Krakornica

Krakornica (Кракорница, Krakarnicë) is a village in the municipality of Mavrovo and Rostuša, North Macedonia.

Geography
Krakornica is located between the Korab and Šar Mountains. It is located 31km from the town of Gostivar. At an altitude of 1530 m, it is considered the highest inhabited settlement in North Macedonia.

History
Krakornica (Kurakornica) is recorded in the Ottoman defter of 1467 as a village in the ziamet of Reka. The settlement had a total of three households represented by household heads all bearing Albanian anthroponymy.

According to Ethnographie des Vilayets D'Andrinople, de Monastir, et de Salonique, published in Constantinople in 1878, the village had a total of 80, households with 83 Muslim Albanian and 120 Orthodox Albanian inhabitants. In statistics gathered by Vasil Kanchov in 1900, the village of Krakornica was inhabited by 180 Orthodox Albanians and 180 Muslim Albanians. In 1905 in statistics gathered by Dimitar Mishev Brancoff, Krakornica was inhabited by 210 Albanians and had a Bulgarian school. Christian Albanians were attracted by Serbian propaganda and according to the statistics of the newspaper " Debarski Glas " in 1911 there were 64 Albanian Patriarchist houses in Krakornica.

Due to the Balkan Wars, Muslim residents of Krakornica abandoned the village.

According to a 1929 ethnographic map by Russian Slavist Afanasy Selishchev, Krakornica was an Albanian village.

Demographics
Krakornica's population in Yugoslav and Macedonian censuses has been ethnic Macedonian. According to the 2021 census, Krakornica had 1 resident.

Culture
In 2007 author Edibe Selimi-Osmani recorded a number of folk songs of the Upper Reka region. Among these the song Trandafil në ferrë (rose amongst the thorns) is recorded from the Krakornica native and Albanian speaker Grozda Nikolovska.