Proti, Florina

Proti (Greek: Πρώτη, Macedonian Slavic: Кладошница, Kladošnica or Кабасница, Kabasnica) is a small village in the Florina regional unit of Macedonia, northern Greece, located approximately 5 kilometres northwest from the city of Florina, to which it belongs administratively.

The village first appears in two chysobulls of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan preserved in the archives of Treskavec monastery near Prilep. The documents, dated to 1343-44 and 1344–45, mention the village under its Aromanian name Klbasnicu in connection with a transhumant "route of the Vlachs," a toponym (vlaški pat) preserved today for a footpath following the crest of a hill to the west of the village. An Ottoman defter of 1481 records eighty households in the village.^[1]

At one time a flourishing community of 500 people whose primary occupation was wheat farming, Proti today is an agricultural hamlet of less than 20 people.

There are a number of public buildings in the hamlet. The school, though unused, is in good condition. The church is impeccably maintained. In the rear of the church is the graveyard with many stones that are centuries old.

Proti was ravaged during World War II. Many residents left in the 1950s and 1960s in search of a better life and went to the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Demographics

Year Population 1913 637 1920 617 1928 802 1940 743 1951 303 1961 143 1971 137 2006 13

Notes

1. Kravari, Vassiliki (1989). Villes et villages de Macédoine occidentale. Realites byzantines (in French) 2. Paris: Editions P. Lethielleux. p. 280. ISBN 2-283-60452-4.

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  A house

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  The cemetery

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  The church

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  The schoolhouse

Coordinates: 40°48′58″N 21°23′46″E / 40.816°N 21.396°E