Lin
Village
Lin is located in Albania
Lin
Lin
Coordinates: 41°3′58″N 20°38′19″E / 41.06611°N 20.63861°E / 41.06611; 20.63861
Country Albania
CountyKorçë
MunicipalityPogradec
Municipal unitUdënisht
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)

Lin (Albanian definite form: Lini, Macedonian: Лин) is a village in the former Udënisht Municipality in Korçë County, Albania.[1] At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Pogradec.[2]

Geography

Late Antique mosaics found in Lin
Remains of the Basilica

Lin is situated on a small peninsula on Lake Ohrid, just south of the Qafë Thanë mountain pass, which is a border-crossing point between Albania and North Macedonia.[3] Pogradec is roughly 22 km to the south of the village, while Struga is about 10 km north, along the lake shore. Radožda is the nearest settlement on the opposite side of the border.

History

The Lin area has been inhabited since at least Prehistory. New archeological findings indicate Lin to date back to being 8500 years old, meaning as old as at least 6000 BC. This makes Lin the oldest inhabited settlement in Europe.[4][5] Archaeological findings from the hilltop above the present-day village include foundation walls and mosaics of an early Christian Byzantine church, dating from the 6th century.[6] The church is a Cultural Monument of Albania[7] and is included within the possible UNESCO site of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region (Albania).[8][9]

In 1873, the village was recorded as having 65 households with 90 male Bulgarian Orthodox Christians and 62 male Muslims.[10] In 1900, Vasil Kanchov traveled throughout the region, and he would report that Lin was a mixed village split equally between 300 Bulgarians Christians and 300 Albanian Muslims.[11]

Demographics

The Albanian Tosk dialect is spoken in the area. Lin is the only place in Albania where the Vevčani-Radožda dialect of Macedonian is spoken by Macedonians.[12] The other three villages in which this dialect is spoken are in North Macedonia.

During the 2000s linguists Klaus Steinke and Xhelal Ylli seeking to corroborate villages cited in past literature as being Slavic speaking carried out fieldwork.[13] Lin was noted as being a mixed village of Orthodox Christians and Muslims having 1680 inhabitants and 296 families.[13] Local Lin villagers stated that few families still speak Macedonian, such as in instances of marriage with women from neighbouring Radožda in North Macedonia, however, Macedonian overall is not used by the third generation.[13]

Photos

References

  1. ↑ "Location of Lin". Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF) (in Albanian). pp. 6372–6373. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  3. ↑ Location of Qafa e Thanës
  4. ↑ "The University of Bern officially confirms: Lini in Pogradec, the oldest settlement in Europe". Vox News. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  5. ↑ "Lin's Pile Dwelling Settlement Confirmed Oldests in Europe • IIA". invest-in-albania.org. 2023-07-19. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  6. ↑ "Le patrimoine culturel dans le Sud-Est européen: Albanie. Rapport de mission 26 avril – 7 mai 2004" (PDF) (in French). UNESCO. Retrieved 2013-12-01. – S. 93 f.; PDF-Datei, 3,50 MB
  7. ↑ "Religious buildings with the "Culture Monument" status". Republic of Albania National Committee for Cult. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region". UNESCO. Retrieved 6 July 2013. Date of Submission: 05/09/2011. Submitted by: Permanent Delegation of Albania to UNESCO.
  9. ↑ "Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region". Retrieved 8 July 2013. The existence in this region of the ruins of the paleochristian church of Lin together with its exceptionally beautiful floor mosaics reveals the presence of Christianity as well as the importance of this area in the period.
  10. ↑ „Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г.“ Македонски научен институт, София, 1995. стр. 104-105.
  11. ↑ Vasil Kanchov (1901). Macedonia: Ethnography and Statistics-- Ohrid kaza, p. 254.. Accessed 4 July 2017
  12. ↑ Hendricks, P. "The Radozda-Vevcani Dialect of Macedonian". Peter De Ridder Press, 1976, p. 3.
  13. 1 2 3 Steinke, Klaus; Ylli, Xhelal (2007). Die slavischen Minderheiten in Albanien (SMA): Prespa - Vërnik - Boboshtica. Munich: Verlag Otto Sagner. p. 19. ISBN 9783866880351. "Im nördlich von Pogradec unmittelbar am Ochridsee gelegenen Dorf Lin, mit 1680 Einwohnem (296 Familien), leben Orthodoxe und Moslems. Nach den Angaben des Ortsvorstehers Avdullari und denen anderer Informanten spricht man nur noch in wenigen Familien Makedonisch, d.h. wenn dort eine Frau aus dem makedonischen Nachbarort Radožda eingeheiratet hat. Aber auch in diesem Fall wird Makedonisch bereits von der dritten Generation nicht mehr benutzt. Von den aus Radožda zugezogenen Sprecherinnen wurden einige Sprachaufnahmen gemacht, die im Anhang zu finden sind."
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