The Španje (Cyrillic: Шпањe)[a] were a medieval people who inhabited parts of Upper Zeta and the region of Nikšić, in present-day Montenegro.
[4][3] The Španje are mostly remembered through the oral traditions of Montenegrin tribes such as the Bjelopavlići, Pješivci and Cuce, and among Albanians from Northern Albania and Western Kosovo.
[4] According to folk legends, they were the oldest inhabitants in the region, while also being in frequent conflict with many other tribes such as the Macure or the Bukumiri.
[5][6][7] Following the works of Jovan Erdeljanović and Petar Šobajić,[4] the Španje are generally considered a pre-Slavic, "Old Balkanic" people, namely Romanized Illyrians.
[8][4][9][10] Špiro Kulišić derives their name from Old Greek spanios, meaning 'naked', which might have been used by Greeks for the Illyrian inhabitants of the "naked" karst mountains; similarly, the name Pješivci derives from Slavic plješiv meaning 'bald', and could have been attributed to the inhabitants of those "naked" mountains (in Serbian, the demonym would be golobrđani).