Himarë (; , Chimara or Χειμάρρα, Cheimarra) is a municipality and region in Vlorë County, southern Albania. The municipality has a total area of and consists of the administrative units of Himarë, Horë-Vranisht and Lukovë. It lies between the Ceraunian Mountains and the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast and is part of the Albanian Riviera. The traditionally perceived borders of the Himarë region gradually shrank during the Ottoman period, being reduced to the town of Himarë and the villages of the coastline (Bregdet in Albanian), generally including only Palasë, Dhërmi, Pilur, Kudhës, Vuno, Iljas and Qeparo.
The coastal region of Himarë is predominantly populated by an ethnic Greek community.Hammond, 1993: p. 405: "It is one of the several Greek-speaking villages in which the centre is Himare... Liaps" The local population is bilingual in Greek and Albanian.Anthropological journal on European cultures, v. 3-4, European Centre for Traditional and Regional Cultures, 1994, p. 84 The town of Himarë and the villages of Dhërmi and Palasa, which together account for the bulk of the population of the region, are primarily populated by a Greek population. The villages of Iljas, Lukovë, Kudhës, Pilur and Vuno are inhabited by an Albanian population, while Qeparo is inhabited by both ethnic Albanians and Greeks. In the 2011 census, 83% of the inhabitants of the former municipality of Horë-Vranisht declared themselves as Albanians, while the rest failed to provide a reply. In the former Lukovë municipality, the population is predominantly Albanian (94%) with a small Greek minority (6%).Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. p. 51. "Ε Έλληνες, ΑΧ Αλβανοί Ορθόδοξοι Χριστιανοί, AM Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι, ΤΣ Τσάμηδες, Β Βλάχοι, Μ Μικτός πληθυσμός”; p.53. "LUKOVE ΛΟYKΟBΟ 2076 ΑΧ + αμ (250) + ε (120); NIVICE ΝΙΒΓΓΣΑ 899 ΑΧ + ε (30); SHENVASIL Αϊ ΒΑΣΙΛΗ 1434 ΑΧ + αμ (220) + ε (210); PIQERAS ΠΙΚΙΕΡΑΣ (ΠΙΚΕΡΝΗ) 991 ΑΧ + αμ (100) + ε (50); SASAJ ΣΑΣΑΪ 297 AM; BORSH ΜΠΟΡΣΙ 1243 AM; FTERE ΦΤΕΡΑ 378 AM; ÇORAJ ΤΣΟΡΑΪ 282 ΑΧ (150) + AM (132); QAZIM PALI ΚΙΑΣΙΜ ΠΑΛΙ (νέο) 861 AM + ε (80) + αχ (50)"
Geography The Himarë region is a strip approximately 20 km long by 5 km wide, covering a total of 132.13 km2, and bounded by the 2000-metre-high Ceraunian mountains to the northeast and the Ionian Sea to the southwest. There are long pebbled beaches and the few hills close to the sea are terraced and planted with olive and citrus trees.Tourist Guide of Himarë. Bashkia e Himares. In the intro, written by Vasilis Bolanos, the then-mayor. The traditionally perceived borders of the Himarë region gradually shrank during the Ottoman period, being reduced only to the town of Himarë and the villages on the coastline (Bregdet in Albanian).
History Antiquity
In antiquity the region was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Chaonians. "Epirus was a land of milk and animal products...The social unit was a small tribe, consisting of several nomadic or semi-nomadic groups, and these tribes, of which more than seventy names are known, coalesced into large tribal coalitions, three in number: Thesprotians, Molossians and Chaonians...We know from the discovery of inscriptions that these tribes were speaking the Greek language (in a West-Greek dialect)" The Chaonians were one of the three principal Greek-speaking tribes of Epirus, along with the Thesprotians and the Molossians.Hecataeus of Miletus, Fr.103 The town of Himarë is believed to have been founded as ChimairaChimaira, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus (Χίμαιρα)An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation by Mogens Herman Hansen, 2005, p. 340 by the Chaonians as a trading outpost on the Chaonian shore. However, another theory suggests that it comes from Greek χείμαρρος (cheimarros), meaning "torrent".Cheimarros, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus An oracular lamella from the Οracle of Dodona, dated to the first half of the 4th century BCE and written in the Doric Greek dialect, has the inscription , which translates as "regarding the settlement by the inhabitants of Himarë, [they submit the question] should (or can) they settle here?".
In classical antiquity, Himarë was part of the Kingdom of Epirus under the rule of the Molossian Aeacid dynasty, which included King Pyrrhus of Epirus. When the region was conquered by the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BCE, its settlements were badly damaged and some were destroyed by the Roman General Aemilius Paulus.
Middle Ages
Himarë and the rest of the southern Balkans passed into the hands of the Byzantine EmpireBadlands, borderlands: a history of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania by Tom Winnifrith, 2002,, p. 80 following the fall of Rome, but like the rest of the region it became the frequent target of various attackers including the Goths, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, Saracens and Normans. Himarë is mentioned in Procopius of Caesarea's Buildings (544)Epirus Vetus: The Archaeology of a Late Antique Province (Duckworth Archaeology) by William Bowden, 2003,, 2003, p. 14 as Chimaeriae, being part of Old Epirus and that a new fortress was built in its location. In 614, the Slavic tribe of the Baiounetai invaded the area and controlled a region from Himarë to Margariti called "Vagenetia".
A local diocese of Cheimara () was formed as noted in a Byzantine Taktikon of the late 10th century (972-976) under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan bishopric of Nicopolis. It is unclear when Albanians and Himarë Greeks arrived in the Himarë region and when contacts between the two groups began. Nevertheless, contacts between them probably started in the 13th and 14th centuries. The use of the name "Chaonia" in reference to the region apparently died out during the 12th century, the last time it is recorded (in a Byzantine tax collection document). In 1278, Nicephorus of Epirus surrendered to the Angevins the ports of Himarë, Sopot and Butrint. As a result, Charles of Anjou controlled the Ionian coast from Himarë to Butrint. It must have returned to Byzantine rule in 1281 after the battle of Berat. In c. 1360 the Latin bishop of Chimara renounced his office and his Catholic faith and submitted to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Himarë was later ruled by Serbian Empire between 1342 and 1372. In 1372, Himarë, together with Vlora, Kanina and Berat region, was given as a dowry to Balsha II due to his marriage with Comita Muzaka, the daughter of Andrea II Muzaka. After the death of Balsha II, his widow and his daughter Rugjina Balsha (who married Mrkša Žarković) managed to keep possession of the region up to 1417 when the Ottomans captured Vlora. At the Battle of Kosovo of 1389, contemporary Greek authors list among participants Northern Albanians, those of Himarë, Epirus and the coast. Though in 14th century Byzantine control in Himarë was lost, the local bishop remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Early Ottoman period
In 1431 Himarë became a nahiye, an administrative division, of the Sanjak of Albania. It became a symbol of resistance to the Ottomans but suffered from an almost continuous state of warfare. Himariots participated in Skanderbeg's resistance against the Ottoman Empire. During Skanderbeg's rebellion and the rule of Gjergj Arianiti, Himarë was within the domains of the Principality of Arianiti between 1443 and 1462. In the summer of 1473 the chieftain John Vlasis, with a small unit from nearby Corfu and with native Himariot support, took control of the entire coastal region from Sagiada to Himarë, but when the ongoing Ottoman-Venetian war ended (1479) the region was again under Ottoman control.Sakellariou, 1997, p. 244: "In the summer of 1473 the chieftain John Vlasis and a small band of men, using Corfu as a base... while the inhabitants of Cheimara liberated many of the Greek villages." In 1481, one year after the Ottomans had landed in Otranto in southern Italy, the Himariots joined the forces of Gjon Kastrioti II (son of Skanderbeg) in his uprising against the Ottomans. The Albanian rebellion in Himarë was led by Konstantin Muzaka with aid from Krokodeilos Kladas. The uprising failed, but the Himariots rose up again in 1488, and between 1494 and 1509, destabilizing Ottoman control but failing to liberate their territory.
In 1501, Himarë was governed by its own elders, and the traditional meeting place of the region was in the locality of Spille, near the village of Qeparo; the region at this time consisted of 7 villages - Qeparo, Himarë, Vuno, Sopot (which was divided into two, Shën Vasija and Nivicë Bubari), Dhërmi, Palasë and Kudhës-Perivoli. Certain villages enjoyed more privileges than others, as they were provided with Kapedana - hereditary leaders with military roles, particularly regarding recruitment. The Spiromilio family were the hereditary holders of this position in Himarë, while the Gjika family held the title in Qeparo and the Kasneci family in Vuno. Sopot also had its own Kapedan but lost the privilege prior to the other three aforementioned villages, as was observed when Neapolitan documents relating to the king's recruitments in the region during the end of the 18th century only mentioned a lieutenant and future captain called Giovanni Spiro (Spiromilio), alongside a major by the name of Atanasio Gjika and a lieutenant called Costantino Kasneci, as well as multiple cadets. Apart from these Kapedana, the villages in the Himarë region did not have unique leaders, but rather a council made up of the heads of the local tribes or brotherhoods known as primates in relevant documents. The Albanians in southern Albania and northern Greece were not divided in fis like northern and central Albanians, but in fara or gjeri ("common thing"). Among the lineages was that of Himarë.
In 1532, Denis Possot, who travelled through the region, described Albania as divided into three parts: one ruled by the Ottomans, one ruled by the Venetians and the other ruled by the Albanians themselves. He included the Himarë region, which still included all of Labëria, among those ruled by the Albanians. He added that it could field 20,000 warriors against the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent personally mounted an expedition in 1537 that destroyed or captured many surrounding villages but did not manage to subdue the area. The Ottomans found it necessary to compromise with the inhabitants by giving them a series of privileges: local self-government, the right to bear arms, exemption from taxes, the right to sail under their own flag into any Ottoman port and to provide military service in time of war.Pappas, 1991: p. 35: "In 1537 the Ottomans mounted an expedition... the maritime privileges of Cheimarra." However, despite the privileges, the Himariots revolted during the following conflicts: Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–40), Albanian revolt of 1566–1571, Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–73), Morean War (1684–99), Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–18) and the Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th century. On the other hand, Ottoman reprisals depopulated the area and led to forced Islamizations which finally limited the area's Christian population by the 18th century to the town of Himarë and six villages.Pappas, 1991: p. 36: "Even the special privileges which they enjoyed..." In 1567, Himariots are counted among Albanians that could be rallied against the Ottoman, as they, together with other Albanians, had caused great damage to the Ottomans since 1537.