Qeparo

Oral and written historical accounts suggest that the original name of the village was Kiepero or Kiparos, which derives from the Greek word kipos, meaning garden.[3][4] The first identified form of the name of the village is "Clapero" in the 1566 correspondence of the people of Himara who were seeking refuge from the Ottoman Empire with the Kingdom of Naples. The name is thought to derive from the word kllapë and the Greek suffix -erό, which is commonly used in toponyms (e.g. Vromero). As "kllapë/klapa" has nearly the same meaning in the local Albanian and Greek dialects, the question arises as to whether the name is Greek or Albanian. The form Qeparo is a later innovation which was produced via vowel metathesis and the typical shift of /kl/ to /q/ in southern Albanian dialects. The connection with Greek kipos is a folk etymology.[5]

Double axes of the Mycenaean Greek type that date from the late Bronze Age (1400-1100 BC) have been found in the location Shafka e Kudhësit between Qeparo and Kudhës in the 1977-78 site survey under the direction of archaeologist Frano Prendi.[6] They belong to the IV-Buchholz/B1a-Deshayes Aegean sea group of Bronze Age metalworking.[7]

In 1720, the villages of Himara, Palasa, Ilias, Vuno, Pilur and Qeparo refused to submit to the Pasha of Delvina.[8] Eastern-rite missionary Giuseppe Schirò from the Arbëresh town of Piana degli Albanesi in Sicily, visited the Himara region in 1722 due to connections based on the founders of Piana degli Albanesi being from the region of Himara. In his report, Qeparo and other villages were described as Albanian ("di natione Albanesi"), while Palasa, Himara and Dhermi as Greek.[9]

The village has an Orthodox Church dedicated to Saint Demetrius, dated 1760, one of the nine churches in Albania dedicated to that saint.[10] A project for the establishment of a Greek school in the village was initiated by the Greek national benefactors Evangelos and Konstantinos Zappas in 1860. In the 1898-1899 school season three Greek schools were operating in Qeparo: elementary, secondary and a girls' school with a total of 100 students.[11]

During the period of the Balkan Wars, the inhabitants of Greek-speaking villages in the region, such as Qeparo, fought against Albanian speaking-villages, who fought on the side of the Ottoman Empire.[12]

Old Qeparo

Qeparo is situated on the western slope of Mount Gjivlash, at about 450 metres (1,480 ft) above sea level. In ancient times, Qeparo was situated in the hill of Kasteli. Later on, its inhabitants settled a little further down, in the Gjivlash Slope, southeast of the hill of Kasteli, to be closer to their fields and to escape the cold of the winter. From 1957 onwards, Qeparo was split into the Old Village (Albanian: Fshati i vjetër, Greek: Άνω or Παλαιό Κηπαρό), and the New Village (Albanian: Fshati i ri, Greek: Κάτω or Νέο Κηπαρό).[13]

To the east, Qeparo is bounded by the village of Borsh, to the northeast by Çorraj, to the north with Kudhës, to the northwest by Piluri, to the west with the town of Himara and to the south and southwest by the Ionian sea. The Porto Palermo Castle, probably built by the Venetian and later used by Ali Pasha to guard against the Himariotes is part of the territory of Qeparo.[14]

The village is composed of the following neighbourhoods or brotherhoods (Albanian: vëllazëri): Ballëguras, Bragjint' e Poshçërë, Bragjint' e Sipërmë, Dhimëgjonas, Gjikëbitaj, Mërtokaj, Ndregjin, Peçolat, Pogdan and Rushat. Every brotherhood had its own patron saint.[15]

Qeparo has cultivated olives for centuries, as mentioned in the early 19th century in the work of François Pouqueville, Napoleon Bonaparte's general consul at the court of Ali Pasha in Ioannina.[16]: testimony to this, are some centennial olive trees still existing in the village.

The village of Qeparo contains both an ethnic Orthodox Albanian population inhabiting Qeparo Poshtme (lower neighbourhood) and Greeks living in Άνω Κηπαρό/Ano Kiparo (upper neighbourhood).[17][18] The village was in the past inhabited by Greek speakers as its name suggests.[19] Today the inhabitants of Qeparo are bilingual in Greek and Albanian,[20] although in the day-to-day language, mainly Albanian is used,[21] with the exception of Old Qeparo, where Greek speech is dominant.[22] The Albanian local dialects, are part of southern Tosk, and more precisely, of the Labërisht sub-group.[23] Labërisht itself is composed of non-unical language groups, and shares many features with the Arbëresh language which it is related to.[24][25]

Qeparo is one of the favorite tourist destinations in Albania. Two hotels and a few guesthouses serve the tourists' enjoyment of the small beaches.

• Georgios Stephanou, Greek Gendarmerie officer and revolutionary.
• Andon Qesari, actor and director.
• Ava Max, Singer & songwriter. Father was from Qeparo.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Qeparo.

• Albanian Riviera
• Dhërmi
• Himara

• Widmann, Carlo Aurelio; Paladini, Filippo Maria (ed.): Dispacci da Corfù – 1794–1797. Venice, La Malcontenta, 1997.
• İnalcık, Halil: Hicrî 835 Tarihli: Sûret-i Defter-i Sancak-i Arvanid [Copy of the Fiscal Survey for the Province of Arvanid (Albania), Year 1431 A.D.]. Metni bir Giriş ile Neşreden Halil İnalcik. Metin dışında H. 991 tarihli Avlonya Kanunnâmesi ile 1 harita, 29 tıpkı-basım vardır. (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınlarından XIV. Seri – No. 1. Tahrir defterleri.) Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi – Ankara. 1954, p. 27–28.
• Region of Himara: Official municipality website.