Krani ( mk, Крани; sq, Kranjë) is a village in the

Resen Municipality Resen ( mk, Ресен ) is a municipality in southwestern Republic of North Macedonia. '' Resen'' is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found. Resen Municipality is located in the Pelagonia Statistical Region. Geography The ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

, roughly south of the municipal centre of Resen.

History

Krani has four known archaeological sites, two of which are from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, one from

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

, and one from the

Hellenistic era In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

. The latter was a fishing settlement and the two from the Middle Ages were churches. In 1905, Arvati's population consisted of 256 Bulgarian Exarchists and 342 Albanians. There was a Bulgarian school in the village.D.M.Brancoff. "La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne". Paris, 1905, рр. 170-171.
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Demographics

Krani is inhabited by a Sunni Muslim Albanian majority and an Orthodox Macedonian minority. A small number of Albanian speaking Muslim Romani used to live in Krani and during the latter decades of the 20th century have migrated to

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...

and Resen. In the late Ottoman period, some

Bektashi The Bektashi Order; sq, Tarikati Bektashi; tr, Bektaşi or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic movement originating in the 13th-century. It is named after the Anatolian saint Haji Bektash Wali (d. 1271). The community is currently led by ...

Albanians, known locally as ''Kolonjarë'', used to also reside in the village of Krani. As of the most recent national census in 2002, Krani has 416 residents, less than half of its 1961 population.Censuses of population 1948 – 2002
The data on the mother tongues of Krani's residents, according to the 2002 census, is very similar to the ethnic makeup of the village with 311 declaring Albanian their mother tongue, followed by 104 declaring Macedonian, and one declaring Serbian.

Religion

The main religions in the village are Islam and Orthodox Christianity, with 309 belonging to the former and 105 to the latter, as of the latest census. Additionally, two individuals declared Catholicism as their religion. These figures suggest that the ethnic Macedonian population is Orthodox Christian, while the Albanian population is Muslim, as is the case nationally. Krani has two churches, the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and the Church of St Nicholas. It also has one mosque.

Gallery

File:Trilingual sign hailing entrance on road to both the villages of Krani and Arvati 1.jpg, Trilingual sign hailing entrance on road to both the villages of Krani and Arvati, in Krani File:Krani village 6.jpg, Architecture of Krani File:Krani village 52.jpg, Traditional architecture of Krani File:Krani village 54.jpg, Krani River and traditional architecture of Krani File:Krani village 24.jpg, Old school of Krani (now disused) File:Xhamia e Kranjës dhe Arvatit 12.jpg, Centuries-old plane tree in mosque yard File:Викиекспедиција Преспа 214.jpg, Mosque of Krani File:Varrezat e Vjetra Myslimane të Kranjës dhe Arvatit 1.jpg, Old Muslim cemetery of Krani (Ottoman era - mid 20th century) File:Varrezat myslimane të Kranjës 2.jpg, Muslim cemetery of Krani File:Orthodox church of Krani 2.jpg, Orthodox church of Krani File:Orthodox church and cemetery of Krani.jpg, Orthodox church and cemetery of Krani File:Krani village 26.jpg, Sheep in Krani

People from Krani

* Ali Aliu (born 1934), writer and translator

References

{{coord, 40, 56, N, 21, 07, E, display=title, region:MK_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Villages in Resen Municipality Albanian communities in North Macedonia