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Dendrochori
Community
Dendrochori
Coordinates: 40°34′44″N 21°4′52″E / 40.57889°N 21.08111°E / 40.57889; 21.08111
Country	Greece
Geographic region	Macedonia
Administrative region	Western Macedonia
Regional unit	Kastoria
Municipality	Kastoria
Municipal unit	Kastraki
Population
• Community	204
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Dendrochori (Greek: Δενδροχώρι, before 1926: Δέμπενη – Dempeni; Bulgarian/Macedonian: Дъмбени, Dambeni or Д’мбени, D'mbeni) is a village in Kastoria Regional Unit, Macedonia, Greece. Dendrochori is located approximately 10 km northwest of Kastoria and 6 km east of the center of the community Kastraki — the village Ieropigi. Dendrochori has 266 inhabitants (2011).

History

According to narrative history, the village was founded by immigrants from villages Berik, Ano Sliveni (Gorno Sliveni), Saynovo, Vevi (Banitsa) and Agia Paraskevi (Sveta Petka).

In the book “Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Adrianople, de Monastir et de Salonique”, published in Constantinople in 1878, that reflects the statistics of the male population in 1873, Dëmbini was noted as a village with 280 households and 800 Bulgarians as inhabitants. In the same year all of the inhabitants were Greek Orthodox and none of them had turned to the Bulgarian Exarchate. In 1886 the Greek school of Dymbeni was still operating. In 1905, all of its inhabitants turned to Bulgarian Exarchate.

Dendrochori was a Macedonian Bulgarian village of 1650 inhabitants at the beginning of the 20th century. Until 1878 the teaching in the local school was in Greek language. In 1878 Trpo Popovski from neighbour village Kosinec (Ieropigi) started to teach the local pupils the Bulgarian language. There were two Bulgarian schools in the village in the beginning of 20th century.

Subsequently, it was one of the first Slavic villages to revolt against the Ottoman Empire in the Ilinden Uprising of 1903, for which the Turkish army exacted heavy reprisals, killing many of the villagers and burning it to the ground. However a stand at the nearby Battle of Lokvata in which the villagers inflicted disproportionate casualties on a much larger Turkish force became a nationalist rallying point and served as the basis for a poem by Lazar Poptraykov.

Some people in the village sided with Bulgaria during the Balkan Wars and the First World War, but became part of Greece following the First Balkan War. From the 1930s and especially 1940s many of its citizens became active in Macedonian separatist and Communist groups, the latter due to the Communists' advocacy on behalf of equal rights for ethnic minorities.

In 1945, Greek Foreign Minister Ioannis Politis ordered the compilation of demographic data regarding the Prefecture of Kastoria. The village Dendrochori had a total of 800 inhabitants, and was populated by 780 Slavophones with a Bulgarian national consciousness. The village sided with the National Liberation Front on the Communist side during the Greek Civil War, and as a result was destroyed. Most villagers were forced into exile, later the village was rebuilt between 1957–1958 and the state repopulated it with Aromanians from Greek Epirus.

Notable people

• Lazar Poptraykov, Bulgarian Macedonian komitadji and poet

References

1. "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.
2. Institute for Neohellenic Research. "Name Changes of Settlements in Greece: Dempeni – Dendrochori". Pandektis. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
3. "Απογραφή Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2011. ΜΟΝΙΜΟΣ Πληθυσμός" (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority.
4. Дневник на костурския войвода Лазар Киселинчев, съставител Христофор Тзавелла, с. 312
5. „Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г.“ Македонски научен институт, 1995. стр. 106-107.
6. Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, published by the Endowment Washington, D.C. 1914, p. 197
7. Васил Кънчов. „Македония. Етнография и статистика“, 1900, с.265 (Kanchov, Vasil. Macedonia — ethnography and statistics Sofia, 1900, p. 265),
8. Поповски, Търпо. Македонски дневник,2006, с. 32 (Popovski, Trpo. Macedonian diary, Sofia 2006, p. 32)
9. D.M.Brancoff. "La Macedoine et sa Population Chretienne". Paris, 1905, p.180-181.
10. ^ Michailidis, Iakovos D. (2000). "On the Other Side of the River: The Defeated Slavophones and Greek History". In Cowan, Jane K. (ed.). Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference. Pluto Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780745315898.
11. Alvanos 2005, p. 518.
12. Alvanos, Raymondos (2005). Κοινωνικές συγκρούσεις και πολιτικές συμπεριφορές στην περιοχή της Καστοριάς (1922–1949) [Social conflicts and political behaviors in the area of Kastoria (1922–1949)] (Ph.D.) (in Greek). Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. p. 516. Retrieved 16 June 2024. "Δενδροχώρι, Πληθυσμός: 800, Σλαυόφωνοι: 780, Συνείδησις Βουλγαρική: ναι"
13. ^ 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. 53.

External links

• Dambeni: Gone But Not Forgotten

• Populated places in Kastoria (regional unit)
• Kastoria