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]
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]
^Kahl, Thede (1999). Ethnizität und räumliche Verbreitung der Aromunen in Südosteuropa. Universität Münster: Institut für Geographie der Westfälischen Wilhelms. ISBN3-9803935-7-7. p. 133. R. Rrămăn (Aromunen mit der Eigenbezeichnung Rrămăn = Farscheroten, Arvanitovlachen)"; p. 146. "Qestorat... einige familie R; zu kommunischtischer Zeit angesiedelte aromunische Bevölkerungsgruppen aus südostalbanischen Gebirgen und aus Greichenland."
^De Rapper, Gilles (2005). "Better than Muslims, Not as Good as Greeks: Emigration as Experienced and Imagined by the Albanian Christians of Lunxhëri". In King, Russell; Mai, Nicola; Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie (eds.). The New Albanian Migration. Brighton-Portland: Sussex Academic. ISBN9781903900789. p. 7.
.svg)
