Megali Sterna (, old name: Cugunci / Tsigountsa) is a village in the

Kilkis Kilkis () is a city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2021 there were 24,130 people living in the city proper, 27,493 people living in the municipal unit, and 45,308 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional un ...

region of Greece. It is situated in the municipal unit of Cherso, in the

municipality, within the Kilkis region of Central Macedonia.

Geography

The village is located 20 km northwest of the town of

, 6 km west of Cherso and 9 km south of Dojran Lake. The terrain around Megali Sterna is flat to the southeast, but to the northwest it is hilly. The terrain around Megali Sterna slopes south. The highest point in the vicinity is 331 metres above sea level, 2.9 km north of Megali Sterna. Around Megali Sterna it is quite sparsely populated, with 42 inhabitants per square kilometre. The nearest major community is Kilkis, 16.5 km southeast of Megali Sterna. The area around Megali Sterna consists mostly of agricultural land. The climate in the area is temperate . Average annual temperature in the neighbourhood is 16 °C . The warmest month is July, when the average temperature is 30 °C, and the coldest is January, with 3 °C. Average annual rainfall is 984 millimetres. The wettest month is February, with an average of 137 mm of precipitation, and the driest is August, with 32 mm of precipitation. As per the

Kallikratis plan The Kallikratis Programme () is the common name of Greek law 3852/2010 of 2010, a major administrative reform in Greece. It brought about the second major reform of the country's administrative divisions following the 1997 Kapodistrias reform. ...

, this village, together with Michalitsi and Soultogianneika, constitute the local community of Megali Sterna, which belongs to the municipal unit of Cherso in the municipality of Kilkis. According to the 2021 census has a population of 323 permanent residents.

History

In the Ottoman Empire

In the 19th century Chuguntsi was a Bulgarian village in the Demirhisar

Kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

of the

Sanjak of Serres The Sanjak of Siroz or Serres (Ottoman Turkish: ''Sancak-i/Liva-i Siroz''; , ) was a second-level Ottoman province (''sanjak'' or '' liva'') encompassing the region around the town of Serres (Turkish: ''Siroz'', now in Greece) in central Macedoni ...

of the Ottoman Empire. In the "Ethnography of the Provinces of Adrianople, Monastir and Thessaloniki", published in Constantinople in 1878 and reflecting the statistics of the male population from 1873, Chiguntsi (Tchigountzi) is listed as a settlement with 368 Bulgarians in 70 households. According to the statistics of Vasil Kanchov ("Macedonia. Ethnography and Statistics") in 1900 Chuguntsi was a village in Dojran said with 250 Bulgarian Christian inhabitants. The population of the village is under the rule of the Bulgarian Exarchate . According to the secretary of the Exarchate Dimitar Mishev (" La Macedoine et sa Population Chrétienne ") in 1905 Chuguntsi (Tchougountzi) is a village in Kilkis said with 400 Bulgarian exarchists and a Bulgarian school. At the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1912, two people from Chuguntsi were volunteers in the Macedonian-Edirne militia.

In Greece

After the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict that broke out when Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Kingdom of Greece, Greece, on 1 ...

, Cugunci came under Greek sovereignty. The Cugunci Sector of the

Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germa ...

was the scene of fighting between the Bulgarians and the Entente forces dominated by the

Armée d'Orient (1915–1919) The Armée d'Orient (AO) was a field army of the French Army during World War I who fought on the Macedonian front. The Armée d'Orient was formed in September 1915 during the Serbian Campaign of World War I, Conquest of Serbia by German-Austrian- ...

. A number of photos from this time have survived. In 1913, after the

, the village was in Greece. Its population emigrated to Bulgaria and was replaced by

Greek refugees Greek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the more than one million Greek Orthodox natives of Asia Minor, Thrace and the Black Sea areas who fled during the Greek genocide (1914-1923) and Greece's later defeat in the Greco-Turkish W ...

who were resettled there. In 1926 the village was renamed Megali Sterna. Pontian refugees from Varkenes in the

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

region of Turkey settled in the village. In 1928, the population of the village was entirely refugee with 124 families and 445 refugees. To the north of the village is the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross which is a post-Byzantine three-aisled basilica of the middle of the 19th century and has been characterised as a monument in need of special state preservation. The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross from the middle of the 19th century was declared a historical monument on June 27, 1987.

Notes and citations

Notes Citations {{Kilkis div Populated places in Kilkis (regional unit) Kilkis