Vitsa

Vitsa (

The establishment of the village of Vitsa is referred to in other documents from 1321 to 1361, under the name of Vezitsa. Some buildings from Byzantine times are still preserved. The village is divided by a chasm in two districts that were once different villages called Ano Vitsa and Kato Vitsa (Upper and Lower Vitsa).^[2] These two villages were always considered, along with Monodendri, as more or less one village, due to their small distance.

After 1430, when the

Orthodox Albanians, locally called "Arvanites", have settled the village after the 15th century and were later assimilated into the local population. Sarakatsani have settled at the beginning of the 20th century.^[3]

Vitsa became a cultural center for the Zagori region and was the birthplace of people such as the Sarros family (among them politicians and engineers involved at the Suez Canal works in the 19th century) and Nikolaidis (man of literature).

Since the 17th century and until

• Matthaios Paranikas (1832-1914), scholar, writer and teacher
• Dimitrios Sarros (1869/70-1937), scholar, writer, soldier and teacher

Bibliography

• Kahl, Thede (1999). "Die Zagóri-Dörfer in Nordgriechenland: Wirtschaftliche Einheit – ethnische Vielfalt". Ethnologia Balkanica. 3.

References