Ottoman rule The village was founded in 1636 by
Eastern Orthodox Albanian dairymen who supplied the
Ottoman Army. They were allowed to pick a tract of land and were freed from
taxes imposed on non-Muslims. The bulk of the local Albanian speakers arrived in the 18th century from around
Korçë and in the 19th century from the region of
Souli in
Epirus. The locals preserved their Souliot national dress until the 19th century, when the
fustanella was substituted by
Thracian breeches. However, the female dress was preserved until the mass emigration to Greece in 1913. In the 19th century, Mandritsa was a small town of Greek-identifying Albanians in the
kaza of
Didymoteicho. In 1873, it was a village of 250 households with 1,080 Albanian residents. The main occupations were
sericulture,
tobacco growing, manufacture and trade. The village had three Greek educational institutions: a school for boys, a school for girls and a kindergarten.
Bulgaria and emigration Mandritsa exited from Ottoman rule on 15 October 1912, during the
First Balkan War, when it was taken by military units of the First Bulgarian Army, but was once again occupied by the Ottomans during the
Second Balkan War. According to the
Treaty of Constantinople, it was ceded to Bulgaria. A large number of the residents fled back to the
Ottoman Empire, where they remained as refugees for six months before heading to Greece in 1914 through
Constantinople and
Rodosto. Of the 480 families of the time, only 40 remained in Bulgaria, while 100 settled in the village of Hambarköy near
Kilkis, which was renamed
Mandres in their honour, while the others populated other villages in
Greek Macedonia and
Western Thrace. The Bulgarian government settled Bulgarian refugees from Thrace and
Macedonia (from the region of
Edessa). In 1929, another wave of emigration to Greece followed.
Today Today, Mandritsa is a small village of around 70 residents, part of them still speaking a distinct
Tosk Albanian dialect. The village has well-preserved three-storey adobe and brick houses which represent the Thracian style featuring wood-carved ceilings, wrought iron balconies and columns. Mandritsa has two churches: the small single-naved cemetery church of St Nedelya built in 1708, which is one of the oldest churches in the Eastern Rhodopes, and the three-naved village church of St Demetrius constructed in 1835, which is partially destroyed, but planned to be reconstructed. As of 2016, Mandritsa has a newly built small hotel with a bar and a restaurant. The hotel bears the name
Bukor shtepi, Albanian for "beautiful house". ==Language==