Melas () is a mountainous

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the regional unit of

Kastoria Kastoria (, ''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 Greece, geographic region ...

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It belongs to the municipality of

and specifically to the municipal unit of

Korestia Korestia () is a municipal unit of Kastoria municipality in Kastoria regional unit, Western Macedonia, Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, i ...

. The previous name of the village was Statista (or Stathista or Agios Efstathios after the homonymous Orthodox church of Agios Efstathios). A

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

dedicated to Pavlos Melas and the

Greek struggle for Macedonia The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts that were mainly fought between Greek and Bulgarian subjects who lived in Ottoman Macedonia between 1893 and 1912. From 1904 to 1908 the conflict was p ...

now operates in the village.

Name

Before 1927 the village was called ''Statista'' (, ). The name of the village was changed to Melas, after the Greek fighter (

makedonomachos The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts that were mainly fought between Ottoman Greeks, Greek and Bulgarian Millet, Bulgarian subjects who lived in Macedonia (region), Ottoman Macedonia between ...

) Pavlos Melas who lost his life there.

History

In 1873, the village was recorded as having 60 households with 180 male Bulgarian inhabitants. In 1900,

Vasil Kanchov Vasil Kanchov (26 July 1862 – 6 February 1902) was a geographer, ethnographer and teacher who served as Minister of Education of Bulgaria. Early life and education Vasil Kanchov was born in Vratsa. Upon graduating from High school i ...

gathered and compiled statistics on demographics in the area and reported that the village of Statitsa was inhabited by about 600 Christian Bulgarian inhabitants. On October 12, 1904, Pavlos Melas and his group headed to Statista (modern-day Melas). In the village, the native collaborator of Melas, Dinas Stergiou () divided the men of the group into five houses. In the village, however, there was an organized Bulgarian army, a member of which alerted the

Ottoman army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

to the presence of the Greek army. On October 13, the village was surrounded by an Ottoman detachment of 150 men and a fighting broke out. The dawn of the next day would find Pavlos Melas dead under an unspecified area. In 1945, Greek Foreign Minister Ioannis Politis ordered the compilation of demographic data regarding the Prefecture of Kastoria.. The village Melas had a total of 717 inhabitants, and was populated by 707 Slavophones with a Bulgarian national consciousness. "(Άνω και Κάτω) Μελά, Πληθυσμός: 717, Σλαυόφωνοι: 707, Συνείδησις Βουλγαρική: ναι"

References

External links

The end of Pavlos Melas and the sources
(in

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

) fro
istorikaxronika.com
{{coord, 40, 42, N, 21, 16, E, display=title, region:GR_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Populated places in Kastoria (regional unit) Kastoria History of Macedonia (Greece)