Kastoria

Kastoria (Turkish Kesrie), a city of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Monastir, 45 m. S. by W. of Monastir (Bitolia). Pop. (1905), about 10,000, one-third of whom are Greeks, one-third Slavs, and the remainder Albanians or Turks. Kastoria occupies part of a peninsula on the western shore of Lake Kastoria, which here receives from the north its affluent the Zhelova. The lake is formed in a deep hollow surrounded by limestone mountains, and is drained on the south by the Bistritza, a large river which flows S.E. nearly to the Greek frontier, then sharply turns N.E., and finally enters the Gulf of Salonica. The lake has an area of 20 sq. m., and is 2850 ft. above sea-level. Kastoria is the seat of an Orthodox archbishop. It is usually identified with the ancient Celetrum, captured by the Romans under Sulpicius, during the first Macedonian campaign, 200 B.C., and better known for the defence maintained by Bryennius against Alexis I. in 1084. A Byzantine wall with round towers runs across the peninsula.