Agios Athanasios, Drama

Greece Greece

Administrative Region : East Macedonia and Thrace
Regional unit : Drama

Agios Athanasios (Άγιος Αθανάσιος) Drama

Agios Athanasios (formerly Boriani[1][2]) is a town in the municipality of Doxato in the Drama prefecture of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region. According to the 2021 census, its population is 2,746.

General and historical information

Agios Athanasios is located southeast of Drama, 13 kilometers[3] from its center. Until 1927, it was called Boriani, when it was renamed Agios Athanasios[1]. Until the end of the 19th century, it was referred to as a purely Muslim population, in which Vlach-speaking Greeks from the Zagori region settled at that time.[4] It came under Greek rule during the Balkan Wars and according to 1913 statistics had a population of 583 inhabitants (289 men and 294 women).[5]

In the early 1920s, the population exchange between Greece and Turkey resulted in the departure of Muslims from the settlement, which was settled by Greek refugees from the regions of Cappadocia[6], Pontus, Eastern Thrace and Ionia. Furthermore, Greeks from Bulgaria (specifically from the geographical area of Eastern Rumelia) also settled in Boriani.[3]

During World War II, after the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, Agios Athanasios was annexed to Bulgaria in 1941, along with most of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. In August of the same year, some residents were deported from Agios Athanasios by order of the occupying authorities.[7] At the same time, other families left for German-occupied Greece, while settlers from Bulgaria settled in the town.[8]

On the night of 28–29 September 1941, a group of Greek guerrillas entered Agios Athanasios as part of the Drama uprising, killing the Bulgarian president of the community and a local agricultural guard who collaborated with the occupying forces. In retaliation, Bulgarian forces captured several residents of the town, eight of whom were executed or died in prison.[9] Agios Athanasios was liberated, like the rest of Eastern Macedonia, in October 1944. In the following decades, many residents of Agios Athanasios emigrated, moving either to urban centers in the country or abroad.[3]

Administratively, Agios Athanasios was the seat of a community of the province of Drama until 1997 and then became part of the municipality of Doxatos[2], to which it belongs to this day.

Culture - Sports

Its cultural association "I Voirani" was founded in 1977. It is active in matters of tradition and culture with its dance groups and theatrical performances. Under the auspices of the club, a lending library operates. Important moments of the club were the publication of Voirani, the bimonthly newspaper that was published from May 1991 to March 2001.

There are two primary schools and a high school in the town. MAS Megas Alexandros, as well as the football academy (PA.MA.), contribute to the sports of the village's youth.

Population censuses
Census 1928 1940 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 2021
Population 2,080[2] 2,886[2] 3,046[2] 3,124[2] 2,645[2] 3,013[2] 3,553[2] 3,465[10] 3,150[11] 2,746

Personalities

Manolis Angelopoulos

Thanasis Papazotos (1951-1996)[12], Byzantinologist and archaeologist.
Timotheus Symeonides (1963)[13], bishop of the Church of the Greek Old Calendarists ("Florinites").

References

Pandektis, renamings
Michael Stamatelatos, Fotini Vamva - Stamatelatou, Geographical Dictionary of Greece, TA NEA, 2012, volume 1, p. 17.
"The Identity of Our Village". voirani.gr. Cultural Association of Saint Athanasius of Drama "Voirani". Retrieved on December 22, 2019.
Asterios I. Koukoudis, Studies on the Vlachs, volume 2. The Metropolises and the Diaspora of the Vlachs, Zitros publications, Thessaloniki 2000, pp. 190-191.
Basilion of Greece. Ministry of National Economy, Directorate of Statistics, Census of the inhabitants of the new provinces of Greece in the year 1913, In Athens, 1915, p. 51.
Symeon Koimisoglou, Cappadocia. World Cultural Heritage Monument, Greek History, Faith, Culture, ILP Productions, Thessaloniki 2005, p. 400, 450.
Spyros Kouzinopoulos, Drama 1941. A misunderstood uprising, Kastaniotis publications, Athens 2011, p. 47.
Ritzaleos, Vasilis Ch. (10 June 2015). "The atrocities of the Bulgarian occupation authorities (1941-1944) in our village". voirani.gr. Cultural Association of Saint Athanasius of Drama "Voirani". Retrieved 23 December 2019.
Kouzinopoulos, 2011, pp. 130, 158.
"Actual Population of Greece" (PDF). e-demography.gr. National Statistical Service of Greece. 2003. p. 67. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 August 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
Official Gazette of the Government of the Hellenic Republic, issue Second, 20 March 2014, issue no. 698, p. 10482.
Katsaros, Vasilis (1998). "Memory of Thanasis Papazotou. 1951-1996". Historical Geography (Ioannina-Thessaloniki) Volume Six: 349.

«† His Eminence Bishop of Caesarea, Mr. Timothy». ec-goc.gr. Church of True Orthodox Christians of Greece. Archived from the original

Municipal unit Doxato
Municipal Community Agios Athanasios
Agios Athanasios (Άγιος Αθανάσιος, ο)
Municipal Community Doxato
Doxato (Δοξάτο, το)
Municipal Community Kyrgia
Vathyspilo (Βαθύσπηλο, το)
Vathychori (Βαθυχώρι, το)
Evrypedo (Ευρύπεδο, το)
Kyrgia (Κύργια, τα)
Ypsilo (Υψηλόν, το)
Community Agora
Agora (Αγορά, η)
Community Kefalari
Ano Kefalari (Άνω Κεφαλάριο, το)
Κάτω Κεφαλάριο, το
Community Pigadia
Aigeiros (Αίγειρος, ο)
Peristeria (Περιστέρια, τα)
Pigadia (Πηγάδια, τα)

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