Himarë (town)

For a general view on history, geography, demographics and political issues concerning the region, see Himarë.
Himarë
Town
Himarë
Coordinates: 40°6′5″N 19°44′48″E / 40.10139°N 19.74667°ECoordinates: 40°6′5″N 19°44′48″E / 40.10139°N 19.74667°E
Country  Albania
County Vlorë
Municipality Himarë
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal code 9425
Area code 0393
Car plates VL
Website www.himara.gov.al

Himarë (also Himara) is a bilingual town in Southern Albania along the Albanian Riviera and part of the District of Vlorë. It is the largest settlement and seat of the municipality of Himarë. Both the town and municipality are populated by an ethnic Greek community.[1][2][3]

History

In antiquity the region was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Chaonians.[4] The town of Himarë is believed to have been founded as Χίμαιρα,[5] (Chimaira,[6] hence the name Himara) by the Chaonians as a trading outpost on the Chaonian shore. However, another theory according to the name suggest that comes from Greek χείμαρρος (cheimarros), meaning "torrent".[7]

The town of Himara during the 16th-18th centuries was ecclesiastically under the jurisdiction of Rome, and some of its inhabitants were Catholics of the Eastern rite.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Europa Publications Limited. Central and South-Eastern Europe 2004, Volume 5. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 978-1-85743-186-5, p. 78.
  2. ↑ Economist Intelligence Unit. (Great Britain). Country report: Albania, Issue 1., 2001.
  3. ↑ "Albania: The state of a nation" (PDF). ICG Balkans Report N°111. p. 15. Retrieved 2010-09-02. The coastal Himara region of Southern Albania has always had a predominantly ethnic Greek population.
  4. ↑ Hammond, NGL (1994). Philip of Macedon. London, UK: Duckworth. "Epirus was a land of milk and animal products...The social unit was a small tribe, consisting of several nomadic or semi-nomadic groups, and these tribes, of which more than seventy names are known, coalesced into large tribal coalitions, three in number: Thesprotians, Molossians and Chaonians...We know from the discovery of inscriptions that these tribes were speaking the Greek language (in a West-Greek dialect)"
  5. ↑ An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation by Mogens Herman Hansen, 2005, page 340.
  6. ↑ Chimaira, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
  7. ↑ Cheimarros, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
  8. ↑ Nilo Borgia: I monaci basiliani d'Italia in Albania: appunti di storia missionaria, secoli XVI-XVIII, periodo secondo. Reale Accademia d'Italia. Centro di studi per l'Albania. 1942. pp. 73, 113.