Agia ( el, Αγιά, ) is a village in the municipality of

Parga Parga ( el, Πάργα ) is a town and municipality located in the northwestern part of the regional unit of Preveza in Epirus, northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Kanallaki. Parga lies on the Ionian coast between the ...

Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

. In addition to the settlement of Sarakiniko, it forms the local community of Agia. A few hundred years ago, the actual settlement of Agia was located on the bay where Sarakiniko lies today. Since these always fell into the hands of pirates, Agia was rebuilt in that place where the village is today. This proves also the name of the town of Margariti, which is thought to come from the Pirate Margaritus of Brindisi. Not so far away lies the Castle of

Ali Pasha of Ioannina Ali Pasha of Ioannina (1740 – 24 January 1822), was an Albanian ruler who served as pasha of a large part of western Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire's European territories, which was referred to as the Pashalik of Yanina. His court was in Ioannina, ...

, who ruled over large parts of todays northern Greece. Agia was one of the Albanian Orthodox villages which either due to the absence of Greek or for reasons of demographic importance, would see Greek education expanded, through measures such as the establishment of kindergartens. In the 1970s, the village was still home to a few monolingual speakers of Albanian.Lukas Tsitsipis (1981). ''Language change and language death in Albanian speech communities in Greece: A sociolinguistic study.'' (thesis). University of Wisconsin. page. 16. "During my field work in Greece I took a short trip of two weeks to Epirus, northwestern Greece to become acquainted with the dialect spoken in this area." ; page. 124. "The Epirus Albanian speaking villages use a dialect of Tosk Albanian, and they are among the most isolated areas in Greece. In the Epiriotic village of Aghiá I was able to spot even a few monolingual Albanian speakers." The village counts 758 inhabitants.

References

{{Parga div Populated places in Preveza (regional unit) Albanian communities in Greece