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View of Korçë from the Heroes' Cemetery overlooking the town

'Korçë' (Albanian: ''Korçë'' or ''Korça'', Greek: Κορυτσά, ''Koritsá''; Italian: ''Corizza'', South Slavic: ''Корча'', ''Korcha'' or ''Корче, Korče'', Aromanian: ''Curceaua'', Turkish: ''Görice'') is a major city in the Korçë District of south-eastern Albania, located at near the border with Greece. It has a population of around 60,000 people (2003 estimate), making it the fifth largest city in Albania. It stands on a plateau some 850 m (2,800 feet) above sea level, surrounded by the Morava Mountains.

Contents

History

Culture

Education

Economy

Archeology

Sport

References

See also

History

The Korça region has been inhabited from the earliest times with Neolithic remains found indicating occupation of the city from 4000 BC on. The Copper ( Bakri) epoch, lasted from 3000 BC to 2100 BC, followed by a Bronze Age.
A town Coviza is mentioned in medieval documents in 1280. The modern town dates from the end of the 15th Century, when Iljaz Hoxha, under the command of Sultan Mehmet II, developed Korça. The Ottoman occupation began in 1440, and after Hoxha's heroic role in the siege of Constantinople, in 1453; he was awarded the title, 'Iljaz Bey Mirahor'. Korçë was a sandjak of the Manastir vilayet in Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman rule over Korçë lasted until 1912 but the city's proximity to Greece, who claimed the entire Orthodox population as Greek, led to its being fiercely contested in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. The city was occupied by Greek forces in 6 December 1912. Its incorporation into Albania in 1913 was controversial, as Greece claimed it as part of a region called "Northern Epirus". However, in accordance with the Corfu Protocol signed between Greece and Albania in 1914 and the ethnographic survey that preceded it, the city was included in the newly formed Autonomous Northern Epirus zone, the autonomous status of which, however, never came into being.
Greek forces took over the city on 10 July 1914 during the early part of the First World War, which had not really started anywhere else at this point. In fact this act preceeded the Autro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia by 13 days. As Wordl War I proceeded, Korce was then taken by the Austro-Hungarians, then by the Greeks again and finally by France, which occupied Korçë between 1916-1920. It ultimately remained part of Albania, as determined by the International Boundary Commission which affirmed the country's post-war borders.
However a Republic of Korce was proclaimed there in 1918. This was meant to be a forerunner of the Republic of Pindus which was supposed to become an autonomous Vlach or Aromanian state.
During the inter-war period, the city became a hotbed of Communist agitation. Albania's future dictator, Enver Hoxha, lived there and was both a pupil and a teacher at the town's French school. Korçë's underground Communist movement became the nucleus of Hoxha's Albanian Party of Labour.
Korçë was occupied by Italian forces in 1939, along with the rest of the country. After the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War, it was liberated by the Greek Army in November 1940, and remained under Greek sovereignty until the German attack in April 1941. After Italy's withdrawal from the war in 1943, the town was occupied by the Germans until October 24, 1944.
During the occupation, the city became a major centre of Communist-inspired resistance to the Axis occupation of Albania. The establishment of the Albanian Party of Labour – the Communist Party – was formally proclaimed in Korçë in 1941. Albanian rule was restored in 1944 following the withdrawal of German forces.
After the war, the area suffered from Hoxha's dictatorial regime, who fought against the rich despite the fact that they fought against the occupation. Thousands of people from Korca were sent in concentration camps or executed, just because they disagreed with Hoxha's regime. Hundreds of people escaped from Korca, to settled in Boston, USA. After 1990 Korca was one of the six cities where newly Democratic Party won all the constituencies. Popular revolts in February 1991 ended with the fall of Hoxha statue. It is a multiethnic city, with a majority Albanian population with a small minority population comprised of Greeks, Aromanians, Macedonians and Romas .

Culture

Korçë has been an important religious center for Orthodox Christians and Muslims for centuries. It is the seat of an Orthodox metropolitan bishop and also possesses a large 15th century mosque. There is also a sizeable Bektashi Muslim community in and around Korçë, with its main center being the Turan Tekke.
During the Ottoman period it became one of the centres of the growing Albanian identity. The first school teaching in the Albanian language was established there in 1887, followed by Albania's first school for girls in 1891.

Education

Korçë is famous for the high level of education of its high schools, mostly in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and foreign languages. Some of them are:
Shkolla e Mesme e Pergithshme "Raqi Qirinxhi", "Themistokli Germenji", "Gjuhet e Huaja", "Shkolla Bujqesore", etj. Students with a degree from these schools are ready to attend brightly all the best Universities of Europe and USA. The city is also home of "Fan S. Noli University" which offers several degrees in humanities, business, and sciences.

Economy

During the 20th century, Korçë gained a substantial industrial capacity in addition to its historic role as a commercial and agricultural centre. The plateau on which the city stands is highly fertile and is one of Albania's main wheat-growing areas. Local industries include the manufacture of knitwear, rugs, textiles, flour-milling, brewing, and sugar-refining. Deposits of lignite coal are mined in the mountains nearby such as Mborje-Drenove.

Archeology

The following excerpt is from N.G.L Hammond's ''Alexander's Campaign in Illyria'':
"The district of Tren has an extraordinarily large number of fortifications. They are as follows.
Kalaja e Ventrokut
The River Tren which once flowed from Lake Ventrok into the Devoll has been replaced by the Ventrok Channel, which is part of the modern system of irrigation. On the north side of this Channel and a short distance before one comes to the narrow passage which is known as the Gryke e Ujkut, there is a considerable limestone hill, an offshoot of Mt Spile. The western side of the hill falls very steeply to the plain, and on the top of this western side there is a fortification wall of rough stones which is canted on the outer face only. The wall runs for some 280 m along the top and at two high points behind it there are two artificial tumuli. The side of the hill which faces the Gryke e Ujkut is less steep; between it and the Gryke e Ujkut there is a level space alongside the Ventrok Channel.
Kalaja e Shpelles
On the south side of the Ventrok Channel there is a limestone bluff which is partly alongside the narrow passage. Some of its cliffs overhang the passage, and at the foot of one of them, near the narrowest part of the passage, is situated the cave of Tren, which has been excavated. It was occupied first in the Balkan Eneolithic period. It and the adjacent area were 'important centres of habitation' in the Late Bronze Age with evidence of agriculture, pastoralism, fishing and hunting. It was occupied again late in the Hellenistic period and in the early medieval period. ... Half-way or so up this east side of the bluff there is wall which runs parallel to the top of the bluff for a distance of some 90 m; this at least as far as the wall had been cleared by excavation when we were there. The wall, made of rough stones, some small and others up to a metre long, is some three metres wide. Many shards of painted pottery, dated to the Early Iron Age, probably to the ninth and eighth centuries, lay on the ground inside the wall, showing that it had been an inhabited and fortified site.
Kalaja e Trajanit
On this surface we were able to see a series of five fortification walls, each running roughly at right-angles to the line of cliffs which overhang the narrow passage; the eastern ends of these walls are linked by a single wall. There is a small area at the highest point which is enclosed by a wall. The total length of this system of walls is some three kilometres; it provides defence in depth.
Kalaja e Mokut
To the south-east of Mt Trajan and above the village of Tren there is a single wall of fortification which runs up the steep hillside and crosses over the ridge. The wall is some 500m long. It served as a defence against attack from the south or the east. This wall too is clearly seen from the plain below.
Shuec
Beyond the narrow passage and on the north side of Lake Ventrok some rising ground is fortified with an agger. This agger and the settlement it encloses are of the Early Iron Age. Two tumuli which date probably to the same period are visible on the flat ground near the agger.
Gorice
..."
Other documented locations include the following:
Bulgareci
Vashtëmia
Podgorie
Bellovodë
Symizë
Ventrok
Trajan
Tren
Bilisht
Zvezdë
Drenovë
Barç
Kuçi i Zi
Kamenicë
Rëmbec

Sport

★ The football (soccer) club is KS Skënderbeu Korçë, Albanian Champion on 1933.

References

★ N.G.L Hammond, ''Alexander's Campaign in Illyria'', The Journal of Hellenic Studies, pp 4-25. 1974

★ James Pettifer, ''Albania & Kosovo'', A & C Black, London (2001, ISBN 0713650168)

★ François Pouqueville, ''Voyage en Morée, à Constantinople, an Albanie, et dans plusieurs autres parties de l'Empire othoman, pendant les années 1798, 1799, 1800 et 1801.'' (1805)

★ T.J. Winnifrith ''Badlands-Borderlands A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania'' (2003)

See also

★ List of cities in Albania