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Nevesca
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Place
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evesca (Nymfaio) is a mountain village in the municipality Amyntaio in Florina regional unit in Greece. Local traditions relate that Nymfaio was established by the Vlach inhabitants of a settlement named Iordana, near Lake Zazari and Lake Himaditida. Pressure from the Ottomans forced the inhabitants of this lowland settlement to seek a safer location on mount Vitsi, where they establishd a new settlement named Niviasta. The relocation may have been connected with, or precipitated by, the mass arrival of Konyar Turks in the low lands of what is now Ptolemaida. The first mention of the village, under the name Nevesca, is in the Ottoman defter (census for nahie Florina) from 1481, where 6 families are registered. Judging by some of the names of the registered villagers (like Gon or Arnaut) it is possible that at least some of the inhabitants in 1481 were Albanian. In the Ottoman defter for Florina in 1626-1627, Nevesca is a village with 94 families. Around 1630, the village became a center of silversmithing. Before the exoduses of the Vlachs from Gramos and Moscopole around 1769, Nevesca was already predominantly Vlach. In the 19 century it is a flourishing Vlach village. In 1900 Vassil Kanchov registers 2,300 inhabitants in Nevesca, all of them Vlachs. Between 1693-1695 orders were sent to the kadis in Kastoria, Florina, Ostrovo, Bitola, Bihlishte and Prespa, who are informed that 80 bandits attacked the home of Aliya in Yasikoy near Komotini in Western Thrace, and they are ordered to catch the bandits. The bandits, around 80, attacked the house of Aliya in Yesikoy, they killed his father Hasan, his brother Hussein and a female slave, robbing 4,000 golden coins, 33 bags full of silver coins and other stuff. The bandits were led by certain Ioan Karakash Papazoglou from Nymphaio. The others in the band came from Kleisoura, Nymphaio and Pisoder. By January 25, 1695, the authorities arrested 5 of these bandits, while the others were hiding in Nikolitsa, Nymphaio, Kleisoura and Gramatikovo. Considering that a century later all named villages were predominantly Vlach, it is probable that the band that made the above mentioned attack was consisted of Vlach bandits.
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