Saranda County
  |
|
| Circle : | Saranda |
| Main place: | Saranda |
| Qark : | Vlora County |
| Surface: | 730 km² |
| Residents: | 37,798 as of 2011 |
|
Population density: |
51.78 inhabitants / km² |
| ISO-3166-2 code: | AL-SR |
| License plate : | SR |
The district of Saranda ( Albanian Rrethi i Sarandës ; Greek Αγιοι Σαραντα Aghioi Saranta ) was one of the 36 administrative districts of Albania that were abolished in the summer of 2015 after an administrative reform. The area in the very south of the country with an area of 730 square kilometers belongs to the Qark Vlora . The district was named after the capital Saranda .
Around a third of the population of around 37,798 inhabitants (2011) belong to the Greek or Aromanian minority. Of 64 villages in the district, 35 are still predominantly inhabited by Greeks. Around two thirds of the population belong to the Orthodox faith. Around a quarter are Muslim , the rest mostly without a creed.
geography
The area of the district lies on the coast of the Ionian Sea . In the south it borders on Greece . The Greek island of Corfu is off the coast in the south ; At the narrowest point of the Strait of Corfu , only around two kilometers of sea separate the mainland from the island.
The district can be divided into three areas:
In the north, the southern part of the Albanian Riviera belonged to the Saranda district. These included the villages of Borsh , Piqeras , Lukova , Shën Vasil (formerly Përparim ) and the villages of Fterra and Çorraj , located north of Borsh in the mountains . It is a cliff; only at Borsh did a stream form a small plain. The mountain range, which belongs to the district along with its eastern flank, reaches a maximum height of 953 m above sea level at Lukova . A. North of Borsh little further from the sea, the Maja e Golishit with 1428 m above sea level. A.
To the south, after a larger, uninhabited peninsula, the city of Saranda joins with the Vurgo plain to the southeast . The city is separated from the fertile plain in the east by a narrow, around 200 meter high range of hills, which extends south to Butrint . South of the plain is the brackish Butrintsee , which is connected to the sea at its southern end by the Vivar Canal . The Vurgo plain is crossed by the Bistrica river, which originally flowed into the Butrintsee, but was diverted after the Second World War and led north of the lake directly into the sea. This enabled swamp areas to be converted into agricultural land.
The area around Butrint on both sides of the canal belongs to the Butrint National Park , which not only protects the ancient ruins but also the wetlands around the lake, the entire Ksamil peninsula, parts of the alluvial plain and the Korafi range of hills near Cape Stillo.
The third part of the circle includes the southern tip of Albania with Konispol and its mountainous hinterland. Here the narrow strip of the circle extends around 25 kilometers into the hinterland. The mountains on the southeastern border of the district reach in the Maja e Sfugarës 1759 m above sea level. A .; this is the highest point in Saranda County. This part is drained by the Pavlla .
The whole region has a very dry climate . Saranda boasts 300 days of sunshine a year. Thanks to the rivers and various springs coming from the mountains, the coastal plains in particular can still be used for agriculture. The terraces with monocultures of olive and citrus trees , which were laid out with a lot of effort during the communist era, are less intensively maintained and used today: The irrigation systems built by the cooperatives are no longer maintained in many places since the land was divided up among individual owners. To the south of Saranda and especially in the Ksamil area, many orange and olive groves had to give way to new buildings since the late 1990s. The landscape there is literally devastated by new buildings (mostly hotels and guest houses) because many landowners - in the hope of being able to participate in the boom in tourism - are building wildly and unplanned. To date (2006), the Saranda region does not have a spatial plan.
history
The area around Saranda has been inhabited since ancient times. The caves near Konispol with the artefacts from the Paleolithic discovered in the Shpella e Kërçmoit as well as the ancient cities Phoinike in the neighboring district of Delvina and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Butrint are the most prominent examples of the region's long history. At Borsh and Butrint there are also fortifications from the Middle Ages and early modern times. From the beginning of the 15th century until 1912, the region was part of the Ottoman Empire and was administered from Delvina (then the seat of the Sanjak-Beys ). In the Saranda district, Islamization was less radical than elsewhere in Albania. The majority of the population remained Orthodox.
In the years at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the area belonged to the quasi-autonomous sphere of influence of Ali Pascha Tepelenas . This Albanian potentate tried to promote trade with Italy, in which Saranda and Butrint had hardly been involved since the 16th century. Until the end of the 19th century, nothing changed in the area's seclusion.
During the 1st Balkan War , the region was occupied by Greek troops in 1912. Because of the numerous Greek population, the government in Athens claimed the area for Greece. Reluctantly and under pressure from the major European powers, the Greeks evacuated Saranda in early 1914, and the region was annexed to the newly founded state of Albania. From 1916 to the beginning of 1919, Saranda was part of the Italian occupation in Albania .
Most schools in the county were in the hands of the Orthodox Church until the late 1920s; The language of instruction was often Greek. They were nationalized and Albanized under King Ahmet Zogu .
The first archaeologist to come to the Saranda area was the Italian Luigi Maria Ugolini in the 1930s . He was the scientific rediscoverer of Butrint and Onchesmos. The location of the places had always been known, but their historical significance was hardly any longer.
After the annexation of Albania by fascist Italy on Good Friday 1939, the region became a war zone in 1940. Here the Italian troops formed to attack Greece . When the Greeks were able to repel the attack shortly afterwards, there were again Greek troops in the Saranda district from December 1940 to April 1941. Then the Italians returned, whose occupation regime was replaced by the German Wehrmacht in 1943 until the region was liberated by the Albanian partisans in September 1944 .
After 1945, the population structure of the district changed because many Muslim Çamen , who had been expelled from Epirus in Greece , settled near their old homeland.
.jpg)
The communist government began the region's economic development in the 1960s. Only at this time did Saranda itself acquire a more urban character. In addition to tourism, the main focus of communist regional planning was on agriculture. The aforementioned irrigation systems were created and the agricultural area was greatly expanded. The village of Ksamil was completely rebuilt in the 1970s as a project of the communist youth association. Two labor camps for political prisoners were set up on the coast near Borsh and Lukova. The inmates, many of them Orthodox and Muslim clergy, had to drain swamps and plant olive and orange groves under inhumane conditions.
Due to its proximity to Corfu, some Albanians tried to swim to the Greek island from the peninsula near Butrint. Only one successful escape is documented. Several refugees were shot, others drowned, most of them caught by the police or the sigurimi .
After the end of communism , many residents of the district emigrated to Greece, in particular, to escape the difficult economic situation at home. It is assumed that around a third of the population emigrated. In many villages it was almost only the elderly who remained. At the beginning of the 1990s, however, the Saranda district also saw influx from northern Albania, where the economic situation was even worse. About 100 families from the Mirdita settled in the area, for example in the village of Shendeli (St. Elias) south of the Vivar Canal . In Borsh , Mirdites occupied the abandoned labor camp, which has meanwhile developed into a separate district and forms a Gian- language island in the Tuscan or Greek-speaking area.
The borders of the prefectures and counties in the southernmost part of Albania have been subject to repeated changes since the founding of the Albanian state: in 1937, the northern part of the Saranda district up to the Vivar Canal and the area of today 's Delvina district formed the Delvina sub-prefecture. The city of Delvina was much more important than little Saranda at that time. The southern part of the Saranda district around Konispol was its own sub-prefecture called Çamëri , as the majority of Çamen lived there. During the communist era, the areas of the Saranda and Delvina counties were a joint administrative unit. They were only separated again in 1993. The municipality of Aliko , located north of the Butrintsee, subsequently moved from the Delvina district to Saranda. In 2015, the districts were finally abolished and new large communities were formed. Some Greek-speaking municipalities were merged with other municipalities in Delvina County to form the municipality ( bashkia ) Finiq . Lukova parish was incorporated into Himara parish , which was part of Vlora County .
economy
Tourism has developed rapidly around Saranda since the beginning of the 21st century. Saranda is one of the centers of tourism in Albania . It is not only a popular destination for the wealthy from the big Albanian cities and Albanians from abroad, but is also regularly visited by foreign guests. As part of day trips from Corfu, a particularly large number of visitors come to Saranda and Butrint. Outside of the roughly 15-kilometer stretch of coast from Saranda to Ksamil / Butrint, however, the tourist potential has hardly been exploited. Tourism in the southern part of the Albanian Riviera is much less developed than in the more northern part of Himara, which belongs to the Vlora district.
The construction industry in particular is benefiting from the upswing in tourism. More new accommodations are currently being built around Saranda than is conducive to the cityscape and landscape. Last but not least, the fact that many buildings are not completed, but are supplemented by another floor after each season, gives the place an ugly appearance. For this reason, the tourism industry has so far tried in vain to recruit permanent guests from EU countries. Up until now, none of the major German tourism groups has been prepared to include Saranda in their program.
The French tourism company Club Méditerranée planned to build a hotel complex north of Saranda in a secluded bay . The local population resisted the project, however, as they believed that their land had been transferred to the French company under duress and with insufficient compensation. Because the project was not progressing, Club Méditerranée withdrew from Albania after years of conflict.
Outside of Saranda, people still live almost without exception from agriculture or from remittances from relatives and family members who work abroad.
traffic
Located in the very south of Albania and surrounded by a mountainous hinterland, Saranda has poor connections to the country's centers. A bus trip to Tirana takes around six hours or more. The road along the Albanian Riviera ( SH 8 ) has already been renewed as it is an important link for tourists. Since the coastal road is still very curvy and because of the steep Llogara pass , there is still a lot of traffic over the 572 m above sea level. A. high pass Qafa e Muzinës , which connects Saranda's surroundings with the Drinostal and the well-developed ( SH 4 ). This pass road was renewed in 2007. Another, small border crossing to Greece is at Konispol ; the distance to the border is around 35 kilometers.
Ferries to Saranda run daily from Corfu. In summer, hydrofoils sometimes go to Himara and Vlora .
Communities
The area of the district has belonged to the municipalities ( bashkia ) Finiq, Himara, Konispol and Saranda since 2015 .
| Surname | Residents | Community type | Belongs to Bashkia today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saranda | 17,233 | Bashkia | Saranda |
| Konispol | 2.123 | Bashkia | Konispol |
| Aliko | 3,849 | Komuna | Finiq |
| Dhivër | 1,396 | Komuna | Finiq |
| Ksamil | 2,994 | Komuna | Saranda |
| Livadhja | 1,165 | Komuna | Finiq |
| Lukova | 2,916 | Komuna | Himara |
| Markat | 1,859 | Komuna | Konispol |
| Xarra | 4.263 | Komuna | Konispol |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ines Nurja: Censusi i popullsisë dhe banesave / Population and Housing Census - Vlorë 2011 . Results Kryesore / Main Results. Ed .: INSTAT . Pjesa / Part 1. Adel Print, Tirana 2013 ( instat.gov.al [PDF; accessed April 14, 2019]).
- ^ Wolfgang Stoppel: Rights and protection of national minorities in Albania . K&B, Tirana 2003, ISBN 99927-777-9-6 .
- ^ Club Med quits Albania resort, cites land problems. Interactive Investor, June 16, 2009, accessed June 17, 2009 .
Berat | Bulqiza | Delvina | Devoll | Dibra | Durrës | Elbasan | Fier | Gjirokastra | Gramsh | Has | Kavaja | Kolonja | Korça | Kruja | Kuçova | Kukës | Kurbin | Lezha | Librazhd | Lushnja | Malësia e Madhe | Mallakastra | Mat | Mirdita | Peqin | Përmet | Pogradec | Puka | Saranda | Shkodra | Skrapar | Tepelena | Tirana | Tropoja | Vlora