Moscopole
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Moscopole

Moscopole or Voskopoja (Albanian: Voskopojë; Aromanian: Moscopole, with several other variants; Greek: Μοσχόπολις, romanizedMoschopolis) is a village in Korçë County in southeastern Albania. During the 18th century, it was the cultural and commercial center of the Aromanians. At its peak, in the mid 18th century, it hosted the first printing house in the Ottoman Balkans outside Constantinople, educational institutions and numerous churches. It became a leading center of Greek culture but also with elements of Albanian and Aromanian culture, all with great influence from Western civilization.

One view attributes the decline of the city to a series of raids by Muslim Albanian bandits. Moscopole was initially attacked and almost destroyed by those bandit groups in 1769 following the participation of the residents in the preparations for a Greek revolt supported by the Russian Empire. Its decline culminated with the destruction of 1788 and the flight of its population. Moscopole, once a prosperous city, was reduced to a small village by Ali Pasha of Ioannina. According to another view, the city's decline was mainly due to the relocation of the trade routes in central and eastern Europe following these raids. Today Moscopole, known as Voskopojë, is a small mountain village, and along with a few other local settlements is considered a holy place by local Orthodox Christians. It was one of the original homelands of much of the Aromanian diaspora. It has been also nicknamed as "Jerusalem of the Aromanians", "New Athens" or "Arcadia of the Balkans".

In modern times, Aromanians no longer form a majority of the population, with incoming Christian and Muslim Albanians having further settled in the village, especially after World War II. Still, Moscopole has held a key place within Aromanian nationalism, and many Aromanian writers have written about Moscopole in a mythical and utopian way, mourning the city's destruction.

The town is known as Voskopojë (definite form: Voskopoja) in Albanian. The Aromanian name of the town varies between Moscopole, Moscopoli, Muscopuli, Voscopole, Voscopoli and Voshopole. The Greek name of the town varies between Μοσχόπολις (transliterated into Moschópolis, Moscopolis, Moskopolis) and its vernacular equivalent form Μοσχόπολη (Moschópoli). The Βοσκόπολη/Βοσκόπολις (Voskópoli/Voskópolis/Voscopolis) variant is also used in various occasions in Greek. The town is called İskopol or Oskopol in Turkish and Москополе (Moskopole) in Bulgarian. It is known as Moscopole or Voscopole in Romanian.

The forms Voskopolis/Voskopoja derive from the Greek word Vosko (shepherd) which refers to one of the main professions performed by the Aromanian people. Also the suffix poja/polis from the syntagm can be either linked to the Greek word polis (city, citadel) or the Slavic polje, i.e. plain. Peyfuss strongly supports the latter interpretation, reasoning that this definition fits the configuration of the high plateau type terrain. According to Xhufi, it would be difficult to designate as a “plain” an isolated habitat at an altitude of 1,220 meters above sea level, preferring a link to the Greek word polis.

The city appears under the Albanian rendering Voskopoja in Ottoman documents from the 16th-17th centuries. In Venetian and French commercial documents, both the forms Voscopolis and Moschopolis, the latter rendering being associated with the Aromanian-speaking population, appear to be used interchangeably. In the edicts of the Patriarch of Ohrid, the city appears under the form Moschopolis. The 18th century, author Meletios Mitros uses the form Voskopolis in his work Geography. In the Codex of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, the Aromanian rendering Moschopolis is commonly found. This is possibly due to the scribe of the Codex, Michel the former bishop of Gorë, being a native of the neighboring village of Shipskë, itself inhabited historically by an Aromanian population. However, when it comes to archival documents transcribed into the Codex, such as decisions of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Ohrid or even of the meetings of the clergy of Moscopole, Michel seems to have preferred the form Voskopoja. This is also the case regarding the events of the years 1660–1687, in which in the agreements concluded between the monks of the monasteries, the notables and the archons of the three districts of the city, the name of the city is given in the form Voskopoja.

Thus, the use of the forms Voskopoja/Moschopolis is not a certain conclusion of ethnic and social belonging, as even in the part of the Codex written by the hand of the Aromanian Michel, we nevertheless find cases where he also uses the form Voskopoja. What can be said with certainty is that both forms experienced cases of interchangeable usage, which is a strong indication of a long cohabitation and a close integration of the two communities. This may indicate that, at the time, except for the religious hierarchy and the documentation it produced, the name "Voskopoja" was very common among the lay population, and even among the lower clergy. Furthermore, Albanian surnames such as Ngushta, Vrusho and Krunde are found among the signatories of the agreement mentioned above, which represented the three districts of the city, perhaps the districts inhabited mainly by Albanians.

Modern Moscopole is located 21 km from Korçë, in the mountains of southeastern Albania, at an altitude of 1160 meters, and is a subdivision of Korçë municipality; its population in 2011 was 1,058. The municipality of Moscopole consists of the villages of Moscopole, Shipskë, Krushovë, Gjonomadh and Lavdar. In 2005, the municipality had a population of 2,218, whereas the settlement itself has a population of around 500.

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