Mandritsa

Mandritsa (Bulgarian: Мандрица, "small dairy"; Albanian: Mandrica or Mandricë; Greek: Μανδρίτσα) is a village in southernmost Bulgaria, part of Ivaylovgrad municipality, Haskovo Province. It is known as the only Albanian village in Bulgaria.

The village was founded in 1636 by Eastern Orthodox Albanian dairymen who supplied the Ottoman Army. They were allowed to pick a tract of land and were freed from taxes. The bulk of the local Albanian speakers arrived in the 18th century from around Korçë and in the 19th century from the region of Souli in Epirus. The locals preserved their Souliot national dress until the 19th century, when the fustanella was substituted by Thracian breeches. However, the female dress was preserved until the mass emigration to Greece in 1913.

In the 19th century, Mandritsa was a small town of Greek-identifying Albanians in the kaza of Didymoteicho. In 1873, it was a village of 250 households with 1,080 Albanian residents. In 1908, Greek sources list the population as 3,500 "Albanian-speaking Greeks, most of whom also speak Greek".

Mandritsa was liberated from Ottoman rule on 15 October 1912, during the First Balkan War, by military units of the First Bulgarian Army, but was once again occupied by the Ottomans during the Second Balkan War. According to the Treaty of Constantinople, it was ceded to Bulgaria. A large number of the residents fled back to the Ottoman Empire, where they remained as refugees for six months before heading to Greece in 1914 through Constantinople and Rodosto.

Of the 480 families of the time, only 40 remained in Bulgaria, while 100 settled in the village of Hambarköy near Kilkis, which was renamed Mandres in their honour, while the others populated other villages in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace. The Bulgarian government settled Bulgarian refugees from Thrace and Macedonia (from the region of Edessa). In 1929, another wave of emigration to Greece followed.

Today, Mandritsa is a small village of around 70 residents, part of them still speaking a distinct Tosk Albanian dialect. The village has well-preserved Greek-style three-storey adobe and brick houses which represent the Thracian style featuring wood-carved ceilings, wrought iron balconies and columns.

Mandritsa has two churches: the small single-naved cemetery church of St Nedelya built in 1708, which is one of the oldest churches in the Eastern Rhodopes, and the three-naved village church of St Demetrius constructed in 1835, which is partially destroyed, but planned to be reconstructed.

Today, Mandritsa is a small village of around 70 residents, part of them still speaking a distinct Tosk Albanian dialect. The village has well-preserved Greek-style three-storey adobe and brick houses which represent the Thracian style featuring wood-carved ceilings, wrought iron balconies and columns.

Mandritsa has two churches: the small single-naved cemetery church of St Nedelya built in 1708, which is one of the oldest churches in the Eastern Rhodopes, and the three-naved village church of St Demetrius constructed in 1835, which is partially destroyed, but planned to be reconstructed.