Labovë e Kryqit

Labovë e Kryqit (Labovë of the Cross) is a settlement in Southern Albania, which has taken the name of its famous church, the Dormition of the Theotokos Church. It consists of two neighbourhoods: Labovë e Poshtme (Lower Labovë) and Labovë e Sipërme (Upper Labovë).^[1] To distinguish it from its neighbour Labovë e Madhe (Labovë e Vangjel Zhapës), the village is known by two names Labovë e Kryqit, in reference to a nearby old Byzantine church and Labovë e Libohovës (Labovë of Libohovë).^[1] It is part of the Qendër Libohovë subdivision of the Libohovë municipality, in Gjirokastër County, southern Albania.^[2]

Labovë e Kryqit
Settlement
Labovë e Kryqit
Coordinates: 40°4′25″N 20°17′30″E
Country	Albania
County	Gjirokastër
Municipality	Libohovë
Municipal unit	Qendër Libohovë
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Name

Afanasy Selishchev (1931), derived Labovë from the Slavic hleb’ meaning bread and Xhelal Ylli (1997) states that is not semantically possible.^[3] The suffix -ov-a is a Slavic formation.^[3] The root word of the toponym might denote the following: a Lab, an inhabitant of Labëria, the proto-Slavic *lap’ for "leaf", or Bulgarian words for plants like lop (petasites), lopen (verbascum), lopuh (arctium tomentosum).^[3] The proto-Slavic reflex a in the placename became o in Slavic, while in Albanian its a, with an Albanian sound change of p to b.^[3] If the toponym is derived from Lab, Ylli suggests it would mean the incoming Slavs encountered the earlier residents there, the Labs.^[3]

Sights

A Hellenistic era garrison was built in Labovë as part of the fortification system of Chaonia, ^[4] the later region belonging to the northwestern ancient Greek group of tribes of the Epirotes.^[5]

Demographics

In the interwar period Nicholas Hammond passed through the area and described Labovë as a place of mixed speech (Albanian and Greek), with Albanian as the mother tongue.^[6] In fieldwork done by Leonidas Kallivretakis in 1992, Labovë e Kryqit had an exclusive Albanian Orthodox population.^[7]

Notable people

• Vasileios of Dryinoupolis metropolitan bishop and member of the provisional Government of Northern Epirus (1914).
• Aleksandër Meksi, (8 March 1939) former prime minister of Albania, his father Gabriel Meksi (1894–1958) was from Labovë.

References

1. Pashkët në Labovë të Kryqit, Gazeta Shqip, 12 April 2015. "Një vend që për shkak të historisë mistike, të larmishme dhe të lavdishme, njihet me disa emra; Labovë e Poshtme dhe Labovë e Sipërme (emërtimi i dy pjesëve të të njëjtit vendbanim), Labovë e Kryqit (emërtim që lidhet me praninë e një kishe të vjetër bizantine dhe të një kryqi që tani është zhdukur dhe Labovë e Libohovës (për ta dalluar nga Labova e Vangjel Zhapës që ndodhet në Odrie në veri të Lunxhërisë."
2. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF) (in Albanian). p. 6371. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
3. Ylli, Xhelal (1997). Das slavische Lehngut im Albanischen: Teil 2: Ortsnamen. Slavistische Beitraege, 350 (in German). Verlag Otto Sagner. pp. 134, 271. ISBN 9783876907727.
4. De Maria, Sandro; Bogdani, Jylian; Giorgi, Enrico (2017). "Ricerca e tutela in un territorio di frontiera. L'Epiro del Nord fra età ellenistica e presenza di Roma". In Gianluca Mastrocinque (ed.). Paesaggi mediterranei di età romana. Archeologia, tutela, comunicazione. Bibliotheca archaeologica. Vol. 47. Edipuglia. p. 55. doi:10.4475/835. ISBN 978-88-7228-835-1. ISSN 1724-8523.
5. Zindel, Christian; Lippert, Andreas; Lahi, Bashkim; Kiel, Machiel (2018-02-19). Albanien: Ein Archäologie- und Kunstführer von der Steinzeit bis ins 19. Jahrhundert (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 37. ISBN 978-3-205-20010-9. Chaonien im Süden gehōrte zum Stamm der (griechischen) Epiroten.
6. Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 209. ISBN 9780198142539. "Whereas Libohovë and the villages north of it are Albanian in speech, those of the plateau form the most easterly pocket of Greek speech in North Epirus. Between Libohovë and the plateau the two hamlets of Labovë (115 houses) are of mixed speech, the mother tongue being Albanian."
7. Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας" [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography]. In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias; Kouloubis, Theodoros A.; Veremis, Thanos M. (eds.). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. ISBN 9789600800548. p. 55.