Florina

For other uses, see Florina (disambiguation).

Municipality in Greece

Florina

Φλώρινα

Municipality

View of the city of Florina towards the NE

Seal

Florina

Location within the region

Coordinates: 40°47′N 21°24′E﻿ / ﻿40.783°N 21.400°E﻿ / 40.783; 21.400
Country| Greece
Administrative region| Western Macedonia
Regional unit| Florina
Government

• Mayor| Vasileios Giannakis[1] (since 2019)
Area

• Municipality

| 819.7 km2 (316.5 sq mi)
• Municipal unit| 150.6 km2 (58.1 sq mi)
Elevation

| 687 m (2,254 ft)
Population

(2021)[2]

• Municipality

| 29,500
• Density| 36/km2 (93/sq mi)
• Municipal unit

| 19,198
• Municipal unit density| 130/km2 (330/sq mi)
• Community

| 17,188
Time zone| UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)| UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code|

531 00

Area code(s)| 23850
Vehicle registration| ΡΑ*
Website| http://www.cityoflorina.gr

Florina (Greek: Φλώρινα, Flórina; known also by some alternative names) is a town and municipality in the mountainous northwestern Macedonia, Greece. Its motto is, 'Where Greece begins'.[3]

The town of Florina is the capital of the Florina regional unit and also the seat of the eponymous municipality. It belongs to the administrative region of Western Macedonia. The town's population is 17,188 people (2021 census). It is in a wooded valley about 13 km (8 mi) south of the international border of Greece with North Macedonia.

## Geography

[edit]

Sakoulevas river and the Cathedral of Florina

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.

Florina is passed by GR-2 (Lake Prespa – Edessa) and GR-3/E65 (Kozani – Florina – Niki – Bitola). The new A27 motorway will run east of Florina with its Florina-Niki segment already operational since 2015. The historic Via Egnatia is situated to the east.

### Climate

[edit]

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).

#### Cold wave of 2012

[edit]

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[4] 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.[5] 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 polar temperatures and the intense snowfall that prevailed for days.

Climate data for Florina (1961–2010)

Month  | Jan  | Feb  | Mar  | Apr  | May  | Jun  | Jul  | Aug  | Sep  | Oct  | Nov  | Dec  | Year
Record high °C (°F)  | 18.7
(65.7)  | 23.0
(73.4)  | 28.7
(83.7)  | 31.2
(88.2)  | 33.8
(92.8)  | 39.0
(102.2)  | 40.8
(105.4)  | 38.6
(101.5)  | 36.0
(96.8)  | 32.2
(90.0)  | 26.6
(79.9)  | 22.3
(72.1)  | 40.8
(105.4)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)  | 4.7
(40.5)  | 7.4
(45.3)  | 12.0
(53.6)  | 16.8
(62.2)  | 22.0
(71.6)  | 26.4
(79.5)  | 29.0
(84.2)  | 29.0
(84.2)  | 24.7
(76.5)  | 19.0
(66.2)  | 12.2
(54.0)  | 5.9
(42.6)  | 17.4
(63.4)
Daily mean °C (°F)  | 0.6
(33.1)  | 2.8
(37.0)  | 7.0
(44.6)  | 11.7
(53.1)  | 16.9
(62.4)  | 21.1
(70.0)  | 23.4
(74.1)  | 22.8
(73.0)  | 18.2
(64.8)  | 12.9
(55.2)  | 7.2
(45.0)  | 2.0
(35.6)  | 12.2
(54.0)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)  | −3.1
(26.4)  | −1.7
(28.9)  | 1.5
(34.7)  | 5.4
(41.7)  | 9.5
(49.1)  | 12.8
(55.0)  | 14.8
(58.6)  | 14.7
(58.5)  | 11.4
(52.5)  | 7.1
(44.8)  | 2.6
(36.7)  | −1.8
(28.8)  | 6.1
(43.0)
Record low °C (°F)  | −25.1
(−13.2)  | −23.0
(−9.4)  | −13.6
(7.5)  | −5.0
(23.0)  | 0.0
(32.0)  | 2.4
(36.3)  | 6.6
(43.9)  | 4.0
(39.2)  | −1.4
(29.5)  | −5.0
(23.0)  | −12.6
(9.3)  | −18.6
(−1.5)  | −25.1
(−13.2)
Average precipitation mm (inches)  | 56.8
(2.24)  | 51.1
(2.01)  | 57.8
(2.28)  | 60.4
(2.38)  | 59.4
(2.34)  | 37.3
(1.47)  | 33.9
(1.33)  | 30.6
(1.20)  | 50.1
(1.97)  | 69.2
(2.72)  | 71.3
(2.81)  | 85.6
(3.37)  | 663.5
(26.12)
Average precipitation days  | 11.0  | 10.6  | 11.1  | 10.6  | 10.7  | 7.2  | 5.5  | 5.3  | 6.5  | 7.6  | 9.7  | 11.8  | 107.6
Average snowy days  | 7.5  | 6.3  | 4.5  | 0.8  | 0.0  | 0.0  | 0.0  | 0.0  | 0.0  | 0.3  | 1.8  | 5.9  | 27.1
Average relative humidity (%)  | 81.2  | 76.4  | 68.8  | 63.2  | 62.8  | 58.6  | 55.4  | 56.9  | 63.3  | 71.4  | 77.8  | 81.7  | 68.1
Source: Hellenic National Meteorological Service [6]

## Name

[edit]

The city's original 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 Albanian name for the city is Follorinë.[7] In Aromanian, it is Florina, while in both Bulgarian and Macedonian, it is Лерин (Lerin).

## Municipality

[edit]

The town hall

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:[8]

* Florina
* Kato Kleines
* Meliti
* Perasma

The municipality has an area of 819.698 km2, and the municipal unit 150.634 km2.[9]

### Municipal Unit subdivisions

[edit]

The municipal unit of Florina is further divided into the following communities:[8]

* Alona
* Armenochori
* Florina
* Koryfi
* Mesonisi
* Proti
* Skopia
* Trivouno

## History

[edit]

Panorama of the city of Florina, 1898–1912. Photo taken by Manakis brothers (broken glass plate) Neoclassical houses at the shoreline of Sakoulevas river

The ancient settlement of Melitonus was located in the area of Florina.[10]

Within the boundaries of the present-day city lie the remains of a Hellenistic era settlement on the hill of Agios Panteleimon.[11] 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.[10] It is first mentioned in 1334, when the Serbian king Stefan Dušan established a certain Sphrantzes Palaeologus as commander of the fortress of Chlerenon.[12] By 1385, the place had fallen to the Ottomans.[13][10] An Ottoman defter (cadastral tax census) for the year 1481 records a settlement of 243 households.[14]

Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi passed through Florina in the seventeenth century.[15] He wrote Florina consisted of six neighbourhoods and had 1500 homes, one tekke, several mosques, madrasas and mektebs, two bathhouses and two inns.[16] 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.[17] Members of Filiki Eteria were the brothers Loukas Nedelkos and Nikolaos Nedelkos, who were born in the Florina region.[citation needed]

Florina and its inhabitants greatly contributed to the Macedonian Struggle. Prominent leaders included Nikolaos Pyrzas,[18] and Petros Chatzitasis.[19]

In the late Ottoman period the area surrounding Florina supported the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) who fought against the Ottomans.[20] During the Macedonian Struggle the Greek makedonomachoi gained significant advantage towards the Bulgarian Exarchists within 10 months in 1905 and extended their zone of control in various regions of western Macedonia including the plains north and south of Florina.[21]

The Balkan Wars (1912–1913) brought an end to Ottoman rule when Florina and the surrounding area was taken by Greece during November 1912.[15] Annexed by Greece, Florina became part of the Greek province of Macedonia.[15] In 1916, Florina became a World War I battleground of the Macedonian front and was occupied by Bulgaria and later retaken by the French army.[22] Many pro–Bulgarian people or Muslims of Florina and in nearby areas were shot by Greek irregular troops of the Entente following the French capture of the town.[23]

Florina continued to be a multiethnic town following the Greek–Turkish population exchange, and as a consequence became a place with strict surveillance by the Greek state with cooperation from the local government and the Orthodox Church.[24] In November 1925, known as the "Dynamite Attempt", Komitadjis attacked a coffee shop in Florina with a grenade injuring 2 children.[25] Some perpetrators escaped to Albania, others were captured by Greek authorities and some locals allegedly involved were also arrested.[25] During the Axis Occupation of Greece in World War II, Florina was under German control[26] and the town became a centre of Slavic separatism.[27]

For part of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949) the mountains of the Florina area were under communist control. The Slavic-Macedonian National Liberation Front, later simply the National Liberation Front or NOF, had a significant presence in the area:[28] by 1946, seven Slav Macedonian partisan units were operating in the Florina area,[29] and NOF had a regional committee based in Florina. When the NOF merged with the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), many Slav Macedonians in the region enlisted as volunteers in the DSE.[30]

In early February 1949, the Greek National Army and the Gendarmerie defeated an attempted takeover of Florina by the Greek communist Democratic Army of Greece.[31] Communist casualties numbered 750–850 individuals and were all buried in a mass grave located in south-eastern Florina.[31][32] When the Communists were defeated on 12 February 1949 by the Greek army thousands of communists and Slav Macedonians were evacuated or fled to Yugoslavia and the Eastern Bloc.

The Railway Station in Florina

## Transport

[edit]

### Rail

[edit]

The city is served by Florina station on the Thessaloniki–Bitola line, with local trains to Thessaloniki.[33][34]

## Economy

[edit]

Florina peppers

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.

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

Its university 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,[35] 2 daily political newspapers, 4 weekly ones, one women's press and two newspapers on sports.

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.

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

## Landmarks

[edit]

Florina, view from northern entrance (1916–1918)

The Muslim community existed for five centuries in Florina and they constructed various public and religious buildings.[17] The Ottoman architectural landscape of several mosques, two bathhouses, a clock tower and some Ottoman mansions persisted until the 1923 population exchange.[15] There were seven mosques and all were demolished during the twentieth century.[17] The first five mosques were demolished in 1926 by an order from the General Administration of Macedonia, the prefect of Florina and by the decision of the Municipal Council.[36] 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).[37] In 1952, one mosque was still open in Florina.[38] 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.[39][40] Another destroyed building was the Tekke, where the site is the present location of the town's bank.[41]

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.[42] The Muslim Cemetery was destroyed, as the early Greek administration implemented a new urban plan and later the large Muslim cemetery was expropriated in the north of Florina for the project.[42] 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.[43][44] 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.[45] 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.[24] 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.[45]

Bulgarian Exarchate school

After Florina became part of Greece, a new urban plan was undertaken by the government to modernise and Hellenise the town.[24] Florina underwent change and sites or buildings associated with diverse past cultures and peoples such as mosques, synagogues and cemeteries disappeared.[15] Post World War Two, there are no remaining traces of the Jewish cemetery in Florina.[46] The Cathedral of St.Panteleimon was constructed in 1870 and Slavic architectural forms featured on its windows, three domes and an iconastasis with Slavic writing, later replaced with Greek writing.[47] Over time modifications were made to the altar and windows.[47] In 1971, the Cathedral was declared a hazard to public safety and demolished.[48]

In Florina, a Bulgarian school was constructed between 1905–1908 by townspeople who were part of the Bulgarian Exarchate and it operated till 1913.[49] Repurposed several times, it became a Greek high school twice and used in a military capacity by the French (WWI), Germans (WWII) and the Greek National Army (Greek Civil War).[48] Later, it served as a Commercial School and the Economic High School (1961–1977).[48] Earmarked for possible preservation by the government, the two-storey building was proposed to house the future Art Museum of Florina.[48] Instead the school was demolished in late 1978 by the local municipal authority with support from Florina's Archbishop Kantiotis who opposed the building's Bulgarian Church origins.[48] The site was rebuilt as a high school.[50]

* School of Agriculture

* Florina Museum of Modern Art

* Folklore Museum of the Florina Culture Club

In early twenty first Florina, over 40 monuments exist in the town and include sculptures, statues, headstones, busts and other objects depicting or in reference to its history, in particular the struggle over Macedonia, the Second World War and the Civil War in Greece.[51] There are twelve monuments of fighters such as Kapetan Kottas and politicians involved in the Macedonian Struggle placed mainly after 1960 in Florina to mark the success of Greek efforts over the Bulgarians.[51] In the town square named George Modis, there are busts of Macedonian Struggle figure L. Pyrzas and the General I. Pappous of the National Army during the Civil War with a display of cannons taken from the Communists, the losing side in the conflict.[52] These monuments were erected in an era when their visual presence and symbolism were used by the government as a way to assimilate the local multicultural inhabitants.[53] Other town square monuments are the statue symbolising freedom and a memorial to Greek military casualties of the Greek Italian War (1940–1941).[54] Florina has a military cemetery for fallen Greek soldiers from the Greek Civil War.[55]

Grave stele of the Roman period, Archaeological Museum of Florina

In the mid 2000s, two attempts to erect a memorial to communist fighters who died during the 1949 attempted takeover of Florina were vandalised and destroyed by unidentified individuals.[31] The Greek Communist Party bought the site in 2009 and erected a memorial in 2016 encompassing several sculpted individuals on the field commemorating the fighters.[31][56] In 2005, three marble reproductions of funerary monuments were placed in the town centre, the ancient Greek originals dating from Classical and Roman antiquity are displayed in the Florina Archaeological Museum.[54] There have been some efforts by local people to showcase Florina's heritage from the Ottoman period and other less highlighted or neglected parts of the town's past through an exhibition, a documentary film and a scholarly lecture.[57] Some of these initiatives have also attempted to highlight past practices of censorship and received various responses with some local support or opposition.[57]

* Archaeological Museum of Florina
* Florina Museum of Modern Art
* The Florina Art Gallery
* Folklore Museum of the Aristotle Association
* Folklore Museum of the Culture Club

## Demographics

[edit]

Under Ottoman rule, Florina's population included Muslims, Greeks, Jews, Slavophones and Romani.[17]

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."[58] According to an 1878 French ethnographic book Florina was a town of 1,500 households, inhabited by 2,800 Muslims and 1,800 Bulgarians.[59]

In 1896 traveller Victor Bérard visited Florina and stated it had 1,500 houses composed of Albanians and "converted Slavs", with 100 "Turkish" families and 500 Christian families.[60] 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.[60] Journalist H. N. Brailsford was in Macedonia in the aftermath of the Ilinden Uprising (1903).[61] 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.[61]

A Jewish Sephardi community was present in Florina during the 17th century.[62] Under Ottoman rule, the Jews of Florina had close ties with the Jewish community of Monastir (modern Bitola).[63] Romani people migrated from Anatolia to Florina.[64] In the mid to late 1910s, some Florina Romani migrated to Elbasan and Korçë and compose most of their urban modern Romani populations.[64]

Turkish Women of Florina, (1916–1918)

According to historian Tasos Kostopoulos, after Florina became part of Greece, its population numbered 10,000 with two thirds being Muslim.[65] Many Christian inhabitants of Florina were Slavic speakers with the remainder composed of 30 Aromanian families and 89 Greek refugee families from Thrace and Asia Minor.[65] Florina Christians supported the Greek cause and the Bulgarians were aware that more than half were "Grecomans".[65]

Efthymios Boudonas, a Public Education Office director and former school general inspector for Macedonia wrote (1914) Florina was a non–Greek speaking town incapable of linguistically hellenising its inhabitants or any non–Greek speaking newcomers, although it had a strong Greek faction.[66] In 1916, Greek diplomat Nikolaos Politis wrote Florina had a total population of 10,392 composed of 6,227 Muslims, 3,576 Greeks and 589 former Exharchists.[67]

Philologist André Mazon was in Florina and the wider area doing research in 1917–1918 and 1920.[68][69] Florina had a total of 10,000 people.[70] Mazon wrote Florina was populated by Turkicized Albanians and Christian Slavs, split almost evenly between 9000 inhabitants, with the remainder consisting of Greeks, Aromanians and Jews who had recently arrived from Bitola after its 1917 destruction.[70] Much of the Christian population remained Patriarchists, even during the period of the Exarchate, with some becoming Hellenised and apart from a few exceptions they spoke (Macedonian) Bulgarian in their homes.[70]

Following the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), the large Aromanian community in Monastir (modern Bitola) was disappointed that the city became part of Serbia and they migrated to Greece.[71] Many went to Thessaloniki and others settled in Florina, where in the late 1920s a new neighbourhood was established named Agia Paraskevi with a population of 600 refugee Aromanian families.[72] The arrival of many hellenised Aromanians from Monastir to Florina resulted in the establishment of a large Greek speaking population in the region.[73] During the First World War, 60 Jewish families resettled in Florina after they left Monastir in 1916 to avoid the shelling of the city, later some other Monastirli Jewish families also went to live in Florina after the war.[74][63][75]

The 1920 Greek census recorded 12,513 people in the town, and 4,650 inhabitants (1,076 families) were Muslim in 1923.[76] Muslim Albanians from Florina and the wider region during the Greek–Turkish population exchange (1923) based on religious criteria were sent to Turkey, and mainly resettled in Bursa.[7][77] Following the Greek–Turkish population exchange, Greek refugee families in Florina were from East Thrace (79), Asia Minor (54), Pontus (7) and the Caucasus (44) in 1926.[76] The 1928 Greek census recorded 10,585 town inhabitants.[76] In 1928, the refugee families numbered 178 (750 people)[76] and the Jewish community numbered 500 people.[78] The town remained multiethnic and continued to have Slavophones, Jews and Romani after the population exchange.[24]

Local Jews were involved in the textile, agricultural and raw material sectors of Florina's economy.[79] Florina was occupied in World War Two and Jews came under German rule.[80] The Jewish community numbered 400 people in 1940.[81] During April 1943, 372 Florina Jews were sent by the Germans first to the Hirsch ghetto in Thessaloniki and later in May sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where they were gassed.[82][83] In 1945, the Florina Jewish community numbered 64 people, a reduction of 84 percent due to the Holocaust.[84] The Jewish population declined and by 1959 there were 7 Jews in Florina, 1 in 1973 and 0 in 1983.[85]

The Romani of Florina are sedentary and in 1968 they converted from Islam to Orthodoxy.[86] In the modern period, Florina Romani have distanced themselves from their relatives in Elbasan and Korçë, over concerns that links with Muslim Romani could negatively impact their local standing in the area they reside.[86]

During the late twentieth century, Florina numbered some 15,000 inhabitants.[87] Its population was composed of Slavophone Dopii, the Greek Anatolian refugees from the Greek–Turkish population exchange and their descendants, Greeks who had recently left the former Soviet Union, Aromanians and Hellenised Aromanians from Bitola who went to Florina in 1913, Romani, Albanians, and a small number of foreigners.[87]

In fieldwork done by Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, the population of Florina is mixed and Greek is often the language used for communication.[88] Minority languages are used in the town, especially on market days when farmers from the villages arrive in Florina to sell their produce.[88] The Romani community of Florina speak Romani and are multilingual in all other languages used in the region.[88] Van Boeschoten estimated the Romani numbered some 3000 in Florina, living in a neighbourhood on the town's environs.[89]

The Centre for the Macedonian Language in Greece is based in Florina.[90]

Year  | Town  | Municipal unit  | Municipality

|
|
|

1981  | 12,573  | \-
1991  | 12,355  | 14,873  | \-
2001  | 14,985  | 17,500  | \-
2011  | 17,907  | 19,985  | 32,881
2021  | 17,188  | 19,198  | 29,500

## In popular culture

[edit]

Florina and the surrounding area during the late Ottoman and population exchange periods is the setting for the novel Devastated Hills: Macedonia 1900 by writer Necati Cumalı.[91] In Greek cinema, several movies filmed in Florina by Theodoros Angelopoulos are The Suspended Step of the Stork, Ulysses' Gaze[92] and The Beekeeper.

## Notable people

[edit]

A bust of Nikolaos Pyrzas

* 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

## Gallery

[edit]

* French army in the town during WWI

* Main street

* House in Florina. Scenery of Angelopoulos film O Melissokomos

* A side street leading to the river Sakoulevas

* Neoclassical houses at the shoreline of Sakoulevas river

* Pedestrian street at the centre

* Famous river of Florina, Sakoulevas

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Municipality of Florina, Municipal elections – October 2023, Ministry of Interior
2. ^ "Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2021, Μόνιμος Πληθυσμός κατά οικισμό" [Results of the 2021 Population - Housing Census, Permanent population by settlement] (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 29 March 2024.
3. ^ "Front Page". Περιφερειακή Ενότητα Φλώρινας. 24 October 2023. Archived from the original on 3 June 2006.
4. ^ Α.Ε., tovima.gr – Δημοσιογραφικός Οργανισμός Λαμπράκη (6 March 2012). "tovima.gr – Ο πιο βαρύς χειμώνας όλων των εποχών εφέτος". TO BHMA. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
5. ^ "NOA's Monthly Weather Report for January 2012" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2013.
6. ^ "Mean Florina Climatic Averages". Hellenic National Meteorological Service. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
7. ^ a b Baltsiotis, Lambros (2011). "The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece: The grounds for the expulsion of a "non-existent" minority community". European Journal of Turkish Studies. 12.. para. 28-29; footnote 48. "The Albanian claims on the Albanian speaking population of the areas of Kastoria [Kostur in Albanian] and Florina [Follorinë in Albanian] did not ensure the non-inclusion of this Albanian speaking Muslim population in the Greco-Turkish exchange of populations. Nevertheless, these claims and related struggles were far from leading to any major bilateral or international debate."
8. ^ a b "ΦΕΚ B 1292/2010, Kallikratis reform municipalities" (in Greek). Government Gazette.
9. ^ "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)" (PDF) (in Greek). National Statistical Service of Greece. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 September 2015.
10. ^ a b c Broilo 2011, p. 91.
11. ^ Maria Akamati-Lilibati & Ioannis M. Akamatis, The Hellenistic City of Florina. Ministry of Culture (Greece), 2006. ISBN 960-86162-3-9 p53ff
12. ^ Kravari 1989, p. 247.
13. ^ Kravari 1989, p. 55., n. 178.
14. ^ Kravari, Vassiliki (1989). Villes et villages de Macédoine occidentale. Paris: Editions P. Lethielleux. p. 248\. ISBN 9782283604526.
15. ^ a b c d e Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 153.
16. ^ Broilo 2011, p. 92.
17. ^ a b c d Stavridopoulos 2015, p. 276.
18. ^ Douglas Dakin, the Macedonian Struggle, 1985, pp 65–67
19. ^ Hellenic Army General Staff, Directorate of Army History, The Macedonian Struggle and the events in Thrace, 1979, pp 115
20. ^ Gingeras, Ryan (2016). Fall of the Sultanate: The Great War and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1908-1922. Oxford University Press. p. 66\. ISBN 9780191663581. "One area where this strategy manifested itself openly was in the environs of Florina, a district notorious for its support for the IMRO."
21. ^ Gounaris, Basil C. "National Claims, Conflicts and Developments in Macedonia, 1870-1912" (PDF). macedonian-heritage.gr. p. 194. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
22. ^ Hall, Richard C. (2012). The Modern Balkans: A History. Reaktion Books. p. 82\. ISBN 9781780230061.
23. ^ Kostopoulos 2011, para 25. "Après la réoccupation de Florina par l’armée française en 1916, par exemple, les troupes irrégulières grecques qui faisaient parti des forces de l’Entente ont fusillé massivement des habitants «bulgarisants» ou musulmans de la ville et de ses environs (Grigoriou 1916; Modis 1950: 241-2)."
24. ^ a b c d Stavridopoulos, Ioannis (2015). Μνημεία του άλλου: η διαχείριση της οθωμανικής πολιτιστική κληρονομιάς της Μακεδονίας από το 1912 έως σήμερα [Monuments of the other: The management of the Ottoman cultural heritage of Macedonia from 1912 until present] (Ph.D.) (in Greek). University of Ioannina. p. 280. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
25. ^ a b Karakasidou 2002, p. 134\. [1]
26. ^ Plaut 2000, p. 55.
27. ^ Veremis, Thanos (2017). A Modern History of the Balkans: Nationalism and Identity in Southeast Europe. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 204\. ISBN 9781786731050.
28. ^ Simpson, Neil (1994). Macedonia Its Disputed History. Victoria: Aristoc Press, 105,106 & 94\. ISBN 0-646-20462-9.
29. ^ "Les Archives de la Macedonine, Fond: Aegean Macedonia in NLW" – (Field report of Mihail Keramidzhiev to the Main Command of NOF), 8 July 1945
30. ^ Η Τραγική αναμέτρηση, 1945-1949 – Ο μύθος και η αλήθεια. Ζαούσης Αλέξανδρος" (ISBN 9607213432).
31. ^ a b c d Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 150.
32. ^ Valtchinova 2023, pp. 3, 5.
33. ^ "Visit Florina". Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
34. ^ "Δρομολόγια ΤΡΑΙΝΟΣΕ". Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
35. ^ greek radio guide Archived 18 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, radiofono.gr Archived 4 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
36. ^ Stavridopoulos 2015, pp. 276, 280.
37. ^ Stavridopoulos 2015, pp. 276–277.
38. ^ Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 383\. ISBN 9789004221529.
39. ^ Broilo 2011, pp. 93–94.
40. ^ Stavridopoulos 2015, p. 277.
41. ^ Stavridopoulos 2015, pp. 277–278.
42. ^ a b Stavridopoulos 2015, p. 278.
43. ^ Broilo, Federica (2011). "The forgotten Ottoman heritage of Florina on the river Sakoulevas, and a little known Ottoman building on the shore of the lake Volvis in Greek Macedonia". In Hartmuth, Maximilian (ed.). Centre and peripheries in Ottoman architecture. Rediscovering a Balkan heritage. Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB). pp. 95–96.95-96&rft.pub=Cultural+Heritage+without+Borders+(CHwB)&rft.date=2011&rft.aulast=Broilo&rft.aufirst=Federica&rft_id=https://issuu.com/chwbbosniaandherzegovina/docs/centres-and-peripheries-in-ottoman-&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Florina" class="Z3988">
44. ^ Stavridopoulos 2015, pp. 278–279.
45. ^ a b Stavridopoulos 2015, p. 279.
46. ^ Karmi, Ilan (1997). "Jewish Cemeteries in Northern Greece in the Post World War II Era". In Chasiotes, Ioannes K. (ed.). The Jewish Communities of Southeastern Europe. From the Fifteenth Century to the End of World War II. Institute for Balkan Studies. p. 237\. ISBN 9789607387035. "Whereas in Castoria some stones were at least preserved by the military, no remnants of a Jewish cemetery were left in the nearby city of Florina."
47. ^ a b Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, pp. 154–155.
48. ^ a b c d e Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, pp. 155–156.
49. ^ Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 155.
50. ^ Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 156.
51. ^ a b Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 157.
52. ^ Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, pp. 158–159
53. ^ Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 158.
54. ^ a b Andreou & Kasvikis 2018, p. 159.
55. ^ Valtchinova 2023, p. 5.
56. ^ Valtchinova, Galia (2023). "A monument to not exhume: Silence, speech, and issues surrounding the mass grave of communist fighters at the Battle of Florina (1949), Northern Greece". Death Studies. 47 (6): 4–5\. doi:10.1080/07481187.2022.2131053. PMID 36228142.4-5&rft.date=2023&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/07481187.2022.2131053&rft_id=info:pmid/36228142&rft.aulast=Valtchinova&rft.aufirst=Galia&rft_id=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364370264&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Florina" class="Z3988">
57. ^ a b Andreou, Andreas; Kasvikis, Kostas (2018). "The Difficult Past of a Town: The Resonant Silences and Suppressed Memories of Florina's Cultural Heritage" (PDF). MuseumEdu. 6: 160.
58. ^ Wolf, Ferdinand; Miklosich, Franz Ritter von; Stülz, Jodocus; Hahn, Johann Georg; Bergmann, Joseph (1861). Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Classe (in German). Aus der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Hof- und Staatsdruckerei.
59. ^ Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Andrinople, de Monastir et de Salonique, Ethnographie Vilayet de Monsati., p.6-21
60. ^ a b Hart, Laurie Kain (2006). "Provincial anthropology, circumlocution, and the copious use of everything." Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 24. (2): 310: "The extreme population movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in (what was to become) the western Macedonian border area of Greece expose what Patrick Finney has called the "longue durée quality of nation-formation (Finney 1993). They include not only the 1919 Bulgarian-Greek population exchange and the Greek-Turkish exchange of 1923, but also innumerable significant, informal, earlier shifts to towns such as Florina by Muslim and Christian Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Gypsies, Jews, as well as the immigration of Greek Christians from the South after the mid-nineteenth century Ottoman Tanzimat reforms." p. 314. "Florina was not much admired by European travelers in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, particularly, it seems, in contrast to its rival a little to the south, Kastoria. The French traveler Bérard describes it in 1896 as consisting of 1500 houses of Albanians and "converted Slavs", with perhaps a hundred "Turkish" families and 500 Christian families. "These Slavs nonetheless call themselves Greek and speak Greek—with us at least" (Bérard 1911 (1896):307). Bérard identifies only a few hundred Bulgarian sympathizers, but notes that the local Turkish administration is pro-Bulgarian."
61. ^ a b Danforth, Loring M. (1997). The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton University Press. p. 61\. ISBN 9780691043579. "He also points out that the Greek bishop of Florina had to address his flock in Turkish since they were all "Bulgarians" even though Florina was considered a Greek town because it was loyal to the Patriarch (1971:167,197)."
62. ^ Stavroulakis, Nicholas; DeVinney, Timothy J. (1992). Jewish sites and Synagogues of Greece. Talos Press. p. 236\. ISBN 9789607459015.
63. ^ a b Plaut 2000, p. 26.
64. ^ a b De Soto, Hermine; Beddies, Sabine; Gedeshi, Ilir (2005). Roma and Egyptians in Albania: From social exclusion to social inclusion. World Bank Publications. p. 231\. ISBN 9780821361719.
65. ^ a b c Karakasidou, Anastasia (2020). "Voters and clients: Elections in Florina before and after the Prespa Accord". In Neofotistos, Vasiliki P. (ed.). Macedonia and Identity Politics After the Prespa Agreement. Routledge. p. 130\. ISBN 9781000281835.
66. ^ Kostopoulos, Tassos (2011). "How the North was won. Épuration ethnique, échange des populations et politique de colonisation dans la Macédoine grecque" [How the North was won. Ethnic cleansing, population exchange and settlement policy in Greek Macedonia]. European Journal of Turkish Studies (in French) (12). para. 23. doi:10.4000/ejts.4437.
67. ^ Kontogiorgi, Elisabeth (2006). Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Rural Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930. Clarendon Press. p. 247\. ISBN 9780191515552.
68. ^ Vaillant, André (1969). "André Mazon (1881-1967)". Revue des Études Slaves. 48 (1–4): 8–9.1–4&rft.pages=8-9&rft.date=1969&rft.aulast=Vaillant&rft.aufirst=André&rft_id=https://www.persee.fr/doc/slave_0080-2557_1969_num_48_1_1977&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Florina" class="Z3988">
69. ^ Ioannidou, Alexandra (2023). "Translation from the "first language": The censored folktales of Edessa in 21st century Greece". Culture-Borders-Gender/Studies. 2: 63, 68.
70. ^ a b c Mazon, Andre (1979). "Contes Slaves de la Macedoine sud-occidentale". In Mirchev, Kiril (ed.). Чуждестранни учени за югозападните български говори [Foreign Scholars on the Southwestern Bulgarian Dialects]. Bŭlgarska akademii͡a na naukite (BAN). p. 81. La ville de Lérin (en grec Φλωρίνα) est un centre important, au carrefour des routes de l’Épire du Nord, de Monastir et de Salonique, commandant une plaine fertile aux villages nombreux. Elle compte une population d’une dizaine de mille habitants, à savoir des Albanais turquisés et des Slaves chrétiens, formant en proportions à peu près égales le gros de la population (environ 9.000 habitants), quelques éléments grecs et valaques, enfin des Juifs, ces derniers venus surtout de Monastir depuis la destruction de cette ville en 1917. Les chrétiens étaient en majorité demeurés patriarchistes même durant la période d’« exarchisation » la plus intense ; il en est plusieurs qui sont fortement hellénisés, mais, sauf quelques exceptions, le « macédonien », c’est-à-dire le bulgare, n’en reste pas moins pour eux la langue de la maison.
71. ^ Koukoudis 2003, pp. 466-468. [2]
72. ^ Koukoudis, Asterios (2003). The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora. Zitros Publications. pp. 467, 473. ISBN 9789607760869.
73. ^ Karakasidou, Anastasia (2002). "Cultural illegitimacy in Greece: The Slavo-Macedonian 'non-minority'". In Clogg, Richard (ed.). Minorities in Greece: Aspects of Plural Society. Hurst & Company. p. 152\. ISBN 9781850657057.
74. ^ Cohen, Mark (2003). Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943. Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture. p. 134\. ISBN 9781886857063.
75. ^ Mihajlovski, Robert (2021). The Religious and Cultural Landscape of Ottoman Manastır. Brill. p. 232\. ISBN 9789004465268.
76. ^ a b c d Pelagidis, Efstathios (1992). Η αποκατάσταση των προσφύγων στη Δυτική Μακεδονία (1923–1930) [The rehabilitation of refugees in Western Macedonia (1923–1930)] (Ph.D.) (in Greek). Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. p. 75. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
77. ^ Gingeras, Ryan (2009). Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1912-1923. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 158–159\. ISBN 9780199561520.158-159&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=2009&rft.isbn=9780199561520&rft.aulast=Gingeras&rft.aufirst=Ryan&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGUVDAAAQBAJ&q;=Florina&pg;=PA31&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Florina" class="Z3988">
78. ^ Plaut 2000, p. 69.
79. ^ Plaut 2000, p. 43.
80. ^ Plaut 2000, p. 56.
81. ^ Plaut 2000, p. 68.
82. ^ Plaut 2000, p. 60.
83. ^ Bowman, Steven B. (2009). The Agony of Greek Jews, 1940–1945. Stanford University Press. pp. 80, 83, 85–86, 91. ISBN 9780804772495.85-86,+91&rft.pub=Stanford+University+Press&rft.date=2009&rft.isbn=9780804772495&rft.aulast=Bowman&rft.aufirst=Steven+B.&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=rP1QOknibUkC&dq;=Florina+Jews&pg;=PA70&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Florina" class="Z3988">
84. ^ Plaut 2000, pp. 68–69, 71.
85. ^ Plaut, Joshua Eli (2000). Greek Jewry in the Twentieth Century, 1913-1983: Patterns of Jewish Survival in the Greek Provinces Before and After the Holocaust. Associated University Presses. pp. 20, 69, 96, 98. ISBN 9780838639115.
86. ^ a b Baltsiotis, Lambros (2015). "Balkan Roma immigrants in Greece: An initial approach to the traits of a migration flow". International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication. 2: 5. doi:10.12681/ijltic.47.
87. ^ a b Cowan, Jane K. (2003). "The uncertain political limits of cultural claims: Minority rights politics in south east Europe". In Mitchell, Jon P.; Wilson, Richard A. (eds.). Human Rights in Global Perspective: Anthropological Studies of Rights, Claims and Entitlements. Routledge. p. 149\. ISBN 9781134409754.
88. ^ a b c Van Boeschoten, Riki (2001). "Usage des langues minoritaires dans les départements de Florina et d'Aridea (Macédoine)" [Use of minority languages in the departments of Florina and Aridea (Macedonia)]. Strates. 10. para. 15.
89. ^ Van Boeschoten, Riki (2012). "Politicised borders: The case of Greek Macedonia". In Knippenberg, Hans; Markusse, Jan (eds.). Nationalising and Denationalising European Border Regions, 1800–2000: Views from Geography and History. Springer. p. 101\. ISBN 9789401142939. "The town of Florina, not included in the table, has a mixed population of approximately 15,000 inhabitants, where the only 'visible' group is the Gypsy community, of about 3000 souls, settled in a neighbourhood at the outskirts of the town."
90. ^ Stamatoukou, Eleni; Marušić, Siniša Jakov (30 November 2022). "Macedonians Hail Opening of Pioneer Language Centre in Greece". Balkan Insight.
91. ^ Soysal Eşitti, Aslı (2021). "Necati Cumalı'nın Makedonya 1900 Adlı Eserinde Kültürel Bellek İnşası" [Construction of Cultural Memory in Necati Cumalı’s work Macedonia 1900]. ARTS: Artuklu Sanat ve Beşeri Bilimler Dergisi (Necati Cumalı Özel Sayısı): 114, 117–119, 121, 124, 126, 131–132\. doi:10.46372/arts.946322.117-119,+121,+124,+126,+131-132&rft.date=2021&rft_id=info:doi/10.46372/arts.946322&rft.aulast=Soysal+Eşitti&rft.aufirst=Aslı&rft_id=http://arts.artuklu.edu.tr/tr/pub/issue/64602/946322&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Florina" class="Z3988">
92. ^ Kamboureli, Smaro (2015). "Memory Under Siege: Archive Fever in Theo Angelopoulos' Ulysses' Gaze". In Koutsourakis, Angelos (ed.). Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos. Edinburgh University Press. p. 263\. ISBN 9780748697960.

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* City of Florina (in Greek)
* Florina regional unit (in Greek)
* Awarded "EDEN – European Destinations of Excellence" non traditional tourist destination 2007
* Mazon, André (1923). Contes Slaves de la Macedoine sud-occidentale. Etude linguistique, texteset traduction, notes de folklore. Paris: E. Champion. \- An ethnography on Florina (in French)

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Administrative division of the Western Macedonia Region

Area
9,451 km2 (3,649 sq mi)
Population
283,689 (as of 2011)
Municipalities
12 (since 2011)
Capital
Kozani

Regional unit of Florina|

* Amyntaio
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Regional unit of Grevena|

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Subdivisions of the municipality of Florina

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* Alona
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Major cities|

* Thessaloniki
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Nature|

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