Qestorat
Village in Gjirokastër, Albania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Qestorat (Aromanian: Chiãsturat or Chiãsturata) is a community of the former Lunxhëri municipality in the Gjirokastër County, southern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Gjirokastër.[1]
Qestorat
Chiãsturat | |
|---|---|
Zographeion college facilities in Qestorat (1881) | |
.svg)  Qestorat | |
| Country |  Albania |
| County | Gjirokastër |
| Municipality | Gjirokastër |
| Administrative unit | Lunxhëri |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
From 1874 to 1891 the village was home to the Greek Zographeion College, educational facilities that included primary and secondary male, female schools and a teacher's academy and operated with the personal costs of the local benefactor Christakis Zografos.[2] Today this institution houses the museum of Lunxhëri.[3]
Name
Its name contains the Albanian suffix -at, widely used to form toponyms from personal names and surnames.[4]
Demographics
In the Ottoman register of 1520 for the Sanjak of Avlona, Qestorat (Isharat)[5] was attested as a village in the timar under the authority of Ali from Damas. The village had a total of 71 households. The anthroponymy attested overwhelmingly belonged to the Albanian onomastic sphere, characterised by personal names such as Bardh, Deda, Gjin,Gjon, Kola, Leka and others.[6]
Today the village of Qestorat is inhabited by an Aromanian majority, with a minority of Orthodox Albanians and Muslim Albanians.[7] The Aromanian presence in Qestorat dates to the communist era.[8][9]
Notable people
- Koto Hoxhi, Albanian Rilindas and teacher of Pandeli Sotiri and Petro Nini Luarasi
- Christakis Zografos, Greek banker and benefactor