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°E / 40.10139; 19.74667Coordinates: 40°6′5″N 19°44′48″E / 40.10139°N 19.74667°E / 40.10139; 19.74667
Country  Albania
County Vlorë
Municipality Himarë
Administrative unit Himarë
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 9425
Area code 0393
Vehicle registration VL
Website www.himara.gov.al

Himarë (definite Albanian form: Himara) is a bilingual town in Southern Albania along the Albanian Riviera and part of the Vlorë County. It is the largest settlement and seat of the municipality of Himarë.[1] Both the town and municipality are populated by an ethnic Greek community.[2][3][4]

History

In antiquity the region was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Chaonians.[5] The town of Himarë is believed to have been founded as Χίμαιρα,[6] (Chimaira,[7] 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".[8]

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.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Law nr. 115/2014
  2. ↑ Europa Publications Limited. Central and South-Eastern Europe 2004, Volume 5. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 978-1-85743-186-5, p. 78.
  3. ↑ Economist Intelligence Unit. (Great Britain). Country report: Albania, Issue 1., 2001.
  4. ↑ "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.
  5. ↑ 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)"
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ Chimaira, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
  8. ↑ Cheimarros, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
  9. ↑ 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.
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