Laimos
Laimos is a village in the Florina Regional Unit in West Macedonia, Greece. It is the seat of the Prespes Municipality.History
The village was originally known as Rampi or Saouftsi. Its modern name Laimos means 'neck' in Greek and is likely a reference to its position by a narrow promontory separating Small Prespa Lake from Great Prespa Lake.
Under Ottoman rule it had a mixed population of Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians and Turks. Laimos was heavily damaged during the Ilinden Uprising and the First Balkan War. Following the Greek-Turkish population exchange, the Muslim population left and was replaced by Pontic Greek refugees from Turkey. The village was again damaged during the World War Two German occupation and subsequent Greek Civil War. After the Greek Civil War, many inhabitants moved to Yugoslavia and other communist Eastern European countries. Some Vlach families from Epirus were subsequently settled in the village by the Greek state.
The village is crossed by the Paliorema river which empties into Great Prespa Lake. Until the 1960s, there was a border crossing with the Yugoslavian village of Dolno Dupeni. The border crossing was closed by the Greek military junta for political reasons. As a result of the Prespa Agreement between Greece and North Macedonia, the border crossing is scheduled to reopen in 2021.
