Elbasan

Elbasan ( , ; , ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central Albania.

Elbasan ( , ; , ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central Albania.

Roman Remains

Ruins of a Paleochristian basilica, built in the 5th or 6th century AD, were also found in Bezistan area. In August 2010 archaeologists discovered two Roman Era Illyrian graves near the walls of the castle of Elbasan. In 2026 a well-preserved polychrome mosaic with a Christian scene, and an inscription were found in the Roman-Byzantine quarter of Scampis, belonging to an earlier phase of the basilica.

Later History

(left) which got destroyed in 1967 and is now replaced by a new modernist building The site seems to have been abandoned until the Ottoman army built a military camp there, followed by urban reconstruction under Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1466¹. Mehmet constructed a massive four-sided castle with a deep moat and three gates. The name Elbasan is thought to mean 'the flat fortress' in Albanian or 'the flat province' in Turkish. He had built the castle in order to fight Skanderbeg, due to an ongoing conflict between the Ottomans and Albanians. from 1599 It became the seat of Sanjak of Elbasan, a centre of Ottoman urban civilisation over the next 445 years. Although Halil Inalcik explains that the Sanjak of Elbasan was established as soon as the fortress of Elbasan was constructed in 1466, based on Tursun Beg's records there is a possibility that Elbasan initially was part of the Sanjak of Ohrid. In 1467 many Christians from Skopje, Ohrid, Serres and Kastoria were forcibly deported to Elbasan. In the late 17th century, the Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi passed through Elbasan and noted that "all the inhabitants speak Albanian" having knowledge of Turkish with Muslim clergy being literate in Persian, while merchants also used the Greek and "Frankish" languages. By the end of the 17th century, it had 2,000 inhabitants¹. The fortress was dismantled by Reshit Pasha in 1832.In 1864, the Sanjak of Elbasan became a part of Monastir Vilayet. In the late nineteenth century, Elbasan was inhabited by 3,000 Muslim families and 280 Orthodox Christian families, of which 100 were old Orthodox Albanian families living in the old Christian neighbourhood within the fortress and 180 Aromanian families residing in the St. Nicholas neighbourhood on the edge of town. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was estimated that 15,000 people¹ lived in Elbasan. In 1909, after the Young Turks revolution in Istanbul, an Albanian National Congress was held in Elbasan to study educational and cultural questions. The delegates, all from central and southern Albania, endorsed the decision of the Congress of Monastir, which was held in Monastir (modern Bitola, North Macedonia) to use the Latin alphabet rather than the Arabic script in written Albanian. Albanians, Turks, Aromanians and Sephardic Jews were living in Elbasan. Before the Second World War, Elbasan was a city with a mixture of eastern and medieval buildings, narrow cobbled streets and a large bazaar. There was a clearly defined Muslim settlement within the castle walls, an Aromanian district on the outskirts of the city and several fine mosques and Islamic buildings. At the time the population was about 15,000 people. The very first teachers' training college in Albania, the Shkolla Normale e Elbasanit, was established in Elbasan. During First Balkan War, it was occupied by Serbian troops on 29 November 1912. They withdrew from Elbasan on 25 October 1913 due to United Kingdom and Austria Hungary's ultimatum. The Muslim majority of Elbasan opposed the installation of Prince Wied in 1914. Elbasan was occupied successively by Serbs, Bulgarians, Austrians and Italians between 1915 and 1918. The Bulgarian army occupied Elbasan on January 29, 1916, during Bulgarian occupation of Albania In March 1916 the army of Austria-Hungary took over control of Elbasan. From June 1916 to March 1917 Stanislav Kostka Neumann fought with the Austrian army there and called his war memoirs about the occupation in Elbasan. Industrial development began in the Zogist period when tobacco and alcohol factories were established. The city was also noted for its good public buildings, advanced educational provisions, public gardens and timber-built shops. There was much wartime damage, which was followed by an intensive programme of industrial development in the Communist period that boosted the city to around 75,000 inhabitants¹. The culmination of this process was the construction of the huge Steel of the Party ( ) metallurgical complex outside the city, in the Shkumbini valley, built with Chinese assistance in the 1970s. It was emphatically called "The Second National Liberation of Albanian" by Enver Hoxha. The cost of the complex in environmental impact was high for the Shkumbin valley. Elbasan Railway Station was opened in 1950. In 2014, the Albanian government reconstructed former Ruzhdi Bizhuta Stadium. The renovated Elbasan Arena became the home stadium of the Albania national football team and Albania's de facto stadium meeting FIFA's criteria.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1374307502 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.