About Moscopole, Wace and Thomson note: “Its merchants had branch houses in Venice, Vienna, and Budapest. Locally it is believed that the town once contained eight or ten thousand houses and a population of about sixty thousand souls.
Moscopole possesses many churches, most of which now stand isolated among the stone-strewn hayfields that once were busy parishes. Along the slope of the hills about half an hour to the north lies the monastery of Moscopole dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The monastery church was built in 1632, and the majority of the churches in the town date between 1700 and 1760. If church-building is a sign of prosperity, then Moscopole flourished most between 1650 and 1750. Eventually, the harsh rule of Ali Pasha brought about its complete ruin, and its inhabitants were dispersed throughout the Balkans.
Today it is a small village, inhabited partly by Albanians and partly by Vlachs, some of whom are true natives and others Farsherots. Even in the days of its greatness, there was probably a considerable Farsherot element in the population. The Geography of the Thessalian monks Daniel and Gregory says that it had much wealth, twelve kinds of trades, a famous school, a printing press, and was adorned with all the beauties of a European city. The printing press was managed by a monk called Gregory who published religious books, of which ten are known.”
