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Pirot
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Pirot (Serbian Cyrillic: ?????) is a town and municipality located in Serbia at . In 2002, the town had a total population of 40,678, while population of municipality was 63,791. The town is the administrative center of the Pirot District.
The first mentions of Pirot are found in the 2nd century AD, when the town was called Turres, Quimedava. In its vicinity is the church from the thirteenth century: the Church of St.
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Encyclopedia
Pirot (Serbian Cyrillic: ?????) is a town and municipality located in Serbia at . In 2002, the town had a total population of 40,678, while population of municipality was 63,791. The town is the administrative center of the Pirot District.
The first mentions of Pirot are found in the 2nd century AD, when the town was called Turres, Quimedava. In its vicinity is the church from the thirteenth century: the Church of St. Petka, and the monastery of St. John the Theologist from the late fourteenth century displays a fine example of the Serb medieval architecture.
History
The first reliable written accounts on the Central Balkans’ history are dating as back as the old Greeks times. The ancient Greeks were interested in these areas only intermediately, for the reason that Macedonia, their greatest opponent, was commonly in war with the Dardanians and the Thracians, whose settlings were partly bordering each other in these areas. As far as the political system was concerned, Dardanians had the least developed system. The Illyrians, their cognates in the West, the Thracians, and eastern neighbours were more progressive than the Dardanians. Moreover, Dardanians stated the tribal community, and just about the time when the community transformations were inducted, a Roman Conquest happened. At the very beginning of the reigning of the Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus, the vanishing of Dardania took place, and an administrative annexation was conducted in the year of 14 A.D., after establishing the provinces of Moesia and Thrace. Consequently, the territory of Pirot and its vicinity were bordering with the two provinces. Nevertheless, an important route-direction had already been in use long before the Romans came. Having a well-organized empire, they initiated construction of a road all the way from Singidunum (Belgrade) over Naisus (Niš), Serdica (Sofia), Adrianople (Jedren), to Constantinople (Istanbul). It was a military road, Via Militaris. The new authorities started to arrange the military troops along the road. In addition, settling of the colonists was commenced, as well, which appeared to be crucial in the romanising procedure of the autochthons, mostly living in larger places. Yet, the Roman authorities had a poor influence upon the villagers. Since the official Roman culture entered very slowly into the local people’s lives, the mother tongue and resident customs barely changed. However, an uncommon and fascinating language feature is still kept in the local speech. Even today, “kvo oratiš” (quo oratish) could be heard, meaning “what do you say?”. During the reigning of Diocletian (284 – 305), great reforms were carried out, even in the Balkan Peninsula. As a result, Pirot was joined with the province of Mediterranean Dacia (Dacia Mediteranea).
The first written account, mentioning Pirot, was an itinerary with a Roman map from the IV century, called Tabula Peuntigeniana. An antique settling in this area was named Tures (Latin for “towers”). Firstly, it was set to enable control and defence of the main road in this part of the empire. Besides, travellers could sleep here over night, as well as get refreshments and new horses or vehicles. In time, the settling advanced because of the important road passing through. Unfortunately, it was also disturbed very persistently by invasions of the Gothic tribes throughout the IV century, as well as the Huns in the V century. According to the written accounts “On the Constructions” by Prokopius from Caesarea, who was an official historian, writing during the reigning of the emperor Justinian (527 – 565), the reigning emperor ordered reconstruction of thirty fortresses in the area from Niš to Sofia, probably including the tower of Pirot. He also gave the detailed description of those construction works. In times when the Slavs and Avars were invading the Balkans, the settling was named Quimedava, and was situated on the southern slope of the Sarlah Hill. Corresponding to the archaeological investigations, the town back then, surrounded by forts and fortified walls, also included an early Christian basilica, termas (public bathrooms), a necropolis (graveyard), and other facilities. Beside the military fortress, a civil settlement existed on the site called Majilka. Although Byzantium successfully defended itself from the barbaric tribes’ raids, the Balkans were teeming with the Slavs in the second half of the VI century and at the beginning of the VII century. The Slavs soon became a crucial ethnical element on the peninsula. In the Middle Ages, Pirot was respectively under Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian administration. From the late VIII century, the town was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire. Unfortunately, there are not enough files on the early Middle Age, so the ordinary town’s life remains a mystery. Consequently, the significance of the towns vanished and the roads were not being used as much. A well-organized country was replaced with the weakly connected tribal communities of the Slavs and the natives, who were pushed back into the woodlands. Serbian archaeological researches haven't found typical Serbian tombs in Pirot's area from the period VII-VIII century. Serbian archaeological science hasn't found traces of Serbian presence from X century as well. It remained under Bulgarian rule almost to the very end of the First Empire at the beginning of the XI century, when it again came under Byzantine rule. In 1182-1183, the joint Serb-Hungarian army took control of Pirot area, and it was first time that Pirot was included into Serbian state. Serbian ruler, Stefan Nemanja, together with Fridrih Barbarosa passed through Pirot and was enthusiastically welcomed by its citizens. The town once again came under Bulgarian rule after the successful uprisal of Asen and Peter in the end of 12 century. It was under Bulgarian rule in parts of 13th and 14th century. Some historians state that in 1214-1216 Serbian ruler Stefan ?? Nemanjic took possession of the region of Pirot. During the rule of Ivan Asen ?? (1218-1241) the regions in the west and northwest were under Bulgarian rule. Pirot again belonged to the Serbian state during the rule of king Milutin of Serbia (1282-1321).
There is disagreement between Serbian and Bulgarian sources whether area belonged to Serbian or Bulgarian states in the 14th century period. According to Serbian sources, in the 14th and 15th century, Pirot belonged to the several Serbian states - the Serbian Empire of Stefan Dušan, Moravian Serbia of Lazar Hrebeljanovic, and Serbian Despotate of Stefan Lazarevic, while according to Bulgarian historian Koledarov, the town was under Bulgarian rule in the 13th and 14th century and belonged to the Bulgarian state almost to the end of Second Bulgarian Empire. Still more, the Serbian archaeological excavations haven't found evidences for mass Serbian presence from XIII-XV century in the region, for example typical Serbian pottery from XIV-XV century. The town was later conquered by the Ottoman Empire. It was conquered by the Ottoman army the first time in 1386, but later the possession of this region was changed several times between Serbian and Ottoman rulers. It was finally conquered by Ottomans in the 15th century and remained under Ottoman rule until the 19th century (December 1877).
According to some contemporary Serbian authors during the Ottoman rule, the majority of native Torlakian Slavic population of Pirot did not had either Serb or Bulgarian national consciousness - in ethnic sense, they simply considered themselves inhabitants of the place where they lived with foggy idea that they are Slavs. Therefore, both, Serbs and Bulgarians, considered local Slavs as part of their own people, while local population was also divided between sympathy for Serbs and sympathy for Bulgarians. Various other sources from various time periods mention Torlakian Slavs from the area under names of Serbs or Bulgarians. It should be noted that according to some Serbian researchers term "Bulgarians" was in the past used as a designation for all Slavs, hence a record that somebody was "Bulgarian" was simply a description of his Slavic origin, not of his Bulgarian origin in modern sense. Unlike the majority of local Torlakian Slavs, the small part of them adopted Serb or Bulgarian national consciousness.
Some authors from the epoch, take a different view and maintain that until 1878 the inhabitants of Pirot had a Bulgarian national consciousness and had a fondness to Bulgarian national idea. Also, in the XIX century Pirot was one of the centres of Bulgarian national revival. It was a seat of Bulgarian Bishop (1870-1878). In Pirot were born well-known Bulgarian literary critic and philosopher Krastio Krastev (1866-1919), the scientist Spas Vatzov (1856-1928), the painter Michael Krastev (1877-1956), etc. The inhabitants of Pirot along with the Shopi inhabitants of present-day north-western Bulgaria, with the help from Serbia, started in 1836 unsuccessful rebellion ("Pirot rebellion") and in 1841 uprising ("anti-feudal national uprising") against Ottoman authorities. In 1878, Pirot was ceded to Bulgaria according to the Treaty of San Stefano, but only a few months later with the Treaty of Berlin it was incorporated in Serbia, and over time, the local Torlakian Slavs adopted Serb national consciousness.
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