{{Infobox Greek Dimos |name = Pyxos |name_local = |image_skyline = |caption_skyline = |coordinates = {{coord|40.75414|N|21.00264|E|format=dms|display=inline,title}} |elevation = |periph = Western Macedonia |periphunit = Florina |municipality = Prespes |municunit = Prespes |community = Vrontero |population_as_of = |population = |area = |postal_code = |area_code = |licence = |website = }}
'''Pyxos''' ({{langx|el|Πυξός}}, before 1928: Ράχωβα – ''Rachova'', also Όροβον, ''Orovon'';<ref name="pandektisRaPy">{{Cite web|author=Institute for Neohellenic Research|title=Name Changes of Settlements in Greece: Rachova – Pyxos|url=https://pandektis.ekt.gr/pandektis/handle/10442/171014|website=Pandektis|access-date=25 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="eetaaRaPy">{{Cite web|author=Hellenic Agency for Local Development and Local Government|title=Διοικητικές Μεταβολές των Οικισμών: Ράχωβα – Πυξός|trans-title=Administrative Changes of Settlements: Rachova – Pyxos|url=https://www.eetaa.gr/eetaa/metaboles/oikmet_details.php?id=16808|website=EETAA|language=el|access-date=25 February 2025}}</ref> {{langx|mk|Орово}}, ''Orovo'')<ref name="Wlodzimierz141"/> was a village in Florina Regional Unit, Western Macedonia, Greece. It was part of the community of Vrontero. The village was located near the Albanian border<ref name="Vatsikopoulos438">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|p=438}}.</ref> and had an altitude of {{cvt|1080|m}}.<ref name="Laiou80"/> ==History== The name Orovo is derived from the Slavic word ''orev'' for walnut and the suffix ''ovo''.<ref name="Wlodzimierz141">{{cite book|last=Włodzimierz|first=Pianka|title=Топономастиката на Охридско–Преспанскиот базен|trans-title=The Toponymy of the Ohrid–Prespa basin|language=mk|year=1970|publisher=Institut za makedonski jazik "Krste Misirkov"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ELRAAAAMAAJ&q=%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5%D1%86|page=141}} "Орово... Името е топографско, изведено со помошта на суф. -ово од апел. орев (orĕхъ)."</ref> During the Ottoman period, the village supported the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and its inhabitants participated as fighters in the Ilinden Uprising (1903).<ref name="Vatsikopoulos439"/> The village economy was based on agriculture, involving ploughing and threshing alongside other activities such as fishing, beekeeping, gardening or coal mining.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos439">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|p=439}}.</ref>
In 1920, the population numbered 373.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos432"/><ref name="Ntassiou368"/> Under Greece, assimilationist policies effected the village.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/> Slavic inscriptions were removed from the village church of St. Nicholas and the population experienced harassment.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/> The population was 431 people in 1928.<ref name="Ntassiou368"/> A visit by the Florina district governor in 1929 reported of "anti–state sentiments" in the village.<ref name="Koliopoulos44">{{cite book|last=Koliopoulos|first=John S.|title=Plundered Loyalties: Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia, 1941–1949|year=1999|publisher=Hurst|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hFahiZflJoC&pg=PA44|isbn=9781850653813|page=44}}</ref> By 1938, the government of Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas prohibited the use of the Slavic language and many village inhabitants immigrated abroad, often to Perth in Western Australia.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/> Resentment of the language bans arose among remaining villagers.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/>
The population was 489 people in 1940.<ref name="Laiou80">{{harvnb|Laiou|1987|p=80}}.</ref><ref name="Vatsikopoulos432">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|p=432}}.</ref><ref name="Ntassiou368">{{harvnb|Ntassiou|2022|p=368}}. "Pyxos; Census_2011: 0; Census_1981: 0; Census_1928: 431; Census_1940: 489; Census_1920: 373"</ref> In the Second World War, a communist organisation was established in Pyxos during June 1943 and Yugoslav partisans from across the border gave assistance to the locals.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/> The partisans were well received by the villagers as they were from the same ethnic and linguistic background.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/>
In the Greek Civil War, the village was occupied by the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG).<ref name="Laiou8082"/> Greek communists made Pyxos for a time the seat of their self declared temporary government.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos432440">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|pp=432, 440}}.</ref> As an operational base for DAG, the communists in Pyxos maintained a weapons depot, had an officers' school, ran a hospital serving the Vitsi region and published communist newspapers along with propaganda material.<ref name="Shrader141">{{harvnb|Shrader|1999|loc=[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=JbLOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA141#v=onepage&q&f=false] p.141}}.</ref><ref name="Vatsikopoulos440"/> DAG retreated through Albania to Pyxos in August 1948 following their defeat by Greek government forces on Mount Grammos and their organisation's General Command reestablished itself in the village.<ref name="Shrader229">{{cite book|last=Shrader|first=Charles R.|title=The Withered Vine: Logistics and the Communist Insurgency in Greece, 1945-1949|year=1999|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbLOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA229|isbn=9780313028564|page=229}}</ref> Toward the end of the civil war, the Greek Air Force bombed Pyxos and the population fled to the border resulting in some casualties.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440441">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|pp=440-441}}.</ref> The village was destroyed.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos426432438">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|pp=426, 432, 438}}.</ref>
At first the inhabitants expected to return to Pyxos, later they went into exile.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos441">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|p=441}}.</ref> In 1951, Pyxos was depopulated and the last time mentioned in the Greek census.<ref name="Laiou8082">{{cite book|last=Laiou|first=Angeliki E.|chapter=Population Movements in the Greek Countryside during the Civil War|editor1-last=Bærentzen|editor1-first=Lars|editor2-last=Iatrides|editor2-first=John O.|editor3-last=Langwitz Smith|editor3-first=Ole|title=Studies in the History of the Greek Civil War, 1945–1949|year=1987|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press|isbn=9788772890043|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zMr7EK3ms7AC&q=Pixos|pages=80, 82}}</ref> ''Orovo and Its Folks in the Past'', a book about the village was composed by the Institute of National History of Yugoslavia and a refugee association in Skopje whose members were children when they went to Yugoslavia.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos434438439">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|pp=434, 438–439}}.</ref> The diaspora in Australia later funded an English translation.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos434"/> Pyxos was neither rebuilt or resettled and became abandoned, as ruins of homes and their foundations remain while people from neighbouring villages maintain the church of Saint Nicholas, the only surviving structure.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos426432434438">{{cite journal|last=Vatsikopoulos|first=Helen|title=Memories of Abandonment and Ruination in Prespa, Greek Macedonia|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/765954|journal=Journal of Modern Greek Studies|volume=38|issue=2|year=2020|pages=426, 432, 434, 438|doi=10.1353/mgs.2020.0027|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Ntassiou375">{{cite journal|last=Ntassiou|first=Konstantina|title=Studying abandoned settlements' renaissance in the context of rural geography: perspectives for Prespes, Greece|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09654313.2021.1957085|journal=European Planning Studies|volume=30|issue=2|year=2022|page=375|doi=10.1080/09654313.2021.1957085|bibcode=2022EurPS..30..359N |url-access=subscription}} "Pyxos, Population < 150 (in 2011 census): YES; Proportion gradual difference 2011–1981 (%): 0; Pre-existing in 1923: YES; Characterization: abandoned; Type of architecture: ruins; Assessment of economy type: - "</ref> Most of the population of Pyxos and their descendants live in Perth.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos434">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|p=434}}.</ref> The village diaspora has established immigrants' clubs for community socialising and gatherings.<ref name="Vatsikopoulos440">{{harvnb|Vatsikopoulos|2020|p=440}}.</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Prespes div}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Populated places in Florina (regional unit) Category:Prespes