Village in the region ("nomos") of Kozani, western Macedonia, Greece. Located on Mt. Voio, on an altitude of about 800 metres.
Its name is presumably derived from the greek word "kotyli" (hollow), as its site is indeed a hollow in the mountain. Possibly founded in the 15th century, when lots of Greek christians moved from the plains to mountainous areas after western Macedonia was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. The area became part of Greece during the First Balkan War in 1912.
Famous for its historical "Gymnasion" (High School), known as the "Tsotyleios Scholi", founded in 1871 by the Macedonian Educational Brotherhood of Constantinople, and notorious throughout Greece for its Boarding School, founded in 1958, where "trouble kids" from all over the country went to graduate when expelled and no ordinary school accepted them.
Proclaimed a municipality for historical reasons, despite its small population, in 1987, became an "extended" municipality (according to the greek government "Kapodistrias" plan, merging neighbouring towns and/or villages in common municipalities) in 1999. According to the 2001 census, the population of Tsotyli is 1596, while the total population of the municipality is 4753.