Podgorci (Macedonian: Подгорци, Albanian: Podgorcë) is a small village in the municipality of Struga, North Macedonia.
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History
The etymology of Podgorci may be the same/ similar to the etymology of Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro. Podgorica literally means "under the hill". Gorica, a diminutive of the word Gora, which is another word for Mountain or Hill, it means "little/small hill". This Slavic toponym is present throughout the Balkan region.
In 1900, Vasil Kanchov gathered and compiled statistics on demographics in the area and reported that the village of Podgorci was inhabited by about 600 Bulgarian Christians and 550 Bulgarian Muslims.
The "La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne" survey by Dimitar Mishev (D. Brankov) concluded that the Christian part of the local population in 1905 was composed of 288 Exarchist Bulgarians and 352 Patriarchist Bulgarians. There were Bulgarian and Serbian schools in the beginning of 20th century
According to the 1943 Albanian census, Podgorci (recorded as "Podgore") was inhabited by 260 Muslim Albanians and 952 Orthodox Bulgarians].
Demographics
Podgorci has been inhabited by Orthodox Christian Macedonians and a Torbeš population.
Population
As of the 2021 census, Podgorci had 2,430 residents with the following ethnic composition:
Turks 857
Others (including Torbeš) 642
Albanians 583
Macedonians 243
Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources 87
Bosniaks 18
2002 Population: 2,160
Macedonians 376
Albanians 573
Turks 564
Vlachs 7
Serbs 41
Other 599
Languages
Languages spoken among the population of Podgorci:
Macedonian 1995
Albanian 89
Turkish 22
Bosnian 1
Rest 53