Lia

History

Lia was a small mountain village of shepherds and farmers in the Mourgana range, near the Albanian border, for most of the 20th century known only locally. In 1947-48, during the Greek Civil War, Communist Democratic Army forces occupied the village, forcibly evacuating children to Eastern Bloc countries in the 'paidomazoma' and executing residents accused of resisting, including Eleni Gatzoyiannis in August 1948 for helping her children escape to relatives in the United States. Her son, journalist Nicholas Gage (born Nikolaos Gatzoyiannis), later recounted these events in his 1983 memoir Eleni, which brought the village international attention; the family's restored house is now open to visitors.

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