Moschopolis - Revision history

Irlandos at 13:32, July 23, 2006

2006-07-23T13:32:49Z

Irlandos at 13:32, July 23, 2006

2006-07-23T13:32:36Z

Irlandos at 13:31, July 23, 2006

2006-07-23T13:31:42Z

Lazarus at 12:44, November 24, 2005

2005-11-24T12:44:11Z

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'''Moschopolis''', known in Albanian as Voskopoja and in Aromanian as Moscopole, is now a remote village of some seven hundred inhabitants high in the mountains twenty kilometers west of Korca in southeastern Albania. In the eighteenth century, however, '''Moschopolis''' was a large and flourishing centre of trade and urban culture. At its zenith, before the city was pillaged for the first time in 1769, it is said to have had a population of ca. 20,000-50,000, greater than [[Athens]], Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 24 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, a centre of learning known as the 'New Academy' or Hellenikon Frontisterion founded in [[1744]], and the only Greek printing press in the Balkans, which, published at least twenty one books.

Between [[1769]] and [[1789]] '''Moschopolis''' was pillaged several times and came to lose its vitality and significance as a commercial centre on the trading route between [[Constantinople]] and Venice. It was finally destroyed in [[1916]] in fighting during the [[First World War]] and, with the exception of four or five beautiful Orthodox churches, the historical buildings which did survive were tragically razed in partisan warfare during the [[Second World War]].

On [[August 11|11 August]] [[1996]], Voskopoja made national headlines in what is perhaps the last episode of its downfall, when three Albanian adolescents, aged 16-18, all of them educated by (non-Albanian) Islamic extremists, broke into the Church of St. Michael's (1722-1725). The boys, on holiday there at a summer camp, took knives to the eighteenth-century frescos and, in true centuries-old Balkan tradition, scarred the faces and scratched out the eyes of twenty-three serene Orthodox saints. This act of cultural barbarism shocked and dismayed the Albanian public, which had up to then believed that such religious intolerance was a thing of the past.

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:32, July 23, 2006
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−	'''Moschopolis''', known in Albanian as Voskopoja and in Aromanian as Moscopole, is now a remote village of some seven hundred inhabitants high in the mountains twenty kilometers west of [[Korytsa]] in southeastern Albania ("[[Northern Epirus]]". In the eighteenth century, however, '''Moschopolis''' was a large and flourishing centre of trade and urban culture. At its zenith, before the city was pillaged for the first time in 1769, it is said to have had a population of ca. 20,000-50,000, greater than [[Athens]], Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 24 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, a centre of learning known as the 'New Academy' or Hellenikon Frontisterion founded in [[1744]], and the only Greek printing press in the Balkans, which, published at least twenty one books.	+	'''Moschopolis''', known in Albanian as Voskopoja and in Aromanian as Moscopole, is now a remote village of some seven hundred inhabitants high in the mountains twenty kilometers west of [[Korytsa]] in southeastern Albania ("[[Northern Epirus]]"). In the eighteenth century, however, '''Moschopolis''' was a large and flourishing centre of trade and urban culture. At its zenith, before the city was pillaged for the first time in 1769, it is said to have had a population of ca. 20,000-50,000, greater than [[Athens]], Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 24 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, a centre of learning known as the 'New Academy' or Hellenikon Frontisterion founded in [[1744]], and the only Greek printing press in the Balkans, which, published at least twenty one books.

	Between [[1769]] and [[1789]] '''Moschopolis''' was pillaged several times and came to lose its vitality and significance as a commercial centre on the trading route between [[Constantinople]] and Venice. It was finally destroyed in [[1916]] in fighting during the [[First World War]] and, with the exception of four or five beautiful Orthodox churches, the historical buildings which did survive were tragically razed in partisan warfare during the [[Second World War]].		Between [[1769]] and [[1789]] '''Moschopolis''' was pillaged several times and came to lose its vitality and significance as a commercial centre on the trading route between [[Constantinople]] and Venice. It was finally destroyed in [[1916]] in fighting during the [[First World War]] and, with the exception of four or five beautiful Orthodox churches, the historical buildings which did survive were tragically razed in partisan warfare during the [[Second World War]].

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-'''Moschopolis''', known in Albanian as Voskopoja and in Aromanian as Moscopole, is now a remote village of some seven hundred inhabitants high in the mountains twenty kilometers west of [[Korytsa]] in southeastern Albania. In the eighteenth century, however, '''Moschopolis''' was a large and flourishing centre of trade and urban culture. At its zenith, before the city was pillaged for the first time in 1769, it is said to have had a population of ca. 20,000-50,000, greater than [[Athens]], Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 24 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, a centre of learning known as the 'New Academy' or Hellenikon Frontisterion founded in [[1744]], and the only Greek printing press in the Balkans, which, published at least twenty one books.
+'''Moschopolis''', known in Albanian as Voskopoja and in Aromanian as Moscopole, is now a remote village of some seven hundred inhabitants high in the mountains twenty kilometers west of [[Korytsa]] in southeastern Albania ("[[Northern Epirus]]". In the eighteenth century, however, '''Moschopolis''' was a large and flourishing centre of trade and urban culture. At its zenith, before the city was pillaged for the first time in 1769, it is said to have had a population of ca. 20,000-50,000, greater than [[Athens]], Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 24 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, a centre of learning known as the 'New Academy' or Hellenikon Frontisterion founded in [[1744]], and the only Greek printing press in the Balkans, which, published at least twenty one books.
 Between [[1769]] and [[1789]] '''Moschopolis''' was pillaged several times and came to lose its vitality and significance as a commercial centre on the trading route between [[Constantinople]] and Venice. It was finally destroyed in [[1916]] in fighting during the [[First World War]] and, with the exception of four or five beautiful Orthodox churches, the historical buildings which did survive were tragically razed in partisan warfare during the [[Second World War]].
 On [[August 11|11 August]] [[1996]], Moscopolis made national headlines in what is perhaps the last episode of its downfall, when three Albanian adolescents, aged 16-18, all of them educated by (non-Albanian) Islamic extremists, broke into the Church of St. Michael's (1722-1725). The boys, on holiday there at a summer camp, took knives to the eighteenth-century frescos and, in true centuries-old Balkan tradition, scarred the faces and scratched out the eyes of twenty-three serene Orthodox saints. This act of cultural barbarism shocked and dismayed the Albanian public, which had up to then believed that such religious intolerance was a thing of the past.