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Pyxos

Coordinates: 40°45′15″N 21°00′10″E / 40.75414°N 21.00264°E / 40.75414; 21.00264
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Pyxos
Settlement
Pyxos is located in Greece
Pyxos
Pyxos
Coordinates: 40°45′15″N 21°00′10″E / 40.75414°N 21.00264°E / 40.75414; 21.00264
CountryGreece
Administrative regionWestern Macedonia
Regional unitFlorina
MunicipalityPrespes
Municipal unitPrespes
CommunityVrontero
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)

Pyxos (Greek: Πυξός, before 1928: Ράχωβα – Rachova, also Όροβον, Orovon;[1][2] Macedonian: Орово, Orovo)[3] was a village in Florina Regional Unit, Western Macedonia, Greece. It was part of the community of Vrontero. The village was located near the Albanian border[4] and had an altitude of 1,080 m (3,540 ft).[5]

History

[edit]

The name Orovo is derived from the Slavic word orev for walnut and the suffix ovo.[3] During the Ottoman period, the village supported the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and its inhabitants participated as fighters in the Ilinden Uprising (1903).[6] The village economy was based on agriculture, involving ploughing and threshing alongside other activities such as fishing, beekeeping, gardening or coal mining.[6]

In 1920, the population numbered 373.[7][8] Under Greece, assimilationist policies effected the village.[9] Slavic inscriptions were removed from the village church of St. Nicholas and the population experienced harassment.[9] The population was 431 people in 1928.[8] A visit by the Florina district governor in 1929 reported of "anti–state sentiments" in the village.[10] By 1938, the government of Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas prohibited the use of the Slavic language and many village inhabitants immigrated abroad, often to Perth in Western Australia.[9] Resentment of the language bans arose among remaining villagers.[9]

The population was 489 people in 1940.[5][7][8] In the Second World War, a communist organisation was established in Pyxos during June 1943 and Yugoslav partisans from across the border gave assistance to the locals.[9] The partisans were well received by the villagers as they were from the same ethnic and linguistic background.[9]

In the Greek Civil War, the village was occupied by the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG).[11] Greek communists made Pyxos for a time the seat of their self declared temporary government.[12] As an operational base for DAG, the communists in Pyxos maintained a weapons depot, had an officers' school, ran a hospital serving the Vitsi region and published communist newspapers along with propaganda material.[13][9] DAG retreated through Albania to Pyxos in August 1948 following their defeat by Greek government forces on Mount Grammos and their organisation's General Command reestablished itself in the village.[14] Toward the end of the civil war, the Greek Air Force bombed Pyxos and the population fled to the border resulting in some casualties.[15] The village was destroyed.[16]

At first the inhabitants expected to return to Pyxos, later they went into exile.[17] In 1951, Pyxos was depopulated and the last time mentioned in the Greek census.[11] Orovo and Its Folks in the Past, a book about the village was composed by the Institute of National History of Yugoslavia and a refugee association in Skopje whose members were children when they went to Yugoslavia.[18] The diaspora in Australia later funded an English translation.[19] Pyxos was neither rebuilt or resettled and became abandoned, as ruins of homes and their foundations remain while people from neighbouring villages maintain the church of Saint Nicholas, the only surviving structure.[20][21] Most of the population of Pyxos and their descendants live in Perth.[19] The village diaspora has established immigrants' clubs for community socialising and gatherings.[9]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Institute for Neohellenic Research. "Name Changes of Settlements in Greece: Rachova – Pyxos". Pandektis. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  2. ^ Hellenic Agency for Local Development and Local Government. "Διοικητικές Μεταβολές των Οικισμών: Ράχωβα – Πυξός" [Administrative Changes of Settlements: Rachova – Pyxos]. EETAA (in Greek). Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  3. ^ a b Włodzimierz, Pianka (1970). Топономастиката на Охридско–Преспанскиот базен [The Toponymy of the Ohrid–Prespa basin] (in Macedonian). Institut za makedonski jazik "Krste Misirkov". p. 141. "Орово... Името е топографско, изведено со помошта на суф. -ово од апел. орев (orĕхъ)."
  4. ^ Vatsikopoulos 2020, p. 438.
  5. ^ a b Laiou 1987, p. 80.
  6. ^ a b Vatsikopoulos 2020, p. 439.
  7. ^ a b Vatsikopoulos 2020, p. 432.
  8. ^ a b c Ntassiou 2022, p. 368. "Pyxos; Census_2011: 0; Census_1981: 0; Census_1928: 431; Census_1940: 489; Census_1920: 373"
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Vatsikopoulos 2020, p. 440.
  10. ^ Koliopoulos, John S. (1999). Plundered Loyalties: Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia, 1941–1949. Hurst. p. 44. ISBN 9781850653813.
  11. ^ a b Laiou, Angeliki E. (1987). "Population Movements in the Greek Countryside during the Civil War". In Bærentzen, Lars; Iatrides, John O.; Langwitz Smith, Ole (eds.). Studies in the History of the Greek Civil War, 1945–1949. Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 80, 82. ISBN 9788772890043.
  12. ^ Vatsikopoulos 2020, pp. 432, 440.
  13. ^ Shrader 1999, [1] p.141.
  14. ^ Shrader, Charles R. (1999). The Withered Vine: Logistics and the Communist Insurgency in Greece, 1945-1949. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 229. ISBN 9780313028564.
  15. ^ Vatsikopoulos 2020, pp. 440–441.
  16. ^ Vatsikopoulos 2020, pp. 426, 432, 438.
  17. ^ Vatsikopoulos 2020, p. 441.
  18. ^ Vatsikopoulos 2020, pp. 434, 438–439.
  19. ^ a b Vatsikopoulos 2020, p. 434.
  20. ^ Vatsikopoulos, Helen (2020). "Memories of Abandonment and Ruination in Prespa, Greek Macedonia". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 38 (2): 426, 432, 434, 438. doi:10.1353/mgs.2020.0027.
  21. ^ Ntassiou, Konstantina (2022). "Studying abandoned settlements' renaissance in the context of rural geography: perspectives for Prespes, Greece". European Planning Studies. 30 (2): 375. Bibcode:2022EurPS..30..359N. doi:10.1080/09654313.2021.1957085. "Pyxos, Population < 150 (in 2011 census): YES; Proportion gradual difference 2011–1981 (%): 0; Pre-existing in 1923: YES; Characterization: abandoned; Type of architecture: ruins; Assessment of economy type: - "
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