Krani
History
Krani has four known archaeological sites, two of which are from the Middle Ages, one from Late Antiquity, and one from the Hellenistic era. The latter was a fishing settlement and the two from the Middle Ages were churches.
In 1905, Arvati's population consisted of 256 Bulgarian Exarchists and 342 Albanians. There was a Bulgarian school in the village.
Demographics
Krani is inhabited by a Sunni Muslim Albanian majority and an Orthodox Macedonian minority. A small number of Albanian speaking Muslim Romani used to live in Krani and during the latter decades of the 20th century have migrated to Ohrid and Resen. In the late Ottoman period, some Bektashi Albanians, known locally as Kolonjarë, used to also reside in the village of Krani. The national census in 2002 showed that Krani had 416 residents, less than half of its 1961 population.
Ethnic group |
census 1961 | census 1971 | census 1981 | census 1991 | census 1994 | census 2002 | census 2021 | |||||||
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Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
Macedonians | 336 | 32.0 | 336 | 27.8 | 350 | 32.2 | 337 | 33.7 | 136 | 25.7 | 103 | 24.8 | 74 | 20.5 |
Albanians | 711 | 67.7 | 867 | 71.8 | 709 | 65.2 | 639 | 63.8 | 373 | 70.5 | 305 | 73.3 | 263 | 72.9 |
Serbs | 1 | 0.0 | 3 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.0 | 2 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.00 |
others | 2 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.0 | 27 | 2.5 | 23 | 2.3 | 20 | 3.8 | 7 | 1.7 | 24 | 6.6 |
Total | 1,050 | 1,207 | 1,087 | 1,001 | 529 | 416 | 361 |
The data on the mother tongues of Krani's residents, according to the 2002 census, is very similar to the ethnic makeup of the village with 311 declaring Albanian their mother tongue, followed by 104 declaring Macedonian, and one declaring Serbian.
Religion
The main religions in the village are Islam and Orthodox Christianity, with 309 belonging to the former and 105 to the latter, as of the latest census. Additionally, two individuals declared Catholicism as their religion. These figures suggest that the ethnic Macedonian population is Orthodox Christian, while the Albanian population is Muslim, as is the case nationally.
Krani has two churches, the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and the Church of St Nicholas. It also has one mosque.
Gallery
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Trilingual sign hailing entrance on road to both the villages of Krani and Arvati, in Krani
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Architecture of Krani
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Traditional architecture of Krani
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Krani River and traditional architecture of Krani
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Old school of Krani (now disused)
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Centuries-old plane tree in mosque yard
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Mosque of Krani
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Old Muslim cemetery of Krani (Ottoman era - mid 20th century)
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Muslim cemetery of Krani
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Orthodox church of Krani
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Orthodox church and cemetery of Krani
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Sheep in Krani
People from Krani
- Ali Aliu (born 1934), writer and translator