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Kella Κέλλα
Community
Gkornitsovo, 1919
Kella
Coordinates: 40°47′N 21°41′E / 40.783°N 21.683°E / 40.783; 21.683
Country	Greece
Administrative region	Western Macedonia
Regional unit	Florina
Municipality	Amyntaio
Municipal unit	Amyntaio
Population
• Community	563
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Kella (Greek: Κέλλα, before 1926: Γκορνίτσοβον – Gkornitsovon; Bulgarian/Macedonian: Горничево, Gorničevo or Gornichevo) is a village in the Amyntaio municipality of the Florina regional unit, Greece.

History

The village was first mentioned in an Ottoman defter of 1468, where it is listed under the name of Gorničevo and described as a small settlement of thirty households. A second defter of 1481 records that the number had increased by only three households.

Around 1840, the land of the village was forcibly seized by the Muslim notable Ilyaz Pasha and it was turned into a homestead. Later, the local residents were able to redeem their property.

In the book “Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Adrianople, de Monastir et de Salonique”, published in Constantinople in 1878, that reflects the statistics of the male population in 1873, Gornitchévo was noted as a village with 160 households, 522 Bulgarian and 50 Romani inhabitants.

Following the Greek Civil War (1946–1949), the population decreased and 3–4 hundred families remained in the village. Kella had 877 inhabitants in 1981. In fieldwork done by anthropologist Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, Kella was populated by Slavophones. The Macedonian language was used by people of all ages, both in public and private settings, and as the main language for interpersonal relationships. Some elderly villagers had little knowledge of Greek.

In the diaspora, villagers are located in Skopje (a hundred families), Toronto in Canada (over a hundred families) and higher numbers in Melbourne, Australia. During the early years of the Macedonian naming dispute, internal splits occurred among the Kella community in Melbourne with the majority identifying as Macedonian and a minority as Greek.

Notes

1. "Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2021, Μόνιμος Πληθυσμός κατά οικισμό" [Results of the 2021 Population - Housing Census, Permanent population by settlement] (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 29 March 2024.
2. Institute for Neohellenic Research. "Name Changes of Settlements in Greece: Gkornitsovon – Kella". Pandektis. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
3. Δημοτικό Διαμέρισμα Κέλλης. Δήμος Αμυνταίου (in Greek). Archived from the original on January 9, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
4. Kravari, Vassiliki (1989). Villes et villages de Macédoine occidentale. Réalités byzantines (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Editions P. Lethielleux. p. 263. ISBN 2-283-60452-4.
5. Дебърски глас, година 2, брой 32, 22 февруари 1911, с. 2. - "Завладяните по тоя начин села са имали нещастието дълго време да бъдат чифлигари. По-после селяните са били заставяни с терор да откупуват с пари от пашата собствените си имоти, усвоени насила от него. По същия начин са се откупили полските села в Дебърско - Макелари, Клабучища, както и селата в Битолско - Остроро, Угорничево, в Ресенско - ..."
6. Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г. Македонски научен институт, 1995. стр. 82-83. (in Bulgarian)
7. ^ Danforth 1997, p. 9.
8. ^ Van Boeschoten, Riki (2001). "Usage des langues minoritaires dans les départements de Florina et d'Aridea (Macédoine)" [Use of minority languages in the departments of Florina and Aridea (Macedonia)]. Strates (in French). 10. Table 3: Kelli, 877; S, M1; S = Slavophones, M = macédonien"
9. Danforth, Loring M. (1997). The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton University Press. p. 9–10, 160. ISBN 9780691043579.

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