The names of some cities are compound formations, expanding with the addition of the suffix -o from an anthroponym and the lemma -polis (-pol): Konstantin-o-polis, (Konstantin-o-pol), for Istanbul; Alban-o-polis, (Alban-o-pol) for Zgërdhesh of Kruja; Adrian-o-polis, (Adrian-o-pol) for Nëprevishat of Gjirokastra, etc.

[4][full citation needed] The name also appears in Lower Silesia, in Poland - Opole,[4] and in Russia - Opolye.

[5] Sheltered by high mountain ranges of strong and cold winds, Gora and Opolje does not have harsh winters.

[9] The surrounding region possesses a good amount of Aromanian toponyms which Dumbrowski argues show the linguistic situation before Slavification.

[10] In one of Nemanja’s charters giving property to Hilandar, 170 Vlachs are mentioned, located in villages around Prizren.

When Dečanski founded his monastery of Dečani in 1330, he referred to ‘villages and katuns of Vlachs and Albanians’ in the area of the white Drin.

[11] King Stefan Dečanski granted the Visoki Dečani monastery with pasture land along with Vlach and Albanian katuns around Drim and Lim rivers of whom had to carry salt and provide serf labour for the monastery[12] In 1455, the southern territories of the Serbian Despotate were annexed by the Ottomans, and organized into the beylerbeylik of Rumelia.

In the second half of the 16th century, the Ottoman defters of 1571 and 1591 indicated that Opoja had become a territorial administrative division with a dominant Timar system.

[18] During the Kosovo war (1999), Albanians from Opoja fled to neighbouring Albania in cars, trucks and tractors along with others on foot that following the conflict returned home.