγουμενίτσα, ) is a coastal city in northwestern Greece. It is the capital of the regional unit of Thesprotia. Igoumenitsa is the chief port of Thesprotia and Epirus, and one of the largest passenger ports of Greece, ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 72.439 km². The population in 2011 was 875 for the village, and 2,640 for the municipal unit. The seat of the municipality was in Plataria.

History

The earliest recorded inhabitants of the region are the

Thesprotians The Thesprotians ( grc, Θεσπρωτοί, Thesprōtoí) were an ancient Greek tribe, akin to the Molossians, inhabiting the kingdom of Thesprotis in Epirus. Together with the Molossians and the Chaonians, they formed the main tribes of the nort ...

, 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 ...

tribe 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 ...

. In antiquity, the location was called Sybota and was the site of the

Battle of Sybota The Battle of Sybota ( grc, Σύβοτα) took place in 433 BCE between Corcyra (modern Corfu) and Corinth. It was one of the immediate catalysts for the Peloponnesian War. History Corinth had been in dispute with Corcyra, an old Corinthian col ...

. During the Middle Ages, Syvota, like the rest of Epirus, was part of the

Byzantine Empire 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 ...

and the Despotate of Epirus. Under the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

, it was called Mourtos. After nearly 500 years of Ottoman rule, Syvota joined

in 1913, following the Balkan Wars. The coastal village of Syvota ( sq, Murto or ''Vola'') was home to

Cham Albanians Cham Albanians or Chams ( sq, Çamë; el, Τσάμηδες, ''Tsámidhes''), are a sub-group of Albanians who originally resided in the western part of the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria. Th ...

before 1944, when they were expelled for collaborating with the Axis Powers. During the short term Italian occupation in Syvota (early November 1940) the village was burnt by Cham Albanian bands and Italian troops. In Polyneri of Syvota a Muslim Cham community resides (2000) and the last imam in Epirus lived in this village. The mosque was blown up by a Christian villager during the Greek dictatorship.Baltsiotis.
The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greec
'. 2011. "One of the last acts of the“cleansing of history” is the blowing up of the mosque at the village of Polyneri (ex-Koutsi,) by a (Christian) villager, during the time of the Colonels’ Dictatorship.147 A tiny Muslim community and, until recently, the last imam of Epirus still survive in this village." Today, Syvota town is a well-developed resort, owing largely to the numerous pristine beaches with clear waters located on several islets immediately offshore.

Population

The population of Syvota is 875 (as of 2011).

References

Populated places in Thesprotia Former Cham settlements {{Epirus-geo-stub