Circle mat

Circle :	Mat
Main place:	Burrel
Qark :	Qark Dibra
Surface:	1028 km²
Residents:	44218   Status: 2011
Population density:	43.01 inhabitants / km²
ISO-3166-2 code:	AL-MT
License plate :	MT

The district of Mat ( Albanian : Rrethi i Matit ) was one of the 36 administrative districts in Albania that were abolished in the summer of 2015 after an administrative reform. The district with an area of ​​1028 square kilometers was part of the Qark Dibra and had 44,218 inhabitants (2011). The main town was Burrel .

However , the region in the valley of the upper reaches of the Mat river continues to exist as a geographical and traditional cultural landscape .

geography

The Mat gorge at the end of the valley

Mat is a closed, wide valley on the upper reaches of the river of the same name in central Albania. The Mat flows through the region from southwest to northeast. From the incised valley floor, which is below 100 meters above sea level towards the north. M., the slopes rise rapidly, especially in the west. Numerous streams furrow the landscape. Because of the mountains that surround the valley on all sides, it is often referred to as the highlands or high valley . In the north the valley reaches a width of almost 40 kilometers. Towards the south it narrows more and more.

In the west, the Skanderbeg Mountains (highest elevation: Mali i Liqenit at 1724 meters above sea level in the Qafë Shtama National Park ) separate the valley from the Albanian coastal plain. Only through a narrow gorge the Mat paves a passage through the mountains to the sea . At this point the river is also dammed . The Ulza Reservoir ( Liqeni i Ulzës ) was the first (larger) reservoir in Albania. The mountain range in the west continues to the southern end of the Mat, where it is 1848 meters above sea level. M. ( Mali Shën Noi i Madh ) reached. To the east, the mountains in the area of ​​the Lura National Park and further south even reach heights of over 2000 meters ( Maja e Dejës , 2246 meters above sea level). A forested area to the south with numerous springs and gorges has been declared the Zall Gjoçaj National Park . The landscape is only more open towards the north to the Mirdita than at the other borders .

In the end, the former municipality of Martanesh with the mining town of Krasta at the southern end of the Mat valley, where the river has its source, no longer belonged to the district of Mat . Martanesh is famous for its red goat species .

history

The Ulza Reservoir in the northern Mat Valley

The valley has been inhabited since the earliest times. Various barrows and bronze work, including a well-preserved helmet, bear witness to the Illyrians . The valley has always been used as a passage from the coast to the central areas of the Balkans .

In the 19th century there was still no town in the Mat Valley. The people lived scattered in small villages or individual farms. The many fortified houses ( kulla ) that can still be admired today are famous . The main town of Burrel developed from one of the marketplaces . The inhabitants of the Mat belonged to a large clan led by the Zogolli family , who had their castle in Burgajet . After the death of his father in 1911, the young Ahmet Bey Zogolli became the new leader of the clan. Thanks to the support of his followers, among other things, after the First World War he succeeded in attaining a leading position in Albania, which had just become independent. From 1925 to 1928 he was President of Albania and afterwards the most famous son of Mat was from 1928 to 1939 under the name Zogu I. King of the Albanians .

During the communist rule the valley underwent a rapid change. Larger settlements emerged when the mining of soil ore began. The construction of the Ulza reservoir in the 1950s also changed the landscape.

In 2008, Carla Del Ponte , previously Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia , published suspicions that the KLA had removed organs from prisoners from Serbia during the Kosovo War in a house in the village of Rribe, a little south of Burrel .

economy

The majority of the population lives from agriculture. In the south, mining is still practiced in several places , with chromium and iron in particular being mined. The Ulza reservoir and the Shkopet reservoir on the Mat are important sources of energy for Albania. With foreign help, the turbines were renewed so that an increased electrical output can be achieved. In addition, a lot of wood is felled in the mountains - often illegally, which leads to heavy deforestation, especially in the Lura National Park.

traffic

In the 1980s, work was carried out on a railway line to Klos , which should have better developed the mines. But the route was never completed.

The important road SH 6 to the east of the country leads from Milot through the valley into the Dibra . In the southeast it crosses the 844 meter high Buffalo Pass . A new road in the south of the valley, the Rruga e Arbërit , is under construction. It will one day offer a direct connection to Tirana in the southwest.

Former parishes

During a territorial reform in 2015, the twelve municipalities of the district were merged into two large municipalities ( bashkia ) and the district level was completely abolished. The north of the district now forms the municipality of Mat , the south belongs to the municipality of Klos .

Surname	Population (2011)	Community type	New church
Burrel	10,862	Bashkia	Mat
Toilets	7,873	Bashkia	Toilets
Baz	2,228	Komuna	Mat
Derjan	1.102	Komuna	Mat
Gurra	3,369	Komuna	Toilets
Komës	4,283	Komuna	Mat
Lis	3,824	Komuna	Mat
Macukull	1,565	Komuna	Mat
Rukaj	2,507	Komuna	Mat
Suç	2,716	Komuna	Toilets
Ulza	1,229	Komuna	Mat
Xibra	2,660	Komuna	Toilets

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ines Nurja: Censusi i popullsisë dhe banesave / Population and Housing Census - Dibër 2011 . Results Kryesore / Main Results. Ed .: INSTAT . Pjesa / Part 1. Adel Print, Tirana 2013 ( instat.gov.al [PDF; accessed April 14, 2019]).
2. ^ Karl Schappelwein: Mining and energy industry . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch ). tape VII . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 376-390 .
3. ↑ Dhimitër Doka, Eqerem Yzeiri: Basic features of the spatial structure of Albania . In: Peter Jordan, Karl Kaser, Walter Lukan, Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Holm Sundhaussen (eds.): Österreichische Osthefte . Volume 45, issue 1/2. Peter Lang, 2003, ISSN  0029-9375 , p. 26 .
4. ↑ The unfinished route: Milot - Rrëshen - Burrel - Klos (part 2, 40 B.). In: turntable online. September 26, 2011, accessed September 29, 2011 .