Kastoria

Kastoria (, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria regional unit, in the geographic region of Macedonia. It is situated on a promontory on the western shore of Lake Orestiada, in a valley surrounded by limestone mountains. The town is known for its many Byzantine churches, Byzantine and Ottoman-era domestic architecture, its lake and its fur clothing industry.

Name

In the 6th century, the historian Procopius wrote the name Kastoria was used for the lake. The first reference to the town of Kastoria is by historian John Skylitzes writing about the late 10th century. The toponym Kastoria means "place of beavers" and is derived from ''kastori'' (καστόρι), the Greek word for beaver and an animal whose local habitat was along the shores of lake Kastoria. The name of the town is sometimes written as ''Castoria'',. especially in older works. The town is known as ''Kesriye'' in Turkish, ''Kostur'' (Cyrillic: Костур) in Bulgarian and Macedonian, ''Kosturi'' in Albanian and ''Kusturea'' in Aromanian.

Municipality

The municipality Kastoria was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 9 former municipalities, that became municipal units:
* Agia Triada
* Agioi Anargyroi
*Kastoria
* Kastraki
* Kleisoura
*Korestia
*Makednoi
*Mesopotamia
*Vitsi

The municipality has an area of 763.330 km², the municipal unit 57.318 km². The municipal unit consists of the town Kastoria and the settlements Aposkepos, Kefalari and Chloi.

Districts

*Apózari
*Doltsó
*Dailaki (Myloi)
*Doplitsa
*Kato Agora
*Kallithea
*Lyv

Climate

Kastoria has a humid subtropical climate (''Cfa''). As a result of the moderating effect of the lake, it records less extreme temperatures than the rest of Western Macedonia.

History

Antiquity

Kastoria was the site of previous settlements, the first being Celetrum (or Keletron), a town located near a lake in Orestis and mentioned by historian Livy in reference to the events of 199 BC. Celetrum surrendered to Publius Sulpicius Galba during the Roman war (200–197 BC) against Philip V of Macedon. The ancient town was possibly located on a hill above the town's current location.

The Roman Emperor Diocletian (ruled 284–305 AD) founded the town of Diocletianopolis (Διοκλητιανούπολις) in the vicinity. After Diocletianopolis was destroyed by barbarians, Emperor Justinian relocated it on a promontory projecting into Lake Orestiada, the town's current location, and Procopius writes the emperor "gave it an appropriate name", perhaps indicating that he renamed it Justinianopolis (Ίουστινιανούπολις). References to Justinian's settlement cease during the 7th and 8th centuries, due to the possible abandonment of the location.. Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus made an anachronistic mention of Diocletianopolis in his work '' De Thematibus'' (10th century).

Middle Ages

The origins of Kastoria are from the 9th century, as its surrounding walls and oldest churches, such as St. Stephan and the Taxiarchs, date from the era.. The first mention of the settlement of Kastoria was by Skylitzes in relation to events of the late 10th century during the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars. The town was in Bulgarian hands until 1018, when it was conquered by Basil II.

Kastoria was occupied by the Normans under Bohemond I in 1082/83. In October 1083, emperor Alexios I Komnenos forced the garrison to surrender, recovering thus the town and convincing many Norman troops, including Peter Aliphas, to enter his services.

During the 13th and 14th centuries, the town became contested between several powers and changed hands often. The Second Bulgarian Empire held the city under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II. Under the Bulgarians, Kastoria had a significant Romaniote Jewish community, with prominent individuals such as scholar Tobiah ben Eliezer.

Later, it was recovered by the Despotate of Epirus. The Nicaean Empire captured it in ca. 1252, but lost it again to Epirus in ca. 1257, only for the Nicaeans to recapture it following the Battle of Pelagonia (1259).

In the early 14th century, Kastoria was part of the domain of John II Doukas, "'' doux'' of Great Vlachia and Kastoria". After his death, the town became part of the semi-autonomous domain of Stephen Gabrielopoulos. After the latter's death in 1332/3, the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos took over the town, but in the very next year (1334) it was surrendered briefly to the Serbs by the renegade Syrgiannes Palaiologos.

The Serbian ruler Stephen Dushan finally captured Kastoria in 1342/3, taking advantage of the ongoing Byzantine civil war, and made it part of his Serbian Empire. After Dushan's death, Kastoria became the seat of Symeon Uroš.

The town came later under the Epirote ruler Thomas Preljubović, and then under the Albanian Muzaka family, until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1380s.

Ottoman era

The Ottoman Turks conquered Kastoria around 1385, but it is unclear whether by force or by an agreement with its Albanian rulers. Following the conquest and depopulation of Constantinople, the Romaniote Jews from Kastoria were forcefully resettled by the Ottomans in Balat district as part of efforts to repopulate the city. Toward the end of the 15th century, Jews expelled from Italy, Sicily, Portugal and Spain settled in Kastoria. In 1519, Kastoria was a zeamet of Chamberlain Mehmed Bey, and the infantry commander of Thessaloniki, Hızır. The town also had Voynuks.

The establishment of Ottoman rule resulted in the demise of the local Greek landowning class, and funding of the arts and culture in Kastoria was undertaken by its wealthy merchants. The Greek merchants Georgios Kyritses and Manolakis Kastorianos financed Greek education in Kastoria. Greek schools were established in Kastoria, with the oldest in the town and Macedonia being founded in 1614; a second was founded in 1705, and a third in 1715, funded by Kyritses.

In 1797–1798, the Greek revolutionary Rigas Feraios was partly based in Kastoria.. Among his co-conspirators were several Kastorian Greeks, such as Georgios Theocharis, and the brothers Panagiotis and John Emmanuel. When they were arrested by the Austrian authorities and handed over to the Ottomans, John Emmanuel admitted that he had smuggled a copy of Feraios' revolutionary song "Thourios" () into Kastoria and sang it there many times. Theocharis escaped execution thanks to his Austrian citizenship, but those of Feraios' companions that did not possess foreign citizenship were executed. When the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, there was Greek revolutionary activity in Kastoria as throughout the towns and villages of western Macedonia. John Papareskas was a notable Greek revolutionary from Kastoria. Revolutinary activity attracted the attention of the Ottoman authorities and the Ottoman commander Mehmet Emin took several Greek notables as hostages from towns in western Macedonia, including Kastoria.

Following the destruction of Moscopole (late eighteenth century), some Aromanian refugees attempted to settle in Kastoria, and their efforts were unsuccessful due to concerns by local Kastorians over economic competition from newcomers.. Later, Aromanians with origins from Moscopole, Nikolicë, Vithkuq and other locations settled in Kastoria, and by the mid–nineteenth century the upper class of the town's Greek community was formed mostly by Aromanian families.

In the late Ottoman period, Kastoria was the seat of a kaza belonging to the sanjak of Görice, within the Vilayet of Monastir.

The older presence of Greek cultural tradition led to the establishment of strong Greek national feeling among town inhabitants in an era of conflict arising from nationalism (late 19th and early 20th centuries). As a result, Kastoria became the main location for the Greek movement in west Macedonia during this period.

Macedonian Struggle and Balkan Wars

As a largely Greek town in west Macedonia at the turn of the 20th century,. Kastoria featured prominently in the Greek efforts during the Macedonian Struggle. A notable figure was Germanos Karavangelis, who served as the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Kastoria from 1900 until 1907. Karavangelis thought that the post-Ottoman future of Macedonia would be decided by Balkan states, and viewed Bulgarian influence in the area as the greatest threat to Greek interests. He formed the earliest Greek armed groups fighting for the region. During the Macedonian struggle, Karavangelis, an imposing figure, traveled in rural areas and directed the Greek response toward supporters of the Bulgarian cause, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) and the Exarchate. He supported close interaction among local Turks and Greeks, but only when it was needed. Greece sent more funds, men and arms to individuals such as Karavangelis in Macedonia. When the Greek fighter and officer Pavlos Melas was killed in action in 1904, Karavangelis arranged to have his body buried within the Metropolis of Kastoria, after first having threatened to mobilize the town's Greek population if the Ottoman authorities did not surrender Melas' body...

Modern Greece

Ottoman rule ended in Kastoria after it was taken by the Greek Army in the First Balkan War (1912). In 1913, the town was annexed and the treaties of London and Bucharest formally recognised Kastoria and the wider area as part of Greece..

World War II

During both World War II and the Greek Civil War, the town was repeatedly fought over and heavily damaged in the process. It was nearly captured by the Communist Democratic Army of Greece in 1948, and the final battles of the civil war took place on the nearby Mount Gramos in 1949.

In 1940, Kastoria came under Italian occupation.. In 1943, the judicial courts of Kastoria were destroyed by fire, including the town archive. Italy surrendered in late 1943, and Kastoria came under German control. In April 1944 the German army sent the town's Jews first to Thessaloniki and later to the Auschwitz concentration camp where they were gassed. In 1945, the Kastoria Jewish community numbered 35 people, a reduction of 95 percent due to the Holocaust..

Kastoria was liberated from German rule by the guerrillas of the Greek People's Liberation Army.

Contemporary period

Following the Greek Civil War, large numbers of Kastorian Greeks migrated abroad, where in the 1980s they numbered 25,000 in the New York area, and worked as furriers; younger generations worked as lawyers and doctors. A Kastorian Greek diaspora numbering 10,000 in the 1980s established itself in Frankfurt after it replaced Leipzig as Germany's new fur industry centre, following its post–war division. Nowadays Kastoria is a prosperous provincial town, its economy being mainly driven by the fur industry and tourism, the latter due to the town's physical attractiveness and many historical Byzantine churches.

Economy

Kastoria is a popular tourist destination and an international centre of fur trade, having taken so the nickname ''the city of the fur traders''. Tourism and the fur industry dominate the local economy. Indeed, (as mentioned above) the town was possibly named after one of the former staples of the trade – the European beaver (''kastóri'' in Greek), now extinct in the area. Trading in mink fur now predominates and every year an international showcase of fur takes place in the city.

Involvement with fur began in the early middle ages, when Kastoria supplied ermine pelts for the robes of Byzantine courtiers. The fur industry was established in Kastoria during the sixteenth century, and extensive trade links emerged connecting the town with wider Europe. Merchants settled in Germany and Russia. In the seventeenth century, Kastoria was the European fur industry centre and marketplace, and various fur products on offer were imports (such as pelts from Russian sable), with a majority of Kastorian Jews being wealthy dealers in the fur trade. By the late 18th century, Kastoria had developed a strong Hellenic commercial culture.

In Kastoria, Jews participated in trade and tanning production. The Jewish community was involved in the fur industry, and its merchants worked closely with craftsmen who were mainly from the Greek community. The town economy was successful, in particular during the nineteenth century, due to both Jews and Greeks working well together. Slavophone peasants from the wider area would go to Kastoria on market days. By the early twentieth century, Jewish merchants were involved in the trade of fur and tobacco.. The Muslim population of Kastoria in 1913 worked as fishermen (30 percent) in Lake Kastoria, in agriculture (13 percent), or were large landowners (16 percent). In the interwar period, local Jews were involved in the textile, agricultural, and raw material sectors of Kastoria's economy..

In modern Kastoria, there are more than 300 small and big dealers in fur. Abroad, early twentieth century immigration to New York from Kastoria by Greeks involved in fur production expanded the local US industry, as demand for fur clothing increased, with most small businesses owned by Kastorian Greeks. The modern fur industry in New York is run by Kastorian Greeks, such as Castor Furs; a business involved in the fashion industry. Other industries include the sale and distribution of locally grown produce; particularly wheat, apples, wine, and fish. Recently a large shopping center has been built in the city of Kastoria. Kastoria has 16 local radio stations, two TV stations, five daily newspapers, and seven weekly ones. The town's airport is named Aristotelis Airport.

Population

Historical

The Ottoman fiscal register of 1445 showed a total population of 4,518, of which 3,977 were Christians, 431 were Jews, and 110 were Muslims.

In 1519, the town had 4,815 people, of which 4,480 were Christians and 335 were Muslims, divided into 732 Christian households and 67 Muslim households. Muslims were a minority in Kastoria, and would remain a minority for the duration of Ottoman rule.

According to the findings of Vasil Kanchov, at the turn of the 20th century, the town had 3,000 Greek Christians, 1,600 Turkish Muslims, 750 Jews, 300 Bulgarian Christians, 300 Albanian Christians, and 240 Roma, for a total of 6,190 inhabitants. According to the findings of Dimitri Mishev, the town had a population of 4,000 Greek Christians, 400 Bulgarian Patriarchist Grecomans and 72 Vlachs in 1905 (excluding the Muslim minority).

The 1920 Greek census recorded 6,280 people in the town, and 829 inhabitants (242 families) were Muslim in 1923. The Muslim minority of Kastoria was sent to Turkey during the Greek–Turkish population exchange (1923), and resettled in places such as Bor, Kahramanmaraş, and Yozgat

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