Melas, Kastoria

Melas (Greek: Μελάς) is a mountainous village in the regional unit of Kastoria, Western Macedonia, Greece. It belongs to the municipality of Kastoria and specifically to the municipal unit of Korestia. The name of the village was changed to Melas, after the Greek fighter (Makedonomachos) Pavlos Melas who lost his life there.[1] The previous name of the village was Statista[2] (or Stathista or Agios Efstathios due to the homonymous Orthodox church of Agios Efstathios). A museum dedicated to Pavlos Melas and the Greek struggle for Macedonia now operates in the village.[3]

Pavlos Melas Museum External View

History

In 1873, the village was recorded as having 60 households with 180 male Slavic-speaking inhabitants.[4]

On October 12, 1904, Pavlos Melas and his group headed to Statista (modern-day Melas), then a majority Slavic-speaking village. In the village, the native collaborator of Melas, Dinas Stergiou (Greek: Ντίνας Στεργίου) divided the men of the group into five houses. In the village, however, there was an organized Bulgarian army, a member of which alerted the Ottoman army to the presence of the Greek army. On October 13, the village was surrounded by an Ottoman detachment of 150 men and a fighting broke out. The dawn of the next day would find Pavlos Melas dead under an unspecified area.[5][6]

See also

References
  1. "Ο Μακεδονικός Αγώνας (μέρος 4ο) : Πανόραμα μαχών και αγωνιστών (χάρτες και πίνακες)". Ιστορικά Καστοριάς | History of Kastoria. 2011-10-17. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  2. "Πανδέκτης: Statista -- Melas". pandektis.ekt.gr. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  3. "Museum of Pavlos Melas". www.digitalkastoria.gr. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  4. „Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г.“ Македонски научен институт, София, 1995. стр. 108-109.
  5. "Σαν σήμερα το 1904 πέφτει νεκρός στην τότε Στάτιστα ο Παύλος Μελάς πρωτεργάτης της απελευθέρωσης της Μακεδονίας!". OlaDeka (in Greek). 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  6. "115 χρόνια μετά... Παύλος Μελάς..." Ορθοδοξία News Agency (in Greek). 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2021-08-14.

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