From prehistoric times, this area was inhabited by the Phrygians, a people related to the Thracians, from whom the name Vrugnis was given to perhaps the only lake at the time.

With the wanderings of the Illyrians and other peoples around 1200 B.C., Macedonian tribes came to the mountainous regions of Western Macedonia and created small city states, which remained until the time of Philip the 2nd.

Western Macedonia at the time, was made up of a special geographic union under the name of “Upper Macedonia.”  (Herodotus, Thucydides, Stravon.)

Its inhabitants, who were farmers and cattle breeders, lived in small un-walled settlements near their farms.

After the Macedonian Kingdom was overthrown by the Romans, the area became part of the Fourth Province, from the four provinces in which Macedonia was divided.