Dolna Bela Crkva (Macedonian: Долна Бела Црвка, meaning Lower White Church; Albanian: Bollocërkë e Poshtme) is a village in the Resen Municipality of North Macedonia, north of Lake Prespa. The village, located roughly 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the municipal centre of Resen,[1] has 237 residents.[2]
Dolna Bela Crkva
Долна Бела Црква Bollocërkë e Poshtme | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 Panoramic view of the village Dolna Bela Crkva | |
  Dolna Bela Crkva Location within North Macedonia | |
| Coordinates: 41°02′12″N 21°01′52″E / 41.03667°N 21.03111°E | |
| Country |  North Macedonia |
| Region |  Pelagonia |
| Municipality |  Resen |
| Population (2002) | |
• Total | 237 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Area code | +389 |
| Car plates | RE |
Demographics
editDolna Bela Crkva has an Orthodox ethnic Macedonian majority, with a significant Muslim Albanian Sunni and Bektashi minority, of whom the latter are known locally as Kolonjarë.[3][4] Sunni Albanians in Dolna Bela Crkva traditionally highlighted their religious identity over a linguistic one having closer economic and social relations with Turks and Macedonian Muslims in the region and being distant from Orthodox Macedonians.[4] Over time these differences have disappeared through intermarriage, closer communal and cultural relations with Bektashi and other Sunni Prespa Albanian communities in the region.[4]
As of the 2021 census, Dolna Bela Crkva had 179 residents.[5]
| Ethnic group |
census 1961 | census 1971 | census 1981 | census 1991 | census 1994 | census 2002 | census 2021 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Macedonians | 222 | 65.1 | 230 | 56.9 | 259 | 64.8 | 215 | 70.7 | 167 | 67.1 | 156 | 65.8 | 117 | 65.4 |
| Albanians | 119 | 34.9 | 173 | 42.8 | 138 | 34.5 | 82 | 27.0 | 82 | 32.9 | 81 | 34.2 | 56 | 31.3 |
| others | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.3 | 3 | 0.8 | 7 | 2.3 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources | 6 | 3.4 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 341 | 404 | 400 | 304 | 249 | 237 | 179 | |||||||
Gallery
edit-
Sign on main road hailing entrance into Dolna Bela Crkva -
Architecture of Dolna Bela Crkva -
Dolna Bela Crkva village centre -
Contemporary (left) and traditional (right) architecture of Dolna Bela Crkva -
Streetscape in part of Dolna Bela Crkva -
Orthodox church of Dolna Bela Crkva -
Old village well (built 1888) -
Cut firewood in a field of Dolna Bela Crkva -
Fields of Dolna Bela Crkva -
Apple orchard in Dolna Bela Crkva -
Dolna Bela Crkva river -
Fields of Dolna Bela Crkva
References
edit- ^ "Dolna Bela Crkva". Retrieved 24 August 2013.
- ^ "Municipality of Resen". Archived from the original on 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
- ^ Censuses of population 1948 - 2002 Archived October 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Sugarman, Jane (1997). Engendering song: Singing and subjectivity at Prespa Albanian weddings. University of Chicago Press. pp. 9–11. ISBN 9780226779720.
- ^ Total resident population of the Republic of North Macedonia by ethnic affiliation, by settlement, Census 2021