Agia () is a village in the municipality of

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

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

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 ...

. 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 (1740 – 24 January 1822), commonly known as Ali Pasha of Yanina or Ali Pasha of Tepelena, was an Albanian ruler who served as Ottoman pasha of the Pashalik of Yanina, a large part of western Rumelia. Under his rule, it acquired a ...

, who ruled over large parts of today's northern Greece. In 1814 Agia was plundered by units of the Ottoman Albanian ruler Ali Pasha and the local inhabitants fled to nearby Parga. Agia was one of the

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

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

.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 community counts 622 inhabitants (2021).

References

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