Ethniko Florina (Opsirina)

Just 13 km outside of Florina and to the left of the public road Florina-Agias Paraskevi (with the homonymous border post), is the small village of Ethniko.
It is built a few meters away from the boundary line between Greece and FYROM(North Macedonia).
Right on the border line, the monastery of Prophet Elias stands mute, bewailed by the injustice of the greats, sulking under the foreign burden imposed on it by the greats of that time with the demarcation of the border.
It was named Ethniko for the many wonderful national services it rendered to the Macedonian Indepedence War. Its inhabitants all actively participated in it.
They formed armed groups led by Marko Papoulkas, Chr. Kreska, the priest Papa Dimitris Magos, Petros Papoulkas, N. Sfetkopou, St. Sekoulidis and others and did not allow any Bulgarian gang to set foot in the village. Their example was imitated by the other neighbouring villages and thus in a short time they managed to remove the Bulgarian propaganda and save their area.
And when Markos Papoulkas and Chr. Kreskas were fraudulently captured by the Bulgarians and were led to the place of martyrdom with unheard of torture, they shouted until the last moment that: “Greeks were born greeks and will die”.
From some archaeological findings, which quite by chance the excavation brought to light, it is proved that in this place there was still a Greek village in BC. In front of the village school, statues of white marble were found. One of them represents the head of the goddess Athena. Tombs, various coins of the era of Alexander the Great and Constantine the Great, clay pots etc. were also found.
The oldest of the inhabitants narrate with national pride that the first Greek school was opened in the village in 1745 and the first teacher was Papa-Koninos Magos, a priest-teacher from the village.
Of particular interest is the architecture of the village and the church of Agios Nikolaos.

Edited by Nassos St. Papadakis
SOURCE: https://florina-history.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post_11.html
SOURCE OF PHOTOS: Christos Tegos