A Little History of Statitsa
Below the green and legendary mountains of Lisets, Golinata and Lundser, is nestled neatly the small village of Statitsa. It is divided in two parts, Upper and Lower Statitsa. [Gorno and Dolno].
From all these and other mountain tops, like [Presekata, Studena voda and Rizio Kamen] are gathered all the waters into a large “river” Plinska reka.
The waters from Lisets and Ramen V’rv make up the Kutanov Trap.
All these waters and the waters from the village of T’rsie, are pouring into one big river called Belitsa [Белица],which pass through the middle of Dolno Statitsa, [Долно Статица], thus making two parts Odonakna Mala and Odovakna Mala. [Одонакна Мала и Одовакна Мала].
The houses of the village are small, and built out of stones and mud, [which consist of mud and straw] Кал. The roofs were mostly clay tiles. [Keramidi, Керамиди].
In both sections of the village, Dolno and Gorno Statitsa there was two schoolhouses but most of the time there was no school teachers, therefore the education system was at a minimum, but never the less Staticheni were very smart people.
Staticheni in general are hard working, peace loving, law abiding, proud and very happy family people.
The people of Statitsa were self-sufficient ,they lived off the land and barely needed anything to buy from the nearby cities, Kostur and Lerin, maybe salt, oil, sugar and few other things.
They worked the land and attended their live stock and seldom complained.
Products they produced among other things were: Large Beans, Wheat,Oats, Potatoes, Corn etc…. also fruits and vegetables :Peppers, Marouli,[for salad]
Tomatoes, leeks [Pras] etc, Walnuts, Chestnuts, apples,pears,plums,grapes,peaches,Watermelons and lots more.
From the fruits they made their own wine, moonshine [rakia]they also preserved fruit for winter months and made jams and all kinds of sweets.
For their own survival every household had to keep livestock.
Sheep and goats were the major ones, for milk and milk byproducts.
They made their own cheese, butter, skim milk [siratka],yogurt, cottage cheese,[urda]etc. They used the sheep for food too, the skin for warm winter coats, footwear and for musical instrument [gaida], the wool for clothing.
The Staticheni worked the land with oxen, horses, mules and donkeys.
They raised pigs to sell and for their own use, for feasts, and preserved it in wooden barrels with salt for the long winter months. The hide they used to make pigskin slippers [pintsi]. They also raised other animals, chickens, rabbits, hunting dogs, sheep dogs etc.
Some of the villagers were hunting, wild rabbits, pheasants, foxes ,wolfs etc. for food and other necessities. They used the sheepdogs to watch the flock from hungry predators, wolfs and so on.
The villagers were well organized for their grazing schedules. They took turns to go out and graze the flock and the oxen’s.
Spring time was very busy time:
Everybody was rushing to do all chores that needed to be done, they were fertilizing the fields with their home made wooden wagons, pulled by the oxen’s, seeding, planting their vegetables, fruit and the flowers, they loved flowers, who doesn’t. There was hardly any mechanized machinery, it was none existent.
Summer time was busy also:
More planting, weeding and watering, cutting the hay, drying it and hauling it to the barn [plemna] and lots more. If you looked up the mountainside that time ,you would see lots of people going about their business free as birds, our people loved that peacefulness.
Along those mountains, were lots of spring wells, with very cold water for the people to drink in those long hot summer days. The waters from those wells were rushing down the mountain side and were collected by the people to water their gardens,
That’s how they got those wonderful crops and giant beans that they sold to market and got good money for it. These are the famous beans that everybody is talking about.
Fall time:
Ah…..That was the happiest time of the year for the villagers.
Harvest time, if you looked up this time the mountainside, you will see much-much more people like busy-bees collecting all the goods stuff for their families .
They bring down the bales of wheat to take the grain out and eventually to be taken to the mill to become flour.
You hear, singing, laughter, children playing, it is indeed a very happy time of the year for everyone. From the lower parts of the village people bringing all the fruit and vegetables to their houses. Products are: Peppers, all kind of salads, Beans, potatoes, cabbage and lots more Apples, pears, cherries ,plums, walnuts, chestnuts, peaches to name few.
Come winter time the work load somehow gets easier [perhaps for the men].
Still the animals have to be fed and watered, bread has to be kneaded, and food has to be cooked and so on. Oh….but that is the women’s work. The men visited frequently the coffee houses, playing cards, telling tales and jokes, reminiscing ridiculing etc.
Most of the name days were observed, which the men had to attend to drink Rakia to the health of the one that had the name day. Winter time the days were shorter the nights were long.
The young girls and boys were holding Corn grinding parties, a very festive chore that had to be done winter time. They were grinding corn and singing love songs, courting, teasing and having a hell of a time. Something like “Killing two birds with one stone”.
Also the watermills were working full speed day and night these winter months.
Basically Sunday was a day of rest and attending church.
The Staticheni were observing almost all the religious holidays very enthusiastically.
Easter was one of the most happily celebrated holiday, with feasts, lots of wine, dances at the village square, tepani, gaida and so on.
Giourgovden [st. George], Ilinden [st. Elia], Mitrovden, Kolenda,Sourova and Christmas and lots more. There are lots of customs, that Staticheni have , but I am not going into that at this time, we leave the details of that for another time.
Both Gorno and Dolno Statitsa had a church which shared one priest, he was alternating every other Sunday.
There was one big Manastir in Statitsa Sveti Ilia [St, Ilia], where on Ilinden ,all the village people would pack lots of food and go on the top of the hill where the monastery was located and all together would have a big picnic like feast.
Lots of food ,wine ,music and dances all day, very happy times.
This was a big deal.
Then there was the small manastirche Sveti Tanas [ St. Tanas] on the way to Gorno Statitsa.
Staticheni were working the land the hard way with minimal tools, slowly started making their own tools to make their job easier.
There was a Blacksmith tradesman in the village, which made most of the necessary tools for the people: Plows, shovels, axes, saws, knifes, etc.
Others made ,wooden wagons, barrels, threading tools ,some tools to work with the sheep wool. [Vretena, furki, razboi and musical instruments gaida, flutes, wooden eating utensils.
Building houses mostly out of stones, hand made window frames, staircases, etc.
The village Statitsa sits 1000 meters above sea level.
Population:
Some information that I came across, not sure if it’s accurate or not, but here it is.
| YEAR | POPULATION |
|---|---|
| 1913 | 609 |
| 1920 | 550 |
| 1928 | 564 |
| 1940 | 495 |
| 1951 | 233 |
| 1961 | 221 |
| 1971 | 187 |
Between the First World War and the Greek civil war 177 people left the village for other places of the globe. 53 staticheni lost their lives during the civil war.
Just before the civil war ended, 154 young children were taken away by the partisans, to eastern communist countries.
The name Statitsa, How did that came about?
We, to date don’t have any documented fact how this happened. There is a legend told by Naso Patrikov [living in Australia] , that he heard from the oldest men “known in the village”, his dedo Lazo Tashkov who explained like this:
Long time ago, when the Ottoman Empire [Turkish Empire] was occupying our area the people from the nearby villages were leaving their homes and settling in this mountainous area, hoping to avoid torture, terror and taxes from the authorities.
This area was very secluded, bushy and lots of mountains it was called Kopacho or Kopachitsa, from that became ….Statitsa.
Another twist to this legend as told by the same man goes on to say:
These people from this place Kopacho, decided to build a church in honor of the saint Statia and later the village became known as Statitsa, and goes on to say that they did not put a bell on the church , so the Turks won’t hear the bell and discover them. That is how the legend was told.
Later the Greek government renamed the village “Melas” (in Greek “Μελλας”) for their fallen hero Pavlos Melas [for them a hero, for us a murderer].
He was killed in the village of Statitsa on October 13 1904, more details on this some other time.
Before the Second World War life in the village was somewhat normal.
The people went about their daily work chores, celebrating their religious holidays. Weddings, name days, children playing, laughing, singing and so on.
There wasn’t too much harassment by the authorities as long as you behaved the way they wanted you to behave.
Then the World War started and things started to change for the villagers.
They drafted the young people in to the army ,to fight the Germans and the Italians. Life was getting pretty hard for the women and children, Guns, bombs, killings etc.
Later, as if that wasn’t enough the civil war started in our parts of the country.
Now whole hell broke loose in the Macedonian countryside particularly in the
Lerin-Kostur region, which is our area.
More killings more bombings, torture, imprisonment of the villagers, for one reason or the other, and no reason at all. Life was hell, and unbearable.
That is when people started to leave the villages and escape the terrible conditions of that forsaken land. That is the time, when the 154 kids left the village for the eastern communist countries. Everyone else, who could, left that wonderful village Statitsa.
The village was left with hardly any kids, no young men and women [they were conscripted on one side or the other] it was basically left a ghost town, silence every where, except the bombs and gunfire, no singing or laughter to be heard anywhere, any more. If you were an eagle looking down on the village, you would see a very, very sad picture. Everyone that could leave the village, left, looking for a safer and peaceful place allover the globe. Some ended up in Hungary others in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yougoslavia, Bulgaria, Russia and still others in America, Canada and as far as Australia and New Zeeland. Where ever Staticheni ended up, they made a good life for themselves. Why? Because they are peaceful, hardworking, law abiding family people. They got into businesses and different type of trades and did very well.
These are Staticheni, mostly hard workers and none complainants.
HERE ARE SOME FAMILY NAMES IN STATITSA
BOCHKAROV, VODINCHAROV, SUDZEV, TASHKOV, PANDOV, GERGOV, KANDILOV, MARIN, GADZEV, KAURKIN, SOLOMANOV, SVIRKOV, MAZNIKOV, DZEREPOV, STATOV, DZONGOV, KAMBUROV, KALAYANOV, DZENGALOV, KATIN, FINDIN, GATSOV, DAPOV, DIMOV.FLORINOV, DUROV, KITSOMANKIN, DUDEV, KLANDZOV, TSILIPANOV, MILYANOV, BOGOEV, URDOV, PATRIKOV, TSAPAROV, ANDRIOV, GAKEV, MANUSHIN, TOMEV, DZUNDZUROV, KLUNOV, TOMEV, CHACHKIROV, TASHKOV, ILIOV, STASOV, and many others.
Do you see the resemblance of the names?