Prespa (, , ) is a region shared between

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

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 ...

and

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. It shares the same name with the two

Prespa lakes The Lake Prespa is located on the tripoint of North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. It is a system of two lakes separated by an isthmus: the Great Prespa Lake, divided between the three countries, and the Little Prespa Lake, mostly within Greec ...

which are situated in the middle of the region. The largest town is Resen in North Macedonia with 9,000 inhabitants.

History

In today's borders, the region is divided between three countries, which is result of the division of the Ottoman territories of Europe after the two

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

. Prespa itself has an important

geostrategic Geostrategy, a subfield of geopolitics, is a type of foreign policy guided principally by geographical factors as they inform, constrain, or affect political and military planning. As with all strategies, geostrategy is concerned with matching me ...

position. During the Roman rule through Prespa, the famous ancient Roman road "

Via Egnatia The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a contin ...

" was built. In addition to the road, several settlements were also built. In the 6th and 7th centuries, Slavic tribes did not settle permanently in Prespa. The Slavs skipped the region that had been already plundered and depopulated, but continued south to the Mediterranean coast. Yankovets Selianka

In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, during the reign of the

Cometopuls The Kometopuli dynasty ( Bulgarian: , ; Byzantine Greek: , ) was the last royal dynasty in the First Bulgarian Empire, ruling from until the fall of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule in 1018. The most notable member of the dynasty, Tsar Samuel, i ...

, besides Prespa Lake, the town of Prespa was also mentioned as the capital of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire (; was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh of Bulgaria, Asparuh, moved south to the northe ...

. This city was also the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, whose seat was later transferred to Bulgarian Patriarchate of Ohrid. During the year 1888, in the village of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, in Lower Prespa, the headstone of Samuel's parents was found, his father

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

, his mother Ripsimia and his brother

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

, dating from 993.Florin Curta, Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (2 vols) BRILL, 2019, , p. 581. It is one of the first written monuments in the

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

language. It is currently located in the National Archaeological Museum in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, most probably portrayed in the wake of the wars. From that period on, the island of Achilles, in the small Prespa Lake, there are still remains of the Cathedral church erected by Samuel in honor of St. Achilles. In the village

Kurbinovo Kurbinovo () is a village in the Resen Municipality of North Macedonia, northeast of Lake Prespa. The village is located nearly south of the municipal centre of Resen. The village is best known for being home to the 12th century Monastery of St ...

, St. George's Church has a remarkable fresco painting of 1191. It is a notable example of medieval painting located within North Macedonia.

References

External links

* * {{Commons category-inline, Prespa Geography of North Macedonia Resen Municipality Historical regions in Greece Florina (regional unit) Historical regions in Albania

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links