Mesopotam

Mesopotam ( Albanian: Mesopotami ) is a district belonging to Delvina rural municipality in southern Albania. The small town is located five kilometers south of Delvina near the road from Gjirokaster to Saranda on the river Bistrica and only about a dozen kilometers away from the coast of the Ionian Sea.

Geography and inhabitants

Besides the administrative center Mesopotam includes the villages of Bistrica, Velahova, Brajlar, Sirkat and Livina to 110 km ² large municipality. This has 2786 inhabitants ( 2011 census ). The local authorities, however, go out of around 5200 inhabitants. Many of the predominantly Orthodox residents of Mesopotam belong to the Greek-speaking minority in Albania. Only agriculture offers residents some local jobs. Therefore, the migration is high for more than a decade. Many people from Mesopotam also hire themselves legally or illegally as seasonal workers in the near Greece.

The town's name is of Greek origin and means between the rivers. This is an allusion to the former convent of St. Nicholas, which was on a hill between two arms of the Bistrica.

History

The area of Mesopotam was inhabited in ancient times and was part of the territory of the town Phoinike. Still visible is the part of an aqueduct from the time of Emperor Justinian. From Mesopotam from the water of the Bistrica was led by Phoinike.

In the 13th century, when some a large monastery church was built outside the village, the area was under angevinischer rule. In the 14th century the local nobility Zenebishi and Shpata fought for the possession of the place. To 1415, the Ottomans established their rule over the south of Albania. Unlike the nearby Delvina, which was soon to Islam, remained in Mesopotam Orthodox Christians in the majority.

St. Nicholas Church

The the hl. Nicholas (Albanian: Holy Evangelist cols ) monastery church, dedicated with dimensions from eleven to 19 meters, the largest Byzantine church in the country. Some historians assume that in its place a Christian church has been available in the early Middle Ages. From the monastery, the church, remains of the outer walls of the monastery and a fortified tower are preserved today only. The structural fabric of the church and wall systems are dated to the 13th century. For the construction of the church stones were reused from antique buildings. The architectural decoration - including reliefs of plants, animals and mythical creatures - indicates Southern Italian influence that it actually existed at that time in the area.

The building originally had a different look: So the church had two equal-sized vestibules and a porch that surrounded them on three sides. 1793 and 1845 the building was damaged by earthquakes. After the first quake new columns in the interior and on the south wall had to be built. The east wall was rebuilt with a single apse. The frescoes are still visible today date from this period. After the second quake large parts of the north wall had to be replaced.