Florina

Geography

Florina is the gateway to the Prespa Lakes and, until the modernisation of the road system, of the old town of Kastoria. It is located west of Edessa, northwest of Kozani, and northeast of Ioannina and Kastoria cities. Outside the Greek borders it is in proximity to Korçë in Albania and Bitola in North Macedonia. The nearest airports are situated to the east and the south (in Kozani). The mountains of Verno lie to the southwest and Varnous to the northwest.

Winters bring heavy snow and long periods of temperature below freezing point. Furthermore, the town and the surrounding valley is usually covered in thick fog during the winter months that may last even for weeks under specific conditions. During the summer months it becomes a busy market town with an economy boosted by summer and, mostly, winter tourism due to the heavy snowfalls and the nearby ski resorts.

Even though Florina was the site of the first rail line built in the southern Ottoman provinces in the late 19th century, its rail system remains undeveloped. Today, Florina is linked by a single track standard gauge line to Thessaloniki and Bitola, and to Kozani (meter gauge) where it was intended to continue south and link up with the terminal in Kalambaka, in Thessaly but this did not proceed due to the 1930s financial crisis of the Great Depression.

The main roads passing through the municipality include: the A27 motorway, which opened in 2015; and the EO2, EO3 and Ptolemaida–Florina national roads. The historic Via Egnatia is situated to the east.

Climate

Florina is one of the coldest towns in Greece, because of its elevation and geographic position. Snowfalls, sometimes heavy, thick fog and below-freezing temperatures are common during the winter months, while the summers are warm to hot. Under the Köppen climate classification, Florina has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), bordering on a humid continental climate (Dfa).

In the days preceding the early 2012 European cold wave, more specifically on 18 January 2012, a temperature of -25.1 °C was recorded by the HNMS's station with several reports, however, in the local press for temperatures in villages of the municipality that reached -32 °C, but there was no official record of such temperature. The National Observatory of Athens' station reported a temperature of -22.2 °C a day earlier in Florina, while the same station continuously recorded minimum temperatures below -20 °C from 16 January 2012 until 19 January 2012, with the average maximum temperature for January just -0.6 °C, and the prevalence for 13 consecutive days of temperatures below 0 °C 24 hours a day. The above situation resulted in the Greek General Secretariat of Civil Protection to declare the municipality of Florina in a state of emergency on 16 January 2012, at the request of the mayor of Florina, due to the low temperatures and the intense snowfall that prevailed for days.

Name

In the Byzantine period the town was named Chlorion or Chlerino. The first reference to the town as Chlerino is by historian John Kantakouzenos writing in the 14th century. The city's Byzantine name, Χλέρινον (Chlérinon, "full of green vegetation"), derives from the Greek word χλωρός (chlōrós, "fresh" or "green vegetation"). The name was sometimes Latinized as Florinon (from the Latin flora, "vegetation") in the later Byzantine period, and in early Ottoman documents the forms Chlerina and Florina are both used, with the latter becoming standard after the 17th century. The form with [f] (φλωρός) is a local dialect form of χλωρός in Greek. The local Slavic name for the city is Lerin (Лерин), which is a borrowing of the Byzantine Greek name, but with the loss of the initial [x] characteristic of the local dialect.

The toponym under Ottoman rule was rendered as Filorina or Folorina, as in the Turkish language the consonants f and h were written the same way. The name over time became Florina. Alternative origins have been given of the form Florina. The Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek Oikonyms derives the term Florina from the Albanian word Vlorine, a place resembling the formation of a valley referring to a type of depression located between hills. Simantiras derives Florina from Florin, later becoming Floris, meaning the city built on a hill.

The town is known as Lerin (Cyrillic: Лерин) in Bulgarian and Macedonian, Hlernu or Hleru in Aromanian, Filorina in Turkish and Follorinë in Albanian.

The motto of Florina is 'Where Greece begins'.

Municipality

The current municipality of Florina was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that since 2011 became municipal units:

Florina

Kato Kleines

Meliti

Perasma

The municipality has an area of 819.698 km2, and the municipal unit 150.634 km2.

Municipal Unit subdivisions

The municipal unit of Florina is further divided into the following communities:

Alona

Armenochori

Florina

Koryfi

Mesonisi

Proti

Skopia

Trivouno

History

Lynkestis of Upper Macedonia was situated east of lake Pespa. According to N. G. L. Hammond, Lyncestae in the region of Florina were an Epirotic tribe and talked the Northwest Greek dialect. The ancient settlement of Melitonus was located in the area of Florina.

Within the boundaries of the present-day city lie the remains of a Hellenistic era settlement on the hill of Agios Panteleimon. Archaeologists excavated on the site in 1930–1934, but a hotel was later built over the ruins. Excavations began again in the 1980s and the total excavated area is now around 8,000 metres square. The buildings uncovered are mostly residential blocks, and the range of finds suggests that the site was continuously inhabited from the 4th century BC until its destruction by fire in the 1st century BC. Many of these finds are now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Florina.

The town with its present name is linked to the Byzantine Chloron. It is first mentioned in 1334, when the Serbian king Stefan Dušan established a certain Sphrantzes Palaeologus as commander of the fortress of Chlerenon. By 1385, Florina had fallen to the Ottomans. In the early period of Ottoman rule, Florina was a Christian town with a partially fortified Ottoman garrison. An Ottoman defter (cadastral tax census) for the year 1481 records a settlement of 243 households.

The Muslim community existed for five centuries in Florina and they constructed various public and religious buildings. Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi passed through Florina in the seventeenth century. He wrote Florina consisted of six neighbourhoods and had 1500 homes, one tekke, several mosques, madrasas and mektebs, two bathhouses and two inns. At the time, some of these buildings were newly constructed or churches which had been converted. Under Ottoman rule, Florina was a regional economic and administrative centre, the seat of a kaza and belonged to a sanjak within the Vilayet of Monastir. Several attacks by Bulgarians and Muslim Albanians occurred between the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1823 the Ottomans destroyed the anchorages of churches and Muslim Albanians pillaged Florina, due to the Greek War of Independence.

Florina in the late Ottoman period was composed of several neighbourhoods with most inhabited by a particular ethno–religious group and a few being mixed. Names of neighbourhoods varied, some based on occupations, ethnic or religious communities such as Armenian, Arnaut, the Dervish lodge, territorial markers or individual names and others. The river and its neighbourhood Varosi formed the centre of Florina and was exclusively populated by Muslims, later from the 1840s onward Christian families also lived there. In the 1850s, new churches were constructed. A church on the outskirts of Florina was used by the Greeks. The town's Bulgarian community joined the Bulgarian Exarchate and built a church in 1889 to perform their liturgy after gaining approval from Ottoman authorities and overcoming objections from Muslims, who were supported by Greeks in Florina.

Transport

An extension of the rail line from Salonica to Monastir during 1893–94 was built close to Florina and the transport link to Monastir became significant for the town.

The city is served by Florina station on the Thessaloniki–Bitola line, with local trains to Thessaloniki.

In 2016 a new section of the A27 motorway was opened from Florina to the border with North Macedonia.

Economy

In the late Ottoman period, the area of Western Macedonia experienced difficult economic circumstances, socio–political instability and mass emigration. Migrants from Florina went to America and the funds of returnees were used by Christians to buyout Muslim landowners. In Florina, Christians dominated commerce and of the 179 occupational categories listed in the 1910 census, Muslims were involved in only 33. The urban Christian community of Monastir migrated to Florina between 1913–1914 bringing European clothing styles and trades such as wax weaving to the town. Many newly arrived Jews were tailors. In the interwar period local Jews were involved in the textile, agricultural and raw material sectors of Florina's economy.

Florina is a market town with an economy dominated by agriculture, forestry, summer and winter tourism, cross-border trading and the sale of local produce such as grain, grapes, and vegetables including Florina peppers. It also has textile mills and is known for locally manufactured leather handicrafts.

An important market is held weekly and the town is engaged in commerce and is a location for the civil service. Florina serves the Prespa region and is a local centre for the wider area.

The most notable industrial activity is the very large Ptolemaia-Florina lignite mine.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the area lost much of its population to emigration, both to Athens and Thessaloniki as well as US, Canada, Australia and Germany. Following Greece's EU membership and the economic upturn, many from Germany returned.

Education

Florina is a destination for high school attendance by youths from the wider countryside who later in many instances permanently relocate to the town.

Media

The university in Florina changed in 2002 from being a branch of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, to a part of the University of Western Macedonia. After 2004, four departments that previously belonged to the Aristotle University, reinforced its potential.

Florina has 8 radio stations, 2 daily political newspapers, 4 weekly ones, one women's press and two newspapers on sports.

Landmarks

The layout of Ottoman Florina was divided into neighbourhoods with their own names, often with irregular property lines, gardens, narrow dead–end streets. Turko–Macedonian style architecture dominated with homes often featuring two floors, projecting bays (sachnisia) and reception rooms (ondas). The Ottoman architectural landscape of several mosques, two bathhouses, a clock tower and some Ottoman mansions persisted until the 1923 population exchange. There were seven mosques and all were demolished during the twentieth century.

The first five mosques were demolished in 1926 by orders from the General Administration of Macedonia, the Florina prefect, and by the decision of the Municipal Council as retaliation for Turkish government actions toward Anatolian Christian monuments. The mosques of Florina were: Minare de Kapit mosque (destroyed), Minare Zantial mosque (demolished in 1928), Kursumli mosque or Minare Oso (destroyed), Minare Ouest mosque (destroyed) and another mosque (destroyed). In 1952, one mosque was still open in Florina. Carsi i Yakosu Bey mosque was built in the eighteenth century, the building and most of the minaret, excluding its base, were demolished between 1953–1954. Another destroyed building was the Tekke, where the site is the present location of the town's bank.

Other Ottoman era landmarks were the clock, located in the town centre and demolished in 1927; the Hamman (bathhouse), demolished in 1925 and the present site of the Papastefa house. The Muslim Cemetery located in the north of Florina was destroyed. The early Greek administration expropriated the site and implemented a new urban plan, intending to build a garden, later repurposed the area for a refugee quarter and followed by a land subdivision into lots in 1933. Another Hamman still exists, built at either the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, it was in use until 1958 and in a poor state of preservation during the 2010s. The Koula, a fortification tower built either in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century was part of a larger residential complex demolished in 1985, the tower remained but became dilapidated. The neighbourhood of Aristotelis, named after a local educational association was built in the area of the former Ottoman market.

Throughout the twentieth century, most Muslim monuments were destroyed and in the post 1960s reconstruction of Florina nearly all traces of the Muslim presence disappeared. Surviving Ottoman landmarks in a good state of preservation are the prison, built in the early twentieth century; and the administration building built in 1904 and later repurposed for Florina's courts following Ottoman rule.

Demographics

Florina was a Christian settlement in the early period of Ottoman rule and Turks settled in the town. The population of 19th century Florina included Muslims, Bulgarians, Greeks, Jews, Aromanians, Slavophones and Romani. The numbers of the town population overall remained stable for several centuries until the late nineteenth century when demographic changes began to occur. Some population shifts were by Albanians (Christian and Muslim), Turks, Aromanians, Romani and Jews, along with Orthodox Greeks of the south migrating to Florina following the mid–19th century reforms of the Ottoman Tanzimat period. In the late Ottoman era 8,000 inhabitants lived in Florina and Muslims formed three quarters of the population and one quarter were Christian.

Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn visited the city in 1861 and wrote about it in his travel log From Belgrade to Salonica. In it he writes that "[a]bout the houses in Florina, we should indicate that there are at most 3,000, with half of the population Albanian and Turkish Muslims and the other half Christian Bulgarians." According to an 1878 French ethnographic book Florina was a town of 1,500 households, inhabited by 2,800 Muslims and 1,800 Bulgarians.

The traveller Victor Bérard visited Florina in 1896 and stated it had 1,500 houses composed of Albanians and "converted Slavs", with 100 "Turkish" families and 500 Christian families. Bérard wrote "these Slavs nonetheless call themselves Greek and speak Greek—with us at least", while in Florina a few hundred were Bulgarian supporters and the Ottoman administration in the area was pro–Bulgarian. Journalist H. N. Brailsford was in Macedonia in the aftermath of the Ilinden Uprising (1903). He wrote Florina's Greek bishop spoke in Turkish to the church congregation as they were "Bulgarians", while the town was viewed as Greek because it remained attached to the Patriarch.

A Jewish Sephardi community was present in Florina during the 17th century. Under Ottoman rule, the Jews of Florina had close ties with the Jewish community of Monastir (modern Bitola). Romani people migrated from Anatolia to Florina. In the mid to late 1910s, some Florina Romani migrated to Elbasan and Korçë and compose most of their urban modern Romani populations. In 1910, the Greek consular secretary Athanasios Chalkiopoulou wrote Florina had 6,500 Muslims, 2,156 Orthodox Greeks and 500 "schismatic Bulgarianizers".

In popular culture

Florina and the surrounding area of the late Ottoman and population exchange periods is the setting for the novel Devastated Hills: Macedonia 1900 by writer Necati Cumalı. In Greek cinema, several movies filmed in Florina by Theodoros Angelopoulos are The Suspended Step of the Stork, Ulysses' Gaze and The Beekeeper.

Notable people

Alexis Alexoudis (born 1972), footballer

Mary Coustas (born 1964), Australian actor

Necati Cumalı (1921–2001), Turkish novelist, short–story writer & poet

Peter Daicos Australian Football player (AFL); family from Vevi, Florina region

Dimitrios Makris (1901–81), Member of Parliament & Minister

Pericles A. Mitkas (born 1962), electronic & computer engineer, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki rector

Nikolaos Pyrzas (1880–1947), leader during the Macedonian Struggle

Nadia Tass (active 1979 to present), Australian director & actor

Pavlos Voskopoulos (born 1964), politician & leader of the Rainbow party

Elpida Karamandi (1920–1942), partisan fighter

Sterikas Koulis (1922-1995), painter