Pogoniani


Pogoniani is a village and a former community in the Ioannina regional unit, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pogoni, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 56.693 km2, the community 18.830 km2. The municipal unit consists of 4 villages: Pogoniani, Dolo, Drymades, Stavroskiadi.

History

In antiquity the area of Pogoniani was inhabited by Molossians, one of the three main Ancient Greek tribes of the northwestern Greek group.
The establishment of the bishopric of Pogoniani is associated with the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Pogonatos due to the latter's nickname, but it first appears in the Notitiae Episcopatuum during the reign of Andronikos III Palaiologos. The seat of the archbishop was most likely in Depalitsa. Pogoniani fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1447.
The three-aisled Orthodox basilica of Pogoniani was erected in 1873, with donations by the local Zosimas brothers benefactors. In the late Ottoman period and until 1923, the village of Pogoniani was inhabited by Muslim Albanians alongside Orthodox Greek inhabitants. Until 1924, Muslim Albanians from the village of Pogoniani used to have close relations and exchanges with people from the town of Libohovë in Albania.
During the period prior to the First World War the British member of the International Commission that was responsible of the delineation of the Greek-Albanian border noticed that the villages that were ceded to Albania, which consist of the northern portion of Pogoniani are entirely Greek-speaking.