Voskopoja

Voskopojë (Albanian with definite article Voskopoja; Aromanian: Moscopole; Aromanian with definite article Moscopolea; Greek: Μοσχόπολις, Moscopolis or Moschopolis; Serbian: Moskopolje;) is a small village currently in south-eastern Albania. During its history, it used to be a cultural and commercial center of the Aromanians (Vlachs).

History

Although located in rather inhospitable place in the mountains between Greece and Albania, the city rose to became the most important center of the Balkan Aromanians. In its glory days (1760s) it had population surpassing 60,000 and was the second city of the Balkans as population and prosperity, surpassed only by Istanbul.

The city is said to have been inhabited almost exclusively by Vlachs/Aromanians. An 1935 analysis of the family names shows that the majority of the population was indeed Vlachis there were also some Greek, Bulgarians and Albanians merchants, although according to the German historian Johann Thunmann who visited Moscopole and wrote in 1774 a history of the Aromanians, everyone in the city spoke Aromanian and that many also spoke Greek, which was the language used for commercial contracts.

Toward the end of the 18th century it flourished due to commerce with Germany, Venice and Constantinople and it had various manufacturing plants, around 70 churches, banks, a printing press (the only other press of the Balkans was in Istanbul) and even a university (The New Academy, founded in 1744). A cultural effervescence arose in Moscopole, and many authors published their works in both Greek language (which was the language of culture of the Balkans at the time) and Aromanian language written with Greek alphabet. In 1770, in Moscopole was published the first dictionary of four modern Balkan languages (Greek, Albanian, Vlach/Aromanian and Bulgarian), which is considered of great historical value.

The 1769 sacking and pillaging of the Ottomans was just the first one from a series of attacks, which culminated with the razing of 1788 by the Albanian troops of Ali Pasha. The survivers were thus forced to flee, most of them emigrating to Greece (where they returned to their ancestral occupation of animal husbandry), Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Some of the commercial elite moved to Austria-Hungary, especially to the two capitals Vienna and Budapest, but also in Transylvania, where they had an important role in the early National awakening of Romania.

The city never rose to its earlier status and it was destroyed again in 1916 during the partisan warfare of World War I. Of the old city only five Orthodox churches survive and lay in ruin. In 2002, they were listed among the Top 100 Most Endangered Historical Sites by the World Monuments Fund.

Today Voskopoja is just a small mountain village in the Albanian District of Korçë. The glorious memories of the lost city of Moscopole still remain an important part in the culture of Vlachs.

Population

• 1750: 45,000
• 1788: 60,000
• 2000: 700

Geography

Voskopoja is located at a distance of 21 km from Korçë, in the Mountains of south-eastern Albania, at an altitude of 1160 meters.

References

• Nicolas Trifon, Des Aroumains aux Tsintsares - Destinées Historiques Et Littéraires D’un Peuple Méconnu (in French)
• Românii din Albania - Aromânii (in Romanian)
• Steliu Lambru, Narrating National Utopia - The Case Moschopolis in the Aromanian National Discourse (in English)
• Robert Elsie, [1] (in English)