{"id":2249,"date":"2016-09-01T09:32:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T09:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/domainalbania.website\/gjirokastra\/gjirokastra\/?page_id=2249"},"modified":"2016-09-21T09:43:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T09:43:52","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/?page_id=2249","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The name <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gjirokastra is often known as \u201cthe City of Stone\u201d and its most distinctive feature is the silvery-colored limestone which gives the city its character.\u00a0 The stone is quarried nearby and is used in the construction of buildings, roofs and streets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No one knows for certain the origin of the name \u201cGjirokastra\u201d. A popular story maintains that it refers to the Princess Argyra, in the 15<sup>th<\/sup> century. It is said that when the town was captured by the Ottoman Turks (by 1420)\u00a0 Argyra (Argjiro in the local language) was so desperate not to be taken by the enemy, that she threw herself and her young son from the top of the castle battlements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">More realistically, it may take its name from the <em>Argyers<\/em>, an ancient tribe living in the Drino valley or from the Greek word for silver <em>argyros<\/em> \u2013 a reference to the way the stone walls and slate roofs shimmer in the rain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The only certainty is that the first historical record of Gjirokastra appears in the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century when the Byzantine chronicle Kantakuzen refers to a city and a castle at <em>Argyrokastron.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width=&#8221;2&#8243; grid_id=&#8221;vc_gid:1474450851534-fa280a2f-ae15-3&#8243; include=&#8221;2365,2366,2367,2368,2373,2374&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The name Gjirokastra is often known as \u201cthe City of Stone\u201d and its most distinctive feature is the silvery-colored limestone which gives the city its character.\u00a0 The stone is quarried nearby and is used in the construction of buildings, roofs and streets. No one knows for certain the origin of the name \u201cGjirokastra\u201d. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}