History
The village was first mentioned in an Ottoman defter of 1468, where it is listed under the name of Kleshtino and described as having ninety-seven households. In 1481, the village possessed two hundred and thirteen households, a church, mills, and a kiln. The Turkish documents suggest a prosperous place, noting the production of vines, walnuts, onions, garlic, cabbage, peas, flax, honey, pigs, and silkworms.
In 1845 the Russian slavist Victor Grigorovich recorded Kleshtina (Клештина) as mainly Bulgarian village. Johann Georg von Hahn in his map from 1861 marked the village as Bulgarian, too. Besides Slav-speaking population there were 150 Albanians in Kato Kleines in the end of 19th century.
After Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and Population exchange between Greece and Turkey a number of Pontic Greeks were settled in the village of Kato Kleines and in some other villages in the minucipality - Kato Kaliniki, Poliplatano, Mesokambos and in the new-founded Neos Kavkasos.
Read more about this topic: Kato Kleines
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