Pogon ( or ''Pogoni'', , ''Pogoni''), is a former
commune in the
Gjirokastër County
Gjirokastër County () is one of the 12 counties of Albania. The total population in 2023 was 60,013, in an area of 2884 km2. Its capital is the city Gjirokastër.
Administrative divisions
Until 2000, Gjirokastër County was subdivided into thre ...
, southern
Albania
Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality
Dropull
Dropull ( sq-definite, Dropulli; ''Dropoli'' or ''Deropoli'') is a municipality in Gjirokastër County, in southern Albania. The region stretches from south of the city of Gjirokastër to the Greek–Albanian border, along the Drino river. The reg ...
. The population at the 2011 census was 432.
[2011 census results]
It consists of seven villages which are mostly Greek speaking:
Poliçan
Poliçan ''( sq-definite, Poliçani)'' is a city and a municipality situated in south-central Albania. It was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Poliçan, Tërpan and Vërtop, that became municip ...
;
Skore;
Hllomo;
Sopik;
Mavrojer;
Çatistë and
Selckë of which
Poliçan
Poliçan ''( sq-definite, Poliçani)'' is a city and a municipality situated in south-central Albania. It was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Poliçan, Tërpan and Vërtop, that became municip ...
is the administrative center. The administrative unit of Pogon is inhabited by
ethnic Greeks.
Demographics
Greek is spoken in Poliçan, Skore, Hllomo, Sopik, Mavrojer and Çatistë and those villages along with
Drymades on the Greek side of the border comprise the sub-region of Paleo-Pogoni (Old Pogoni),
part of the wider region of Pogoni. Traditionally Greeks of Pogoni in Albania practised
endogamy
Endogamy is the cultural practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting any from outside of the group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relatio ...
by intermarrying within their group, although occasionally brides from
Zagori
Zagori (; ), is a region, a municipality, and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the Pindus mountains in Epirus, in northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Asprangeloi. It has an area of some and contains 46 v ...
were taught to speak Greek.
Poliçan is the northernmost Greek-speaking village in the Pogoni area, as villages north west of Poliçan are Albanian-speaking, while those south of Poliçan are Greek-speaking.
Selckë, part of a wider region of
Lunxhëria, is traditionally inhabited by an Orthodox Albanian population
as well as later Aromanian migrants, while the rest of the villages belong to the
Greek minority zone.
History
In 15th century Pogon came under
Ottoman rule and became part of the
Sanjak of Ioannina. It was a
nahiya
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 ...
centre as "Pogun" at Pogun kaza (Its centre was
Voştina) in
Ergiri sanjak of
Yanya Vilayet till 1912. As part of Albania, the municipality is part of the recognized
Greek Minority Zone.
Historically each village of Pogon has its own variation of traditional costumes and dresses.
[ "Pogoni, or Paleo-Pogoni as the people call it, consists of seven Greek-speaking villages nearly 3,000 ft. above sea level (Poliçan, Skorë, Hlomo, Sopik, Mavrojer, Çatistë, and the Greek side of the frontier, Drimadhes).... The Pogoniates normally only marry within their own group, but occasionally a bride may be taken from Zagorië and she is taught Greek."; p]
213
"Selck, an Albanian speaking village of some thirty-five houses" The area is part of Pogoni, a region that also includes parts of nearby
Pogoni
Pogoni (, ) is a municipality in the Ioannina regional unit, Epirus, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Kalpaki. The municipality has an area of 701.059 km2. Its population was 6,848 at the 2021 census.
History
Pogoni was ...
on the Greek side of the
border
Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...
.
Culture
The villages of Pogon (except Selckë) are part of the wider Pogoni region, which is divided between Greece (40 villages) and Albania (7 villages).
[ "With a population of 2,500 Poliçan is the largest village in the long-rift within the double range of Nemerçkë. The villages to the north-west are Albanian-speaking, while those to the south speak Greek as their mother tongue. Poliçan therefore regards itself as the most northerly village of the area Pogoni."] Polyphonic singing, although shared among several ethnic groups, tends to be mostly identified with the Pogoni area.
Notable people
* Sophianos (-1711), local Greek-Orthodox bishop and scholar.
* Pandeli Sotiri, (1842–1892) Albanian patriot, main contributor to the modern Albanian alphabet
The Albanian alphabet () is a variant of the Latin alphabet used to write the Albanian language. It consists of 36 letters representing all the phonemes of Standard Albanian:
The vowels are shown in bold.
The letters are named simply by their ...
.
References
Further reading
*ΖΩΤΟΥ, ΜΕΝΕΛΑΟΥ; ΓΙΑΝΝΑΡΟΥ, ΧΡΙΣΤΟΦΟΡΟΥ. Η ΠΟΛΥΤΣΑΝΗ ΤΗΣ ΒΟΡΕΙΟΥ ΗΠΕΙΡΟΥ. ΕΚΔΟΣΕΙΣ, ΙΩΑΝΝΙΝΑ, 1989.
*Politsanitika Nea Newspaper, Tel. +30 210 5238058
See also
* Mount Nemërçkë
{{Northern Epirus
Former municipalities in Gjirokastër County
Administrative units of Dropull
Albanian ethnographic regions