| Surname: | Spata |
| Type: | Noble family |
| Native Name: | Shpata |
| Other Name: | Spatas |
| Country: | Medieval Albania |
| Estates: |
|
| Parent House: | Bua (tribe) |
| Titles: | count, despot |
| Founder: | Gjin Bua Shpata |
| Other Families: | Arianiti family |
The Spata (Albanian: Shpata), were a noble Albanian family active in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, initially as Venetian vassals and later as Ottoman vassals. The family's progenitors were the brothers Gjin Bua Shpata and Skurra Bua Shpata. Shpata means "sword" in Albanian.
In the first half of the 14th century, mercenaries, raiders and migrants known in Greek as Άλβανοί (Albanoi or "Albanians") flooded into Greece (specifically raiding Thessaly in 1325 and 1334).[1] In 1358, Albanians got regions of Epirus, Acarnania and Aetolia to rule for their support in Serbian campaign and established two principalities under their leaders, Gjin Bua Shpata and Pjetër Losha.[2] Naupactus (Lepanto) was later taken in 1378.[2] The Shpata family frequently collaborated with the Ottomans and saw them as protectors.[3]
Although German historian Karl Hopf provided a genealogy of the Shpata family, it is deemed by modern scholarship as "altogether inaccurate".[4]
According to Schirò, Shpata family was not kin (blood relatives) with the later Bua family.[5] However this theory is rejected and their first name was Bua, while the name Spata appears to them as a second name, creating a cadet branch of the Buas.[6]