Modrič () is a village in Struga Municipality, in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. There was a fortress on the hill Gradište, east of the current position of the village.

Ottoman period

Modrič fortress which was located in this village had a great importance during Ottoman rule because of its strategic position on the left bank of the river Black Drim, next to the road between

Ohrid Ohrid ( ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording a population of over 42,000 inhabitants as of ...

and Debar. On the other side of the road was

Kodžadžik Kodžadžik (; ), is a village in the municipality of Centar Župa, North Macedonia. Name A former Ottoman fortress existed at the location of Kodžadžik before the end of the first half of the 15th century. Scholars such as Smiljanić and Had ...

(then Svetigrad). At the beginning of the Ottoman rule Modrič was probably a little more important than Kožadžik. In November 1443 Skanderbeg revolted against the sultan and this fortress became one of Skanderbeg's strongholds. It was also mentioned in the works of Marin Barleti. In 1448, Sultan

Murad II Murad II (, ; June 1404 – 3 February 1451) was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1421 to 1444 and from 1446 to 1451. Early life Murad was born in June 1404 to Mehmed I, while the identity of his mother is disputed according to v ...

besieged the fortress of Svetigrad. The first battle between Skanderbeg's and Ottoman forces during the Siege of Svetigrad (Kodžadžik) in 1448 was held at Modrič fortress. In 1452, Ottoman forces from Ohrid attacked Skanderbeg's rebels but were defeated at Modrič where Hamza Kastrioti led Skanderbeg's rebels and Ottoman commander Hamza Pasha, his namesake. According to Pollo and Puto, in 1456 Skanderbeg's nephew George Strez Balšić, who governed the fortress of Modrič, sold it to Ottomans. In 1467 this village was recorded in the Ottoman register as a

timar A timar was a land grant by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an annual tax revenue of less than 20,000 akçes. The revenues produced from the land acted as compensation for military service. A ...

of one Sinan who was a ''dizdar'' (castellan) of Modrič fortress. The fortress was probably destroyed to such extent that it was without garrison while its reconstruction was either impossible or unnecessary. In 1914, the village became part of the

Principality of Albania The Principality of Albania () was a monarchy from 1914 to 1925. It was headed by Wilhelm, Prince of Albania, and located in modern Albania in the Balkans, Balkan region of Europe. The Ottoman Empire owned the land until the First Balkan Wa ...

Demography

At around 1467, Modrič fortress was registered as part of the Ottoman

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

Dolgo Brdo (Golo Brdo) and had only 7 households. Modrič (''Modrica'') belonged to the

of Sinan, the

dizdar Dizdar (; ) was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a castle warden or fortress commander, appointed to manage troops and keep the fortress in its role as a defence point. The word is of Persian language, Persian origin, meaning gatekeeper ...

of the castle. The anthroponymy attested depicts a Slavic character. Modrič (''Modriç'') is again recorded in the Ottoman ''

defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

'' of 1583 as a village in the

vilayet A vilayet (, "province"), also known by #Names, various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...

of Dulgobrda. The settlement had a total of 73 households with the anthroponymy attested being almost entirely Slavic in character, with a small minority of Albanian anthroponyms also appearing, albeit displaying instances of Slavicisation (e.g., ''Keko Pejo, Genko the brother of Gjuro Bogdani.''). According to the 2002 census all 25 inhabitants of Modrič declared as Macedonians. Berziti from Kičevo referred to people from Modrič and other surrounding villages ( Lukovo, Jablanica...) as Keckars ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Modric, Struga Villages in Struga Municipality