40°51′19″N 20°58′58″E / 40.855222°N 20.982750°E
Prespa (Macedonian: Преспа, Greek: Πρέσπα, Albanian: Prespë) is a region shared between North Macedonia, Greece and Albania. It shares the same name with the two Prespa lakes which are situated in the middle of the region. The largest town is Resen in North Macedonia with 9,000 inhabitants.
The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire which began after the Bulgars conquered parts of the Balkan peninsula after 680 AD. The Byzantine and First Bulgarian Empire continued to clash over the next century with varying success, until the Bulgarians, led by Krum, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Byzantines. After Krum died in 814, his son Omurtag negotiated a thirty-year peace treaty. Simeon I had multiple successful campaigns against the Byzantines during his rule from 893 to 927. His son Peter I negotiated another long-lasting peace treaty. His rule was followed by a period of decline of the Bulgarian state.
In 971 John I Tzimiskes, the Byzantine emperor, subjugated much of the weakening Bulgarian Empire by defeating Boris II and capturing Preslav, the Bulgarian capital. Samuel managed to stabilize the Bulgarian state with its center around the town of Prespa. Near the end of his rule, the Byzantines regained the upper hand, and under Basil II they won the Battle of Kleidion and completely conquered Bulgaria in 1018. There were rebellions against Byzantine rule from 1040 to 1041, and in the 1070s and the 1080s, but these failed. In 1185, however, Theodore Peter and Ivan Asen started a revolt, and the weakening Byzantine Empire, facing internal dynastic troubles of its own, was unable to quash the revolt.
David (Church Slavonic: Даві́дъ Bulgarian: Давид; died 976) was a Bulgarian noble, brother of Emperor Samuel and eldest son of komes Nicholas, member of the Cometopuli dynasty. After the disastrous invasion of Rus' armies and the fall of North-eastern Bulgaria under Byzantine occupation in 971, he and his three younger brothers took the lead of the defence of the country. They executed their power together and each of them governed and defended a separate region. He ruled the southernmost parts of the realm from Prespa and Kastoria and was responsible for the defence the dangerous borders with Thessalonica and Thessaly. In 976 he participated in the major assault against the Byzantine Empire but was killed by vagrant Vlachs between Prespa and Kostur.
Mala Prespa (Macedonian and Bulgarian: Мала Преспа, lit. 'Small Prespa') is a term used to denote a geographical area in eastern Albania, part of the wider region of Prespa. It is located on the western shore of Lake Prespa along the southeastern edge of Albania within the wider Korçë County and bordering the Pogradec and Devoll municipalities. The area is synonymous with Pustec Municipality.
It is officially recognised as a Macedonian minority zone. According to the 2011 Census, in Albania there are about 5,000 Macedonians, primarily in the Mala Prespa area, forming 97% of the population of the Pustec Municipality. This area also contains small numbers of Aromanians (Arvanito-Vlachs) and, according to Bulgarian sources, Bulgarians.
A cave monastery is a monastery built in caves, with possible outside facilities. The 3rd-century monk St. Anthony the Great, known as the founder of Christian monasticism, lived in a cave.
