Souli () is a municipality in

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 ...

, northwestern

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 ...

. The seat of the municipality is the town of Paramythia.

Name and history

The origin of the name Souli is uncertain. In the earliest historical text about Souli, written by Christoforos Perraivos in 1803, an oral tradition of the locals is recorded. According to this, the first settlers of Souli were shepherds who came from a village called Gardiki trying to avoid the Ottoman oppression. A certain

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

("Turk" in the text) named Soulis attempted to expel the early Souliotes from there but the latter resisted with arms. In the battle they killed Soulis and since then the area was named Souli. However, Fourikis (1934) goes as far as proposing that Perraivos invented this explanation himself. The most commonly accepted theory in contemporary historiography, as suggested by Fourikis (1934), states that ''Souli'' derives from the Albanian term ''sul'', which means ''"mountain peak"'', while it may also be interpreted as ''"watchpost, lookout, mountain summit".''Psimuli, Vaso Dh. (2016). ''Suli dhe suljotët ouli and the Souliots'. Toena. pp. 134–139 The municipality owes its name to the villages of Souli that are located in the southern part of this region. Those villages were originally settled by the Souliotes, a warlike Orthodox community who sought refuge in the mountainous terrain from the Ottomans. Those villages in the early 19th century had a population of c. 12,000.Vickers, Miranda. ''The Albanians: A Modern History''. I.B. Tauris, 1999. , p. 20. After their expulsion, the population of the region was significantly reduced. In the 18th and 19th century, the citizens of Souli rebelled against the Ottoman rule. It was noted that in 1972 that there was still an Albanian minority in Souli. Today, many Souliote villages, churches, and fortifications are left partially abandoned due to immigration to other countries, as well as moving to larger towns like Paramythia. Some examples of partly abandoned or sparsely populated villages are Koukoulii (sometimes referred to as Kouklious), Zotiko, and Tsaggario to a lesser extent. The Castle of Kiafia, constructed by Ali Pasha of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in order to hide his treasure and money, is completely abandoned and in ruin.

Municipality

The present municipality of Souli was formed in the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, which became municipal units: * Acherontas * Paramythia *Souli The municipality has an area of 502.8 km², and the municipal unit 93.2 km².

Province

The province of Souli () was one of the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

of Thesprotia. It had the same territory as the present municipality. It was abolished in 2006.

References

External links

Official website
{{Wikiquote Populated places in Thesprotia Municipalities of Epirus (region) Provinces of Greece