Kleisoura, Kastoria
village in Kastoria, Western Macedonia, Greece
Kleisoura (formerly Vlachokleisoura; Greek: Κλεισούρα, also Βλαχοκλεισούρα, Vlachokleisoúra; Aromanian: Clisura or Vlahoclisura) is a traditionally Aromanian (Vlach) settlement and a former municipality in Kastoria regional unit, Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality of Kastoria, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 37.069 km2 and a population of 223 (as of 2021).
Kleisoura massacre
On 5 April 1944, Bulgarian militiamen as well as German occupation forces of 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division, the same unit to later that year commit the massacre in Distomo, slaughtered the women and children of Kleisoura in retaliation for the execution of three German soldiers by ELAS close to the village. The ELAS guerrillas, led by Alexis Rosios from Siatisti ("Captain Ypsilantis"), who were active in the region, had attacked a German military phalanx at Daouli, close to Kleisoura, and had killed a vanguard of three motorcyclists. According to testimonies, the male residents, fearing retaliation, fled to the mountains surrounding the village.
After finding the mutilated bodies of the Wehrmacht soldiers close to the local church, the German SS unit went to the homes, broke the doors of the majority of the houses, shot the people within, set fire to the buildings and also killed whom they found in the streets. Altogether 270 residents were killed, the overwhelming majority of them being women, children and elderly people. Involved in the atrocities was also a Bulgarian militia under German command, led by Andon Kalchev. Colonel Karl Schümers was summoned by the German administration for having ordered the slaughter of women and children.
The public source identifies “Kleisoura, Kastoria” as village in Kastoria, Western Macedonia, Greece. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kleisoura, Kastoria and village.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2603372. Authority coordinates are 40.536, 21.469. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2021 and 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kleisoura, Kastoria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.