where the
Case di Albanesi (lit.
Houses of the Albanians) can be seen outside the walls and the castles of their neighbouring communities
Castel di Greci (lit.
Castle of the Greeks) and
Castello di Franchi (lit.
Castle of the Francs) can be seen within. Early 16th century. Arvanites in Greece originate from
Albanian settlers who moved south from areas in what is today southern
Albania during the Middle Ages. These Albanian movements into Greece are recorded for the first time in the late 13th and early 14th century. The reasons for this migration are not entirely clear and may be manifold. In many instances the Albanians were invited by the
Byzantine and
Latin rulers of the time. They were employed to re-settle areas that had been largely depopulated through wars, epidemics, and other reasons, and they were employed as soldiers. Some later movements are also believed to have been motivated to evade
Islamization after the
Ottoman conquest. Groups of Albanians moved into
Thessaly as early as 1268, as mercenaries of
Michael Doukas. The
Albanian tribes of
Bua,
Malakasioi and
Mazaraki were described as "unruly" nomads living in the mountains of Thessaly in the early 14th century in
Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos' 'History'. They numbered approximately 12,000. Kantakouzenos describes a pact they made to serve the Byzantine Emperor and pay tribute to him ca. 1332 in exchange for using the lowland areas of Thessaly in the summer months. Albanian groups were given military holdings
Fanari in the 1330s and by the end of the 14th century and the Ottoman takeover of the region, they were an integral part of the military structures of Thessaly. Two of their military leaders known in Byzantine sources as Peter and John Sebastopoulos controlled the small towns of
Pharsala and
Domokos. Ottoman control began in the late 14th century with the capture of Larissa in 1392-93 and consolidated in the early 15th century. Nevertheless, Ottoman control was threatened throughout this era by groups of Greeks, Albanians and Vlachs who based themselves in the mountainous areas of Thessaly. The main waves of migration into southern Greece started from 1350, reached a peak some time during the 14th century, and ended around 1600. Albanians first reached Thessaly, then
Attica, and finally the Peloponnese. One of the larger groups of Albanian settlers, amounting to 10,000, settled the Peloponnese during the reign of
Theodore I Palaiologos, first in
Arcadia and subsequently in the more southern regions around
Messenia,
Argolis,
Elis and
Achaea. Around 1418, a second large group arrived, possibly fleeing
Aetolia,
Acarnania and
Arta, where Albanian political power had been defeated. After the Ottoman incursion in 1417, other groups from Albania crossed western Greece and may have infiltrated into Achaea. The settled Albanians practiced a nomadic lifestyle based on pastoralism, and spread out into small villages. villages of
Calabria and
Sicily. On the other hand, in an effort to control the remaining Albanians, during the second half of the 15th century, the Ottomans adopted favorable tax policies towards them, likely in continuation of similar Byzantine practices. This policy had been discontinued by the early 16th century. Albanians often took part in wars on the side of the
Republic of Venice against the Ottomans, between 1463 and 1715. During the
Greek War of Independence, many Arvanites played an important role on fighting on the Greek side against the Ottomans, often as national Greek heroes. With the formation of modern nations and nation-states in the
Balkans, Arvanites have come to be regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation. In 1899, leading representatives of the Arvanites in Greece, including descendants of the independence heroes, published a manifesto calling their fellow Albanians outside Greece to join in the creation of a common Albanian-Greek state. After the Greek War of Independence, Arvanites contributed greatly to the fulfilment of irredentist concept of
Megali Idea which aimed to see all Greek populations in the Ottoman Empire freed and came to a halt with the end of the
Greco-Turkish war in 1922. Up to the early 20th century, Albanian, in the form of the Arvanitika dialect, was the main language of the Greek naval fleet, because a high proportion of its sailors came from Albanian-speaking islands of Greece. For example, in Hydra men spoke both Albanian and Greek, with the former used to speak with each other and sing songs in the sea. Many women though spoke only Albanian. In the small 19th-century Kingdom of Greece, and specifically in , it is estimated that around 16–25% of the population was Albanian (Arvanite); That population spoke Albanian as its mother language, even in the absence of Albanian schools and alphabet, as the state discouraged any expression of Albanian national identity and nationalism. Although the Albanian speakers were considered Greeks, which they were not, there was a glimpse of
Albanianism as expressed by some intellectuals such as
Tasos Neroutsos,
Anastas Kullurioti,
Anastas Byku and
Panayotis Koupitoris. During the 20th century, after the creation of the Albanian nation-state, Arvanites in Greece have come to dissociate themselves much more strongly from the Albanians, stressing instead their national self-identification as Greeks. At the same time, it has been suggested that many Arvanites in earlier decades maintained an assimilatory stance, leading to a progressive loss of their traditional language and a shifting of the younger generation towards Greek. 's ethnographic map of the
Peloponnese, 1890; Albanian-speaking areas in red. ) At some times, particularly under the nationalist
4th of August Regime under
Ioannis Metaxas of 1936–1941, Greek state institutions followed a policy of actively discouraging and repressing the use of Arvanitika. The Arvanitika-speaking communities in the Athens area came under greater pressure, as their presence was seen as damaging the purity of the ethnic heritage. The Arvanites were persecuted by the state in different ways. During
World War II their position improved to some degree after members of the community helped other Greeks serving in the Albanian front. In the decades following World War II and the
Greek Civil War, many Arvanites came under pressure to abandon Arvanitika in favour of monolingualism in the national language, and especially the archaizing
Katharevousa which remained the official variant of Greek until 1976. This trend was prevalent especially during the
Greek military junta of 1967–1974. ==Demographics==