Shëngjin
| Shëngjin | |||
Coordinates: 41 ° 49 ' N , 19 ° 36' E |
|||
| Basic data | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Qark : | Lezha | ||
| Municipality : | Lezha | ||
| Height : | 0 m above sea level A. | ||
| Area : | 53.4 km² | ||
| Residents : | 8091 (2011) | ||
| Population density : | 152 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Telephone code : | (+355) 0215 | ||
| Postal code : | 4503 | ||
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Shëngjin ( Albanian also Shëngjini , Italian San Giovanni di Medua ) is a small port town and a seaside resort in northwestern Albania on the Adriatic Sea . The name Shëngjin translates as Saint John .
Shëngjin is now part of the Lezha parish . Until 2015 Shëngjin was an independent municipality ( komuna ) , which included four villages in addition to the city. The community had 8,091 inhabitants (2011 census). The local authorities stated over 11,500 inhabitants (2012), of which about a third fell in the city itself.
geography
Shëngjin is located on the northern edge of a wide bay in the Drin Gulf on the Adriatic Sea, seven kilometers northwest of Lezha , the capital of the Qark .
The long Plazhi i Shëngjinit beach with numerous hotels, apartments and restaurants stretches along the flat coast south of the city . East and north of Shëngjin the up to 561 m above sea level. A. high mountain range of Mali i Rencit for several kilometers along the coast. This falls steeply to the coast. At the foot of the hill are the port and the town center. Around two and a half kilometers to the north are the large sand dunes Rana e hedhun made of alluvial sand .
To the south of Shëngjin are several lagoons and the Drin river delta . The region is protected as a nature reserve Kunë-Vain . The lagoon landscape can be explored with private vehicles on narrow, gravel paths for a fee.
Wedged between lagoons, sea and hills, Shëngjin can only be reached from Lezha on a narrow road between the lagoon and the hills. There are no roads along the coast to the north or south. Shëngjin parish comprised a long strip of land along the coast. On the hill north of the main town, the villages Mali i Rencit and Mali i Shëngjinit belonged to the municipality, in the lagoon area south Ishull i Shëngjinit and Ishull i Lezhës . Since the end of communism, many new residents have settled in the latter two places in particular, so that two thirds of the community's residents lived in the four villages (according to the Qark authorities).
history
Already in Roman times the inhabitants of the ancient Lissus (Lezha) used Shëngjin as a port. Julius Caesar is said to have landed here in the war against Pompei . At that time the place was called Nimphaeum . In 1313 he was first mentioned in writing as San Giovanni di Medua . In Ottoman times , Shëngjin and Lezha lost their importance, because trade in the region was concentrated in Shkodra in the north and the Buna estuary or Ulcinj in Montenegro .
On December 5, 1915, the port , which was then occupied by Serbs , was shelled by the cruiser Novara and other ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy .
Shëngjin was a sleepy village until the end of the 20th century. In the 1920s the population was still in double digits. In 1927 the place, which was called Şingin in Ottoman times , was officially renamed Port Wilson ; however, there are no indications that the new name was also used.
The Marine Albania was stationed during the communist period in Shëngjin some boats and a navigable bunker created.
In December 2006, several oil tanks burned down. Several thousand liters of oil flowed into the adjacent lagoon and threatened the flora and fauna as well as the beaches, which are important for tourism. In the following summer, however, no damage was directly recognizable.
economy
The port city has undergone major changes since the late 1990s. With the bathing tourism money came into the town, so that a lot could be built and invested. The beach attracts many Albanians from Kosovo in summer , since numerous hotels, holiday apartments and restaurants have been built here. The sandy beach is very shallow and is bordered by pine trees .
The port is the third largest in the country after that of Vlora , but it is of little economic importance, although it is the only one north of Durrës , the largest port in Albania - in 2009, goods with a volume of 369,000 tons were handled. There is little fishing and oil is brought ashore for various Albanian gas station companies, which are then bunkered there in large tanks. In 2015/16 the harbor basin was excavated and a ferry terminal was built. An upswing did not set in and the announced ferries to Bari and Ancona never ran regularly. There is also no efficient road connection.
The Albanian Navy still operates a base in the port.
Honorary citizen
On July 30, 2012, the following personalities were given honorary citizenship for their services to the city of Shëngjin:
- Stjepan Mesić (* 1934), former President of Croatia
- Alfred Moisiu (* 1929), former President of Albania
- Fatmir Sejdiu (* 1951), former President of Kosovo
Web links
- Njesia administrative Shëngjin (PDF, Albanian)
- Shengjini.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ines Nurja: Censusi i popullsisë dhe banesave / Population and Housing Census - Lezhë 2011 . Results Kryesore / Main Results. Ed .: INSTAT . Pjesa / Part 1. Adel Print, Tirana 2013 ( instat.gov.al [PDF; accessed April 14, 2019]).
- ↑ a b Njesia administrative Shëngjin. In: Këshilli i Qarkut Lezhë. Retrieved April 29, 2019 (Albanian).
- ↑ Teki Selenica: Shqipria më 1927. L'Albanie en 1927 . Shtypshkronja Tirana, Tirana 1928 (the population is given in this source as only 14 people).
- ↑ ALBANIA: Port Wilson . In: Time . September 19, 1927, ISSN 0040-781X ( time.com [accessed December 17, 2016]).
- ↑ The western entrance ( 41 ° 48 '38.3 " N , 19 ° 34' 50.5" O ) is good on the photo file: Shëngjin (WPWTR16) .JPG seen at the top left the two small breakwaters. The two eastern entrances ( 41 ° 48 ′ 42.7 ″ N , 19 ° 35 ′ 5.7 ″ E ) are to the left of the warship in the main port basin.
- ↑ Shëngjin, oil tanks are taken up by the flames. The residents near the fire are evacuated. (No longer available online.) Peshkupauje.com, December 18, 2006, formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 1, 2012 (Albanian). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Shqipëria në Shifra, Albania in Figures 2010. (No longer available online.) Statistical Institute of Albania, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved on December 20, 2015 (Albanian, p. 38). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ FN: Europort Shëngjin, a pharaonic project rewarded with a nice obelisk (and no investment). In: Ship2Shore.it. March 14, 2016, accessed April 4, 2018 .
- ^ Christoph Kersting: Albania before the parliamentary election: acid test in Tirana. In: Deutschlandfunk. May 19, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
- ^ John Pike: Albania - Forcat Detare - Naval Forces. In: www.globalsecurity.org. Accessed December 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Sejdiu, Mesić and Moisiu are declared honorary citizens of Shëngjin. Radio Televizioni i Kosovës , July 30, 2012, accessed on August 1, 2012 (Albanian).
