Ottoman Occupation (continued)

During the murky era of the Turkish occupation, the 80 monasteries of Northern Epirus were rendered not only famous worship places, but also centers of social welfare, national onsets, bases of operations, shelters for revolutionists and mostly centers of Greek education: most of the monasteries operated culture and arts schools. On the 18th century, Moschopolis in Korytsa was regarded as the “Athens of the North”, having a “New Academy” and especially the only printing office in the greater Eastern area. It is there that the first Albanian (as well as Greek and Vlach) dictionary was printed. It should be noted that until then the Albanian did not exist as a written language. It is representative the fact that the first systematic attempts to put the Albanian language in written were made by the literate circles of the New Academy: the first Albanian alphabet was based on the Greek alphabet. However, it seems that the Albanians envied the brilliancy of Moschopolis, and burned it down…