Florina (, Flórina; known also by some alternative names) is a town and municipality in Western Macedonia, Greece. It is the capital of the Florina regional unit and also the seat of the eponymous municipality. The town's population is 17,188 people (2021 census). It is in a wooded valley about south of the international border of Greece with North Macedonia.
Geography
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 of the Great Depression.
The main roads passing through the municipality include: the A27 motorway, which opened in 2015; and the EO2, EO3 and Ptolemaida–Florina national roads. The historic Via Egnatia is situated to the east.
Climate 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 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 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. 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 low temperatures and the intense snowfall that prevailed for days.
Name In the Byzantine period the town was named Chlorion or Chlerino. The first reference to the town as Chlerino is by historian John Kantakouzenos writing in the 14th century. The city's Byzantine name, (Chlérinon, "full of green vegetation"), derives from the Greek word (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] () is a local dialect form of 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 characteristic of the local dialect.
The toponym under Ottoman rule was rendered as Filorina or Folorina, as in the Turkish language the consonants f and h were written the same way. The name over time became Florina. Alternative origins have been given of the form Florina. The Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek Oikonyms derives the term Florina from the Albanian word Vlorine, a place resembling the formation of a valley referring to a type of depression located between hills.. Simantiras derives Florina from Florin, later becoming Floris, meaning the city built on a hill. The town is known as Lerin (Cyrillic: Лерин) in Bulgarian and Macedonian, Hlernu or Hleru in Aromanian, "In Florina prefecture, there are Vlach settlements in the towns of Florina (Xlérnu/Xléru)" Filorina in Turkish and Follorinë in Albanian.
The motto of Florina is 'Where Greece begins'.
Municipality
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: Florina Kato Kleines Meliti Perasma
The municipality has an area of 819.698 km2, and the municipal unit 150.634 km2.
Municipal Unit subdivisions The municipal unit of Florina is further divided into the following communities: Alona Armenochori Florina Koryfi Mesonisi Proti Skopia Trivouno
History Lynkestis of Upper Macedonia was situated east of lake Pespa. According to N. G. L. Hammond, Lyncestae in the region of Florina were an Epirotic tribe and talked the Northwest Greek dialect. The ancient settlement of Melitonus was located in the area of Florina.
Within the boundaries of the present-day city lie the remains of a Hellenistic era settlement on the hill of Agios Panteleimon.Maria Akamati-Lilibati & Ioannis M. Akamatis, The Hellenistic City of Florina. Ministry of Culture (Greece), 2006. p53ff 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. It is first mentioned in 1334, when the Serbian king Stefan Dušan established a certain Sphrantzes Palaeologus as commander of the fortress of Chlerenon.. By 1385, Florina had fallen to the Ottomans.., n. 178. In the early period of Ottoman rule, Florina was a Christian town with a partially fortified Ottoman garrison. An Ottoman defter (cadastral tax census) for the year 1481 records a settlement of 243 households.
The Muslim community existed for five centuries in Florina and they constructed various public and religious buildings. Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi passed through Florina in the seventeenth century. He wrote Florina consisted of six neighbourhoods and had 1500 homes, one tekke, several mosques, madrasas and mektebs, two bathhouses and two inns.. At the time, some of these buildings were newly constructed or churches which had been converted.. 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. Several attacks by Bulgarians and Muslim Albanians occurred between the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1823 the Ottomans destroyed the anchorages of churches and Muslim Albanians pillaged Florina, due to the Greek War of Independence.
Florina in the late Ottoman period was composed of several neighbourhoods with most inhabited by a particular ethno–religious group and a few being mixed. Names of neighbourhoods varied, some based on occupations, ethnic or religious communities such as Armenian, Arnaut, the Dervish lodge, territorial markers or individual names and others.. The river and its neighbourhood Varosi formed the centre of Florina and was exclusively populated by Muslims, later from the 1840s onward Christian families also lived there. In the 1850s, new churches were constructed. A church on the outskirts of Florina was used by the Greeks. The town's Bulgarian community joined the Bulgarian Exarchate and built a church in 1889 to perform their liturgy after gaining approval from Ottoman authorities and overcoming objections from Muslims, who were supported by Greeks in Florina.
Several inhabitants from Florina participated in the Macedonian Struggle on the Greek side and included prominent leaders such as Nikolaos Pyrzas,Douglas Dakin, the Macedonian Struggle, 1985, pp 65–67 and Petros Chatzitasis.Hellenic Army General Staff, Directorate of Army History, The Macedonian Struggle and the events in Thrace, 1979, pp 115 In the late Ottoman period the area surrounding Florina supported the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) who fought against the Ottomans. 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.
In the early 20th century, Florina underwent several years of Ottoman modernisation.. The Ottomans built some European style administrative buildings. The Balkan Wars (1912–1913) brought an end to Ottoman rule when Florina and the surrounding area was taken by Greece during November 1912. Annexed by Greece, Florina became part of the Greek province of Macedonia.. The new Greek municipal authority began plans for modern urban redevelopment. In 1913 electrification was introduced to Florina and a new slaughterhouse was built.. During 1914, Primeminister Eleftherios Venizelos visited Florina and Alfredo Leguillon, a French engineer made a new street plan to redevelop the town resulting in the disruptive relocation of town inhabitants.. The Muslim mufti was exiled by Venizelists in 1914 and Christian inhabitants in the town lobbied for his return.. The conflict caused tensions between Muslims and Christians, though community relations in Florina were not severed. Throughout this period, Ali Riza Bey, a Muslim remained as mayor.
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. Their presence in the town confirmed Greek control secured in the Balkan Wars. The previous Muslim mayor had left and Tegos Sapoutzis, a Greek became the new mayor. A Town Council was formed and a constitution adopted. 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.. "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)." In Florina, the French constructed multiple railway lines and stations, a barracks, stables, cemetery, and an army hospital. During World War One until 1922, the majority of serving town council representatives were Christian and a minority Muslim..