Itea (, before 1926: Βύρμπενη – ''Vyrmpeni'';
; 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, of which it was a municipal district.
The community of Itea covers an area of 9.799 km
2.
History
In 1845 the Russian
slavist Victor Grigorovich recorded ''Verbini'' as
Macedonian village.
Johann Georg von Hahn in his map from 1861 marked the village as Macedonian.
In the book “Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Adrianople, de Monastir et de Salonique”, published in
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
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
Macedonian school and church.
[Georgios Lithoxoou, Florina villages](_blank)
/ref> According to Vasil Kanchov’s statistics, in 1900, Varbeni had 690 Bulgarian inhabitants. In 1903 all of its inhabitants were part of the Macedonian Exarchate.[Brancoff, D.M. "La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne". Paris, 1905, р. 176-177.] In 1910 Vyrbeni had 455 inhabitants.
Demographics
In fieldwork done by anthropologist Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, Itea was populated by Slavophones.Macedonian language
Macedonian ( ; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch. Sp ...
was spoken by people over 60, mainly in private.[ Table 3: Itea, 713; S, M3; S = Slavophones, M = macédonien"]
Notable persons
* Liolias, Greek Macedonian fighter and local chieftain
* Georgi Traykov (1898–1975) - Bulgarian politician. Leader of BANU from 1947 and 1975 and head of state of Bulgaria from 1964 to 1971.
References
{{Florina div
Populated places in Florina (regional unit)
Florina