Pella (town)

It is located on the site of ancient Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia and birthplace of Alexander The Great. Ancient Pella was a vast city. However, the city was ravaged by the Romans during the 1st Century BC and lost its significance. During the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, the town was known in Greek as Άγιοι Απόστολοι (Agii Apostoli) 'Holy Apostles' and in Ottoman Turkish as Allah Kilise 'God's Church'.[2] In the local Slavic language, the name is Postol (Постол). The name Pella was revived in 1926.[3] By the 19th century, Agii Apostoli occupied a site near the upper city, and the lower city extended down to the wetlands of Mavroneri.[2] Félix de Beaujour, a French consul of Thessaloniki at the end of the 18th century, wrote in his travels for the Ottoman Empire: "Pella rises amphitheatrically on the slope of a hill on the top of which was the fortress, at the present is a little village of Alla Klise, populated with Bulgarians."[4] The village joined the Bulgarian Exarchate and a survey by Vasil Kanchov in 1900 revealed that the population of Pella was 520 Bulgarian Exarchists.[5] Another survey in 1905 recorded that in the village there were 720 Bulgarian Exarchists.[6] During the exchange of populations with the Treaty of Lausanne (July 24, 1923) refugees from Eastern Thrace in modern Turkey. Refugees from Bulgaria arrived in 1918 -1924. Finally, about 50 Sarakatsani families came to the village in 1947, coming from the areas of Florina. Many of its inhabitants emigrated to Bulgaria at that time.