Himara (Albanian: Himarė or Himara, Greek: Chimara) is a region along the Albanian Ionian Sea coast, opposite of the northern side of the Epirote Islands (Corfu in particular), about 50 Kilometres in Length and 10 Kilometres in width. The main town of the region is Himara (ancient Chimara) and there are seven other villages (Dhermi ,Palase , Vuno , Pilur , Qeparo , Shen Vasil , Kudhes , Ilias ).
Geography
The whole region is characterized by high mountains coming down abrupty to meet a crystal clear sea. There are long white sand beaches and the few hills close to the sea are generally terraced and planted with olive , orange and citrus trees.
At the north the region begins with the Acroceraunian mountains, (which the Roman poet Horace mentioned as "infames scopulos Acroceraunia"). Then from the Llogara national park the "thunder mountains" (locally called malet e vetetimes) extend along the northeast with their contantly misty complexion. The national road that winds down from the Llogora canyon into the "faieo", towards the sea in one of the steepest and most dangerous high-ways (litterally speaking) in the world. (The word faieo in Greek means "the eaten, the ravaged", because the south side of the mountain is barren as opposed to the north side which is fully vegetated especially with mediterranean black pines)
Testimony to the dangerous driving this road provides is the numerous commemorattive markers on the spots where unfortunate motorists have rolled down the canyon in the past decades. The views are breathtaking on the way down to Palase which is the first village one enounters after "faieo". A short distance south lies the Dhermi village, the biggest in the region after the town of Himare . The English landscape painter Edward Lear who came to Palase and Dhermi traveling through Albania in 1844 describes them as " more magnificent in his location than any other village I have seen in Acroceraunia and resemble no little Atrani and Amalfi ".
The Journey then continues through rugged mountainous terrain along the sea coast towards the village of Vuno then on to the town of Himara and further down south ending in the village of Qeparo which is the third largest hamlet in the region.
History
In antiquity the region was inhabited by the Kaonian Illyrian tribe. Greek contemporaries mention the Kaon as very warlike, engaged mainly goat and sheep herding and trade with the nearby island of Korcyra (corfu). In fact the town of Himara was founded by the greeks as a trading outpost on the Kaonian shore.
Little else is known of the Kaonians, except that the men wore white kilts (which are still used to this day, a type of dress also referred to as fustanella . The honor guard at the Greek Parliament in Athens uses the traditional fustanella costume as the uniform of choice out of respect of the many Himariotes and other Epirotes that fought in the Greek war of Independence in 1831).
Their music was also referred to as "sheep bleeting" in a comment by Aristonmachus (derogatorily) probably referring to the poliphonic musical traditions of the region with are pretty much alive to this day throughout the larger part of the region that includes Himara called Laberia .
Pliny the younger also mentions the Kaonians in a comment he makes in the context of an Aristophanes play; "This man must be certainly Kaonian because he looks like a mushroom due to his oversized cranium, which is certainly to his advantage because he does not thus need an umbrella to protect himself from glare of the sun".
Another anectode about the Kaonians comes in reference to their battle against Phillip of Macedon (the father of Alexander the Great) who attacked Himara in 214 BC. The Macedonians were close to being defeated completely when Phillip devises a clever ruse. He ordered the cooks of the army to prepare large quantities of food and wine. Having done so, the Macedonian army abandons the camp to the advancing Kaonian charge. Upon discovering the food and wine left behind by the enemy, the Kaonians settled down on the food and wine and pretty soon became sick with diharrea. The Macedonians who were apparently expecting this, counterattacked and won the battle of the day.
Little else is known about the ancient inhabitants of this region. The last time the word "Kaonia" is mentioned in reference to the region is by the Byzantines in a tax collection document in the 12th century AD.
In pre-Roman times Himara was also part of Epirus one of the successor states of the Alexander the Great's empire under the rule of Pyrrhus of Epirus, well known for his Phyrric victories against the emerging power of Rome. Upon the Roman invasion of Epirus Himara was badly damaged, with several hamlets razed to the the ground, (including a settlement close to the shore below the "faieo" called Megalhora whose remains today are mainly submerged)
Julius Caesar landed his army at the aforementioned Megalhora in pursuit of Pompey the Great during the Roman civil war, and it is here that he spoke the famous words to his soldiers before attempting to cross over the dangerous Acroceraunians: "Fear not, for you carry the Caesar and his luck".
Caesar the proceeded to assemble his army at the place known today as "Pllaja e Qesarit" (Caesar's Plateau) and quickly took the town of Orikum on the other side of the mountain.
During the decline of the Roman (and following Byzantine) rule the region of Himara was frequently the target of various attackers including the Serbs, Bulgarians (940AD), Saracens, Normans.
Himara became a symbol of resistance to the Ottoman turkish onslaught on Albania in the 13th century AD. Along with the northern catholic enclave of Mirdite , Himara was the only region in Albania that did not submit to Ottoman turkish rule during the 500 years that followed, ending with albanian independence in 1912.
The region was in almost continous state of warfare during this time against the turks. In 1481, one year after the turks had landed in Otranto, Southern Italy the Himariotes rose with the aim of liberating the whole of Albania from the Ottoman joke and help Gjon Kastrioti, the son of Gjergj Kastioti Scanderbeg (the national hero of Albania) to regain the lands lost after the death of his father. This forced the Turks to abandon their campaign in Italy.
The attempt failed, but the Himariotes rose again in 1488, 1494-1509 again without fully acheiving the goal of liberating the rest of the country.
Ottoman Sultan Sulejman the Magnificent (or the LawGiver) personaly led a large army in 1537 in a particularly bloody confrontation in Himara which at the time comprised more than 50 villages (the whole region of present day Laberia ).
He was aided in this campaign by several traitors from Himara, including one Ilia Konomi, born in Palase, who upon converting to Islam had changed his name to Iliaz Pasha and was promised the governorship of Himara by the sultan should he be succesful in subduing the land.
The oral lyrical traditions of the region commemorate that war with many folkloric songs about the various events that led to the eventual recognition of de facto indepedence of Himara by the Ottoman Empire.
One such song tells the story of the masacre of "faieo". The Sultan apparently sent word to Palasiotes hiding in the mountains that he wanted to make peace and withdraw from their land and invited them to come down to "faieo" for talks. All those who took the turk at his word had all four limbs amputated and the torsos thrown into the "faieo" ravine.
Another tells the story of Damianos who came close to killing the sultan himself after which point the Ottoman army retreated and did not come back to Himara until 1571, then again in 1595, 1690 and 1713.
During these years, the people of Himara established close links to the Italian city states especially Naples and Venice, and later the Austrohungarian Empire which controlled Corfu and the other Ionian Islands. In a letter to the Austrian emperor in 1712 from the local leaders of Himara they ask him to accept their region as part of the Austro-hungarian empire, for they long to be citizens of a "real" state, and they'd gladly accept the sovreignity of any other monarch of Europe but they'd never accept to be ruled by the hated moslem turk.
In 1799 the region was anexed by Ali Pasha of Ioanina a former Albanian bandit-thief turned ruler of most of southern Albania and Northern Greece. Some Himariotes, notably people from Qeparo and sorounding areas supported Ali and formed the elite part of his army, while the rest were against him.
The story goes that Ali ordered his soldiers to set the forest above the village of Dhermi on fire. Many Himariotes from the parts that opposed Ali Pasha migrated at this time only to return after Himara had regained its independence.
Ali Pasha's rule over Himara lasted about 20 years, until the time that he was murdered by the Turks in his castle of Ioanina, after which point the Ottoman Empire again recognized and accepted the special status that Himara had enjoyed for centuries in its relations with the Porte and had the agreement imprinted in Bronze tablets at the request of Himariote leaders who wanted the laws (venomet) defining its relation towards the ottomans, printed on a durable medium so as to stress on their importance.
These laws (or venomet) as initially set forth by Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Lawgiver , included such rights as:
- 1. The Himariotes were exempt from all taxes levied upon other residents of epirus.
- 2. They had the right to sail into any ottoman port under their own flag.
- 3. The right to carry guns while traveling in turkish controlled territorry
etc...
In 1822-1833 the Himariotes played an important role in the Greek war of Independence, fighting in several major battles including the decisive battle of Messolongio. According to the book of History of Albania, the Suliotes, that were the major contributors to the Greek war of Independence, were also migrated Himariotes. The first prime minister of Greece after Indipendence was a Suliot by the name of Kico Xhavella . At that time Lord Byron wrote the famous verses :
Shall the sons of Chimari who never forgive
the fault of a friend, bid an enemy life ?
Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forgo ?
What's mark is so fair as the breast of a foe ?
After the Albanian Independence in 1912, Himara was included in the new state, although in March 1914 the region was declared autonomous.
In 1927 the Protocol of Himara between the region and the Albanian state was signed, recognizing special rights and privileges for the region. 1930 marks the end of Greek language teaching in Himara.
During the First World War, the Italians using the Austro-Hungarian war prisoners, build the road that connects Vlora and the region along the "faieo" reducing the isolation of Himara from the rest of the country.
In Albanian history, Himara occupies a special place and to this very day nurtures a unique identity from the rest of the country. However the region suffered greatly during the isolationist and ksenophobic rule of the Communists after the Second World War, and became some sort of backwater of economic development forcing many himariotes to migrate again to other parts of Albania in search of a better life. During this time Himara was as a tourist retreat and an orange and olive producing region.
After the fall of communism in 1992, the people of Himara emigrated in very large numbers especially to Greece. This left many villages into ghost towns inhabited mostly by old people. People would return however, especially during the months of summer. In the last years, after the anarchy of 1997, some people have returned. The main industry that sustains the region is tourism.
Edward Lear that visited practically the major part of Albania in 1848, wrote about Himara: " the civilization of this part of Albania seems indeed beyond what I have seen. "
This was due in part to the contant migrations and contact with the western world that the region enjoyed for centuries. In 1848 even the village of Dhermi had two doctors graduated in Athens and Vienna, more than several large cities in Albania. Today there is a very large Himariot diaspora around the world. Emigration, especially to Greece, Italy, US, Australia, France has been common through centuries. This was also a source of tragedies and disillusions. Petro Marko a writer born in Dhermi , describes this wound :
It's said that the big stones below are the men that had returned back and had died here. While the men that had left and died abroad are transformed in clouds. They come, shed tears and leave. And the big stones, near the shore, collect their tears as the rain is collected.
Language
Himara is a multilingual society, you'd not find a himatiote who speaks less than two different languages fluently. The villages of Dhermi , Palase and the town of Himara use Albanian as their first language, while the rest (Vuno , Shen Vasil , Qeparo , Ilias and Pilur ) use the Greek language.
Other languages are spoken as well especially Italian, French and English.
Religion
Himariotes are Orthodox Christian and Muslims. Orthodox Christianity has been particularly strong in this region compared to the rest of Laberia where people do not practice any religion in particular.
Culture
Himariotes are a culturally homogenous people. While some of them may speak Greek at home and others Albanian, the cultural aspects of their life are pretty much the same throughout. For example upon somebody's death, people who had known the deceased compose mourning songs or balads (called vaie) which summarize the legacy that the dead person leaves among those still alive. These (vaie) are always recited in the Albanian language throughout the region of Himara, and closely resemble the (vaie) of the greater region of Laberia .
Based on this fact the argument has been made that the Greek language in several parts of Himara has been brought in recently, thus not being able to replace older cultural traditions. There are others who reject this theory however, bringing about examples of other people who use a different language in cultural events from the one they use in day to day life.
These arguments about the cultural heritage and nationality of the Himariotes are a new fenomenon, especially this last century due to certain political interests.
Last updated: 05-28-2005 11:14:15
