Emmanouil Pappas () is a village in the Serres regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality of Emmanouil Pappas. It is situated in the foothills of mountain Menoikio, 17 km east of Serres, and 101 km northeast of Thessaloniki. The former name of the village was Dovista (Δοβίστα in standard Greek or Ντουβίστα/Duvista in the local dialect). It was renamed Emmanouil Pappas in 1927, after the hero of the Greek War of Independence in Macedonia who was born there in 1773.
The village is renowned for its traditional Macedonian architecture with three-story houses and picturesque narrow streets. The main attractions are the building of the old school that was built in 1906 and has been recently restored, the main church of Saint Athanasius, built in 1805 on the same spot where an older church existed, with its magnificent wooden carved iconostasis and the chapels on the surrounding hills.
History
The foundation of the village
The exact date of the foundation of the village remains unknown, despite the efforts of various local history researchers. It is documented, however, by an Ottoman tax register known as TT3 that there existed in 1454 a small settlement with the same name, Dovista, inhabited by 27 families (which means a possible population of around 100-130 inhabitants back then). Vasilis Kartsios, a researcher descending from Emmanouil Papas and author of various studies on local history, has claimed in his work "Dovista, a post-Byzantine settlement: history of Darnakochoria region with the birthplace of the hero Emmanouil Papas as benchmark" (Δοβίστα, μια υστεροβυζαντινή παροικία: η ιστορία των Δαρνακοχωρίων με σημείο αναφοράς τη γενέτειρα του ήρωα Εμμανουήλ Παπά, 1991) that the village was founded in the mid-17th century by Greek populations of the nearby Byzantine town of Zichna (near modern Nea Zichni), who had fled to the slopes of Mount Menoikio shortly after the Ottoman conquest of the area, remained there for some centuries in order to avoid oppression and arbitrariness of Ottoman authorities and landlords that were very common during the first centuries of Ottoman rule and eventually returned to the lowlands and founded new settlements only when Ottoman administration became less harsh. This hypothesis, however, is not supported after the discovery of TT3, at least in regards to the foundation date, while it cannot be excluded that the village pre-existed the Ottoman conquest of Serres and the vicinity, which happened in 1383.
Testimonies of 19th century travellers
In the next centuries the population of the village increased significantly and during the second half of the 19th century Dovista is described by various travellers, both Greeks and non-Greeks as a thriving big Greek village with a population of nearly or over 1,000 inhabitants. For instance, Vasilios Nikolaidis wrote in 1859 on Dovista in his Francophone book "Les Turcs et la Turquie contemporaine" (The Turks and contemporary Turkey, vol. 1, page 164):
"Nous nous dirigeons a l' est, pendant une heure; nous foulons un sol assez egal et nous atteignons le village de Douvista, compose de cent cinquante maisons grecques." (We head toward east, for an hour. We walk on a rather level ground and reach the village Douvista, which consists of 150 Greek houses).
The French geographer and professor of the Ottoman High School of Galata Saray in Istanbul Alexandre Synvet mentions Dovista (misspelled as "Dobitza") with 2,320 Greek inhabitants in 1878, in page 43 of his work "Les Grecs de l’Empire Ottoman. Etude Statistique et Ethnographique" (The Greeks of the Ottoman Empire. Statistical and ethnographic study).
Bulgarian Metodi Kusev (Методий Кусев), Exarchist Bishop of Stara Zagora, whose descent was from Ohrid, mentioned Dovista (as "Douvischta") with 212 families and 600 Greek inhabitants in page 28 of his Francophone book Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Andrinople, de Monastir et de Salonique (Ethnography of the Vilayets of Adrianople, Monastir and Salonica, 1878).
The major of the engineer corps of the Greek army Nikolaos Schinas (Νικόλαος Σχινάς) wrote in page 444 of his work "Travelling notes on Macedonia, Epirus, the new borderline and Thessaly, vol. 2" (1886) (Οδοιπορικαί σημειώσεις Μακεδονίας, Ηπείρου, νέας οροθετικής γραμμής και Θεσσαλίας, B τόμος):