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Gramos
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Place
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Gramos is a remote mountain village in the municipality Nestorio (Kastoria regional unit of Macedonia, Greece). Mount Gramos, where the village of Gramos is situated, was the starting point from which a large and mainly pastoral and nomadic Vlach population ventured forth and dispersed over almost the entire central Balkan peninsula. The origins of most of the modern Grammoustians lie in the area around Mount Gramos, and more particularly the settlement of Gramos, which was once the center of quite a considerable group of Vlach settlements. The Vlach villages on Gramos flourished and declined in the course of the eighteenth century, but we cannot be certain precisely when the right conditions that gave birth to them arose. There were most probably large groups of Vlachs on the slopes of Mount Gramos as early as the tenth century, long before the Ottomans appeared, and we cannot rule out the possibility that they were there even earlier. The Vlachs who lived on the slopes of Gramos must have been part of a more widespread Vlach population which in 1020 was incorporated into the “bishopric of Breanyte, or of the Vlachs”, which was part of the archbishopric of Ohrid. Pouqueville seems to include the Vlachs of Gramos among the Dassaritae or Mesaritae. The existence of notable 16th century churches on the now abandoned sites of Vlach villages on Gramos, as also of older churches, bear witness to the presence of a considerable population on Gramos in the period before and after the Ottoman conquest. We cannot be certain that all the people who gathered in the Vlach villages on Gramos at that time were Vlachs. What is certain is that by the 17th century the Vlachs were in the majority there, and we know this because when these settlements were destroyed towards the end of the 18th century, the villages produced waves of Vlach refugees. In regards to the village of Gramos, which is sometimes regarded as a small town, it was established when a number of smaller settlements and katuns merged in the little valley where river Aliakmonas rises. In its final ekistic form, before the first great assault and collapse between 1760 and 1770, Gramos had three large districts, which were known by the names of their first or most important settlers. In the 16th century two of the districts were called Mina and Mici, while the name of the third district is unknown. Later the districts were named: The district of Hadzisteryiou, the district of Patsioura and the district of Pissiota. It is reported that in its heydays Gramos had 5000 two-storey houses, but this figure seems improbable. The booming economy of the village led to overpopulation, in terms of both livestock and people. This meant that the surplus population had to look for living space. Thus, in the 17 and 18 century, in what was a gradual process which culminated with the conflict between the Vlachd and the Arnauts in the 1760s, the Grammoustians dispersed over the entire central Balkan, where they colonized or established many villages and hut settlements, and in the early 19th century there were very few people left in Gramos. The Register for citizens in nahie Chroupichta, part of the Grand Register of Pasha Sanjak, was composed in 1568/69. The Register refer to the male citizens of Mahalle (District?) (the name of this district is unreadable in the original document) in the village of Gramos. In total, this neighbourhood had 106 male heads of families and 42 unmarried men, whose names are registered in the Census. Pages 142b and 143a of the same Register refer to the male citizens of Mahalle (District) Mici in the village of Gramos. In total, this neighbourhood had 63 male heads of families and 44 unmarried men, whose names are registered in the Census. Pages 143a, 143b and 144a of the same Register refer to the male citizens of Mahalle (District) Mina in the village of Gramos. In total, this neighbourhood had 112 male heads of families and 84 unmarried men, whose names are registered in the Census.
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