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Flórina Φλώρινα
Settlement
View of the plain and the town of Florina
Country	Greece
Administrative region	West Macedonia
Government
• Mayor	Stephanos Papanastasiou
Area
• Total	150.6 km (58.1 sq mi)
Elevation	663 m (2,175 ft)
Population
• Total	16,771
• Density	110/km (290/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code	531 00
Area code(s)	23850
Vehicle registration	ΡΑ
Website	www.cityoflorina.gr

Flórina (Template:Lang-el), is a town in mountainous northwestern Macedonia, Greece and its motto is, 'Where Greece begins'. It lies in the central part of Florina Prefecture, of which it is the capital. Florina belongs to the periphery of West Macedonia. The town's population is 16,771 people (2001 census). It is in a wooded valley about 13 km south of the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Geography

It is located east of Korçë, Albania and Lake Prespa, south of Bitola, FYR Macedonia, west of Edessa, northwest of Kozani, and northeast of Ioannina and Kastoria. The nearest airport is situated to the east. The mountains of Verno is to the southwest and Varnous to the northwest.

Florina is passed by GR-2 (Lake Prespa - Edessa) and GR-3/E65 (Kozani - Florina - Niki - Bitola). The historic Via Egnatia is situated to the east. The new GR-3 superhighway will run east of Florina.

Name

The city's original Byzantine name, Χλέρινον (Chlerinon, "full of green vegetation"), derives from the Greek word χλωρός (chlorós, "fresh" or "green vegetation"). The name was sometimes latinicized as Florinon (from latin Flora, "vegetation"), and this form became the Turkish standard after the 17th century. The local Slavic name for the city (Lerin, Лерин) is a borrowing of the word Chlerinon from Greek, with the loss of the initial /h/ in the dialect (cf. Slavic Macedonian leb "bread" vs. Serbian hleb).

History

The town is first mentioned in 1334, when the Serbian king Stefan Dušan established a certain Sphrantzes Palaeologus as commander of the fortress of Chlerenon. The town fell to the Ottoman Empire in the late 14th century.

The demographic composition of the area the 19th and early 20th centuries is unclear as many factors contributed to the ethnic orientation of the people; out of these religion was particularly important thus giving rise to a proselytism struggle between the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Bulgarian Exarchate (established in 1870). In 1886, 78.4% of the Christian population of the Florina kaza (province) was aligned with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and 21.6% with the Bulgarian Exarchate, however by 1900 the Patriarchatists had dropped to 50.9% and Exarchatists had risen to 49.1%. The actual Greek-speaking element in this area was concentrated in urban centres where it participated in the religious, administrative, social, and educational sectors of life, this presenting to the outside world a "Greek-like" picture of the area.

In the late 19th century, it became a major centre of Slavic agitation for independence from the Ottoman Empire, but in 1912 it became part of Greece following the First Balkan War. Before Greek administration, it was part of Manastır vilayet in Ottoman Empire. The town was contested again during the Second Balkan War, World War I, and World War II, during each of which it was occupied by Bulgaria.

Economy

Florina is a market town with an economy dominated by cross-border trading and the sale of local produce (especially grain, grapes, and vegetables). It also has textile mills and is known for locally manufactured leather handicrafts. It also has a University that has recently changed from being a branch of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, to a part of the University of Western Macedonia.

Landmarks

• Florina Archaeological Museum,
• Florina Byzantine Museum,
• Florina Museum of Modern Art,

Communications

Radio

• ERA Florinas - an ERA affiliate,
• website
• http://www.kanali3.gr/
• http://www.radioflorina.gr/
• http://www.e-radio.gr/

Villages and Subdivisions

• Nymfaio (Νυμφαίο)
• Drosopigi, Florina (Δροσοπηγή)
• Armenochori (Αρμενοχώρι)
• Koryfi (Κορυφή)
• Mesonissi (Μεσονήσι)
• Proti (Πρώτη)
• Skopia (Σκοπιά)
• Trivouni (Τρίβουνο, 2005 pop: 10)
  • village (2001 pop: 5)
  • Kalogeritsa (Καλογερίτσα, 2001 pop: 5)
• Kratero (Κρατερό, 1991 pop: 208)

Notable persons

• Augoustinos Kantiotes - Metropolitan of Florina.
• Necati Cumalı - Turkish novelist, short-story writer and poet

Historical population

References

• The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004
• Encyclopædia Britannica, 2005
• The Penguin Encyclopedia of Places, 1999
• Rough Guide to Greece, Mark Ellingham et al, 2000

1. De Facto Population of Greece Population and Housing Census of March 18th, 2001 (PDF 39 MB). National Statistical Service of Greece. 2003.
2. Florina official website.
3. Kravari, Vassiliki (1989). Ville et viillages de Macedoine occidentale. Realites byzantines (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Editions P. Lethielleux. pp. 247–248. ISBN 2283604524.
4. ^ Richard Clogg, Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society, pp 123-124

External links

• City of Florina Template:Gr icon
• Florina Prefecture Template:Gr icon
• Presentation of Florina - TEI of Pireas

Template:Florina

v t e   Prefectural capitals of Greece

Agios Nikolaos Alexandroupoli Amfissa Argostoli Arta Athens Chalcis Chania Chios Corfu Corinth Drama Edessa Ermoupoli Florina Grevena Heraklion Igoumenitsa Ioannina Kalamata Karditsa Karpenisi Kastoria Katerini Kavala Kilkis Komotini Kozani Lamia Larissa Lefkada Livadeia Missolonghi Mytilene Nafplion Pallini Patras Piraeus Polygyros Preveza Pyrgos Rethymno Rhodes Serres Sparta Thessaloniki Trikala Tripoli Vathy Veria Volos Xanthi Zakynthos

• Cities and towns in Greece
• Greek prefectural capitals
• Florina