Anogeio
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Anogeio (Ανώγειο) is a municipality in the Preveza Prefecture, Greece. Population 9,374 (2001). The seat of the municipality is in Gorgomylos.The municipality takes its name from Anogeio village (pop 118) alt. 1200m. It is located on the western slopes of Xerovouni, in the Pindus mountains of Epirus. It has a pleasant dry climate, which is predominantly influenced by its high altitude and distance from the sea.
[edit] Etymology - History
Anogeio (Greek- Ανώγειο, 'Ανώι'), literally translates as "high-ground" or "high-land". The 19th and 20th Century history of the settlement is well documented. Its economy was almost exclusively based on sheep herding. The transhumant way of life was fairly typical of the rural populations of the Pindus range. Shepherds would spend the summer months in the village and relocate to lower pastures in the winter. The distant origins of the village are more obscure, however it is believed to have been founded in the period following the failed 1611 uprising against the Ottomans in Epirus led by Dionysius the Philosopher of Ioannina. The remote location of the village would have enabled tax evaders, revolutionaries and other outcasts to avoid the Ottoman authorities. This situation was fairly typical in the Balkan mountains during the 17th-20th centuries (see klephts).
[edit] The Petra Robbery
Anogeio is the homeland of the Rentzaioi clan two members of which achieved notoritey through being chief suspects for one of the biggest bank robberies in the history of the region. The event took place in the turbulent years following the liberation of Epirus from the Ottoman Emprie in 1913. On the 12th of June 1926, a National Bank of Ioannina vehicle was held up at the location of Petra (on the Ioannina to Preveza highway). 15million drachmas, a substantial sum for the time, were stolen from the vehicle and 5 members of the security crew were found murdered at the scene. The robbery was reputedly the most high profile act in a number of murders, kidnappings and higwhay robberies with which the Rentzaioi brothers (Thymios and Iannis) were associated. Their exploits in Greece and the manhunt across Albania, Italy and the Balkans to their arrest in Varna, Bulgaria are recorded in Greek national newpapers of the time (including Kathimerini), archives of the period held in the National Library of Greece, the University of Ioannina, and local oral tradition. They were tried and excecuted for their crimes on 5th March 1930 in Corfu jail. They protested their innocence of the Petra robbery to the end. Clan rivalry, and banditry were endemic in the mountains of Greece during the late 19th and early 20th century as attested in numerous sources. The bandits were often tolerated and supported by the local populace. Petty local officialdom and state authority were held in general disregard, a phenomenon accentuated by the remoteness of the mountain settlements.
[edit] References
Ρεντζαίοι - Οι Βασιλείς της Ηπείρου, Νίκος Ι Πάνος, Φιλιππιάδα, 2006, ISBN 960-630-896-0
For further reading see:
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