Elbasan Elbasani

Roman origins: Mansio Scampa and the Via EgnatiaApprofondimento

In the second century BC, a Roman trading post recorded in Latin as Mansio Scampa developed near the site of modern Elbasan, close to a junction of two branches of the Via Egnatia. That road connected the Adriatic coast with Byzantium and was one of the most important routes of the Roman Empire. The settlement's position at this junction gave it strategic and commercial significance from its earliest recorded history.

By the third or fourth century AD, Scampa had grown into a walled city protected by a substantial Roman fortress with towers covering around 300 square metres. The city appears on late antique itineraries, including the Tabula Peutingeriana and the Itinerarium Burdigalense, under the names Scampis or Hiscampis. By the fifth century it had a bishop, a cathedral, and basilicas, reflecting the spread of Christianity along the Via Egnatia.

The Roman-Byzantine quarter was located outside the walls of the ancient fortress, and included an early Christian basilica situated beyond the city's fortifications. Emperor Justinian later improved the fortifications after the withdrawal of the legions left the town exposed in its wide river valley. The city survived attacks by the Bulgars and Ostrogoths and is mentioned in the writings of Procopius of Caesarea.

Archaeological discoveries at the Scampis siteApprofondimento

Ruins of a Paleochristian basilica, dated to the fifth or sixth century AD, were found in the Bezistan area of modern Elbasan. 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 depicting a Christian scene, accompanied by an inscription, was found in the Roman-Byzantine quarter of Scampis. The mosaic was determined to belong to an earlier phase of the basilica already identified at the site, adding further evidence of the settlement's continuous occupation and its early Christian character.

Ottoman foundation: Mehmed the Conqueror and the 1466 castleApprofondimento

After what appears to have been a period of abandonment, the site re-entered recorded history when the Ottoman army established a military camp there, followed by urban reconstruction under Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1466. Mehmed constructed a massive four-sided castle with a deep moat and three gates, built in the context of the ongoing Ottoman conflict with the Albanian leader Skanderbeg.

The name Elbasan is derived from the Ottoman Turkish il-basan, meaning 'the fortress.' Alternative interpretations suggest it may mean 'the flat fortress' in Albanian or 'the flat province' in Turkish. The settlement became the seat of the Sanjak of Elbasan. Although historian Halil Inalcik, drawing on records by Tursun Beg, holds that the Sanjak of Elbasan was established as soon as the fortress was built in 1466, there is a possibility, noted in the same sources, that Elbasan was initially part of the Sanjak of Ohrid.

In 1467, many Christians from Skopje, Ohrid, Serres, and Kastoria were forcibly deported to Elbasan, a policy reflecting standard Ottoman practice of demographic reorganisation in newly consolidated territories. The fortress that defined the early city was dismantled by Reshit Pasha in 1832, removing the most visible trace of Mehmed's original construction.

Elbasan under Ottoman rule: society and populationApprofondimento

By the end of the seventeenth century, Elbasan had approximately 2,000 inhabitants. The Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi passed through the city in the late seventeenth century and recorded that all the inhabitants spoke Albanian, that Muslim clergy had knowledge of Turkish and literacy in Persian, and that merchants also used Greek and what he called 'Frankish' languages.

In 1864, the Sanjak of Elbasan became part of the Monastir Vilayet. By the late nineteenth century, the city was inhabited by approximately 3,000 Muslim families and 280 Orthodox Christian families. Of the Orthodox population, 100 were described as old Albanian Orthodox families living in the historic Christian neighbourhood within the fortress, and 180 were Aromanian families residing in the St. Nicholas neighbourhood on the edge of the city. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the population was estimated at 15,000.

Before the Second World War, Elbasan retained much of its Ottoman urban character, with eastern and medieval buildings, narrow cobbled streets, and a large bazaar. There was a defined Muslim settlement within the castle walls, an Aromanian district on the outskirts, and several mosques and Islamic buildings. The population at that time was approximately 15,000. Albanians, Turks, Aromanians, and Sephardic Jews all lived in the city during the late Ottoman period.

The 1909 Albanian National Congress and the alphabet questionApprofondimento

In 1909, following the Young Turks revolution in Istanbul, an Albanian National Congress was held in Elbasan to address educational and cultural matters. The delegates, all from central and southern Albania, endorsed the decision of the earlier Congress of Monastir — held in Monastir, modern Bitola in North Macedonia — to use the Latin alphabet rather than Arabic script for written Albanian.

The decision was contested locally. Muslim clerics influenced by the Ottoman Empire held demonstrations in Elbasan in favour of retaining the Arabic script. The Saint Mary Orthodox Church in the city centre served as the location of the first Albanian-language school of Elbasan in modern times, which opened in 1909, in the same year as the Congress.

Occupation and wartime history, 1912–1918Approfondimento

During the First Balkan War, Serbian troops occupied Elbasan on 29 November 1912. They withdrew on 25 October 1913 following an ultimatum from the United Kingdom and Austria-Hungary. The Muslim majority of the city opposed the installation of Prince Wied in 1914.

Between 1915 and 1918, Elbasan was occupied successively by Serbian, Bulgarian, Austro-Hungarian, and Italian forces. The Bulgarian army occupied the city on 29 January 1916, and in March 1916 Austro-Hungarian forces took control. From June 1916 to March 1917, the Czech writer Stanislav Kostka Neumann served with the Austrian army in Elbasan and later recorded the occupation in his war memoirs.

The first teachers' training college in Albania, the Shkolla Normale e Elbasanit, was established in Elbasan. Its significance as an educational centre predated the wartime occupations and gave the city a prominent place in Albanian national cultural development.

Communist-era industrialisation and the Steel of the Party complexApprofondimento

Industrial development had begun during the Zog regime with tobacco and alcohol factories, but the most intensive phase of development came under the communist government. The city grew from approximately 15,000 inhabitants before the Second World War to around 75,000 as a result of the industrialisation programme.

The culmination of this process was the construction of the Steel of the Party metallurgical complex, known in Albanian as Celiku i Partise, built in the Shkumbin valley outside the city with Chinese assistance in the 1970s. The steel mill began operation in 1974. Enver Hoxha described it as 'The Second National Liberation of Albania.' One contemporary account suggested that the factory produced weapons — a travel writer reported being told that 'almost everyone in the country seemed to have a gun, likely manufactured by this Chinese-financed factory in Elbasan.'

The city also hosts a ferrochrome smelter commissioned in 1989 by the communist regime, which is now owned by the Balfin Group. The environmental cost of heavy industry in Elbasan has been significant: the Shkumbin valley suffered from the impact of the metallurgical complex, and Elbasan is considered one of the most polluted cities in Albania. In recent years the city has also faced what environmentalists describe as 'imported pollution,' resulting from waste brought from abroad for recycling in private facilities. Elbasan Railway Station opened in 1950.

Geography and climate of ElbasanApprofondimento

Elbasan lies to the north of the river Shkumbin, between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central Albania. The municipality covers 872.03 square kilometres and comprises the administrative units of Bradashesh, Funarë, Gjergjan, Gjinar, Gracen, Labinot-Fushë, Labinot-Mal, Papër, Shirgjan, Shushicë, Tregan, Zavalinë, and the city of Elbasan itself.

According to the Köppen climate classification, Elbasan has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, designated Csa, with an average annual temperature of 13.1 °C (55.6 °F).

Population and demographyApprofondimento

Elbasan is the fourth most populous city in Albania. The population of the municipality as recorded in the 2023 census stood at 115,101, of which 66,834 lived in the municipal unit of Elbasan itself.

The city's demographic trajectory reflects its industrial history. From an estimated 15,000 residents in the early twentieth century and again just before the Second World War, the communist-era industrialisation programme drove rapid growth to approximately 75,000 inhabitants by the later decades of the twentieth century.

Religious and cultural institutionsApprofondimento

The Saint Mary Orthodox Church, located in the city centre, was built in 1830 on the foundations of an older church that had partially burned in 1819. It contains paintings and frescoes by Onufri, restored by David Selenicasi and Kostadin Shelcani. The church has served as a significant centre for the Albanian language: Teodor Haxhifilipi, Kostandin Kristoforidhi, and Aleksandër Xhuvani all worked there and produced Albanian translations of psalms. The church building also housed the first Albanian-language school of modern Elbasan, which opened in 1909.

Approximately 7 kilometres from Elbasan stands the Orthodox Church of St. Jovan Vladimir, built in 1381 by Albanian monarch Karl Thopia and his son Gjergj Thopia. Saint Jovan Vladimir was buried at this church until 1995, when his remains were transferred to the Orthodox Cathedral in Tirana, returning to the monastery only for feast days. Elbasan is also the base of the National Autocephalous Albanian Church, an Orthodox denomination that split from the Albanian Orthodox Church in 1995 and is led by Father Nikolle Marku.

Other Orthodox churches in the Elbasan district include the Saint Nicholas church in Shelcan (1554), the Saint Nicholas church in Valesh (1604), the Mameli church (seventeenth century), the Saint Michael church in Shalës (seventeenth century), the Elbasan Saint Nicholas church (seventeenth century), the Saint Mary church in Dragot (eighteenth century), the Saints Cosmas and Damian church in Sterstan (eighteenth century), and the Saint Athanasius church of Elbasan (1554). The city also has a Catholic church.

Elbasan has four museums: the Ethnographic Museum (1982), housed in an eighteenth-century building; the Kostandin Kristoforidhi house museum (established 1978); the Shkolla Normale Museum; and a War Museum.

Summer Day, the Elbasan Arena, and international relationsApprofondimento

Elbasan is associated with the Summer Day festivities, a pagan celebration marking the end of winter and the arrival of summer. The traditional food for the occasion is ballokume, a cookie made with butter and cornmeal. Since 2004, Summer Day has been a national public holiday observed throughout Albania.

In 2014, the Albanian government reconstructed the former Ruzhdi Bizhuta Stadium. The renovated Elbasan Arena became the home ground of the Albania national football team and Albania's primary stadium meeting FIFA's criteria.

Elbasan is twinned with Dunaújváros in Hungary and Osijek in Croatia. The city also maintains cooperation and friendship relationships with Bar in Montenegro and Liège in Belgium.