Devoll (municipality)

This article is about the municipality in Albania. For other uses, seeDevoll.

Devoll
Municipality
Bilisht
Flag Emblem
Devoll
Coordinates:40°37′16″N20°59′17″E
Country	Albania
County	Korçë
Seat	Bilisht
Government
•Mayor	Eduard Duro (PS)
Area
• Municipality	453.27 km2(175.01 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Municipality	26,716
• Municipality density	59/km2(150/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1(CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2(CEST)
Postal Code	7006
Area Code	(0)811
Website	www.bashkiadevoll.gov.al

Devoll(Albanian:[ˈdɛˈvɔɫ];Albaniandefinite form:Devolli) is amunicipalityinKorçë County,southeasternAlbania.The municipality consists of the administrative units ofHoçisht,Miras,ProgërandQendër BilishtwithBilishtconstituting its seat.As of theInstitute of Statisticsestimate from the 2011 census, there were 26.716 in Devoll Municipality.It derives its name from theDevoll Riverflowing through the valley. The border pointKapshticë/Krystallopigiconnects Devoll with theGreekregional units ofFlorinaandKastoriato the east and southeast. Devoll borders the municipalities ofKolonjëto the southwest,Korçëto the west,Maliqto the northwest andPustecto the north. The area of the municipality is 453.27 km².

History

Excavations at Tren cave unearthedMycenaean Greekpottery of theLate Bronze Age.This appears to be of possible local manufacture.

The medieval eraDevolfortress, then known as Deabolis (Greek:Δέαβολις), was the location where theTreaty of DevolbetweenBohemond I of Antiochand Byzantine EmperorAlexios I Komnenoswas signed in 1108. Its site became forgotten in modern times, however it has been tentatively identified with the siteZvezdë(located at40°43′N020°51′E), a conjecture already proposed by the 19th century British travellerWilliam Martin Leakein 1835.Devol fortress was reconquered by theBulgarian Empirein the beginning of the 13th century, but taken back by the Byzantines in 1259.The fortress continued to play an important role until the 14th century. Its site became forgotten in modern times.

In a text byEmperor John VI Kantakouzenos(r. 1347-1354) whose 'History' covers the years 1320-1356, there is mention of localAlbanians;“While the emperor was spending about eight days in Achrida (Ohrid), the Albanian nomads living in the region of Deabolis (Devoll) appeared before him, as well as those from Koloneia (Kolonja) and those from the vicinity of Ohrid.”This meeting was estimated to have taken place at around February 1328.

During theFirst World War,theGreek armyburned several Muslim villages in the region, including Sinicë (Miras).In the events of 1914, one of those killed by the Greek troops was Bektashi Baba Hafiz of thetekkeofKuç.His bloodstainedritual capwas portrayed as a symbol in the tekke for many years after his death.

The chapel in the Blashtonjë cave on the edge of the Small Prespa Lake dates to the 13th century AD. The cave paintings are the oldest artworks which have been found in Albania and theiconsin the chapel are among the oldest of their kind in the country.

It was in Devoll, while the region was within theSerbian Empire,that EmperorStefan Dušandied in 1355.

In late Ottoman times and early Independence era, much of the Christian population emigrated abroad and then returned, and later a part of the Muslim population did the same.

Before theSecond World War,the Devoll valley was an autonomous district. In the Communist period, it belonged to the Korçë region, which it was separated from in 1990 as part of the reform of administrative divisions. In the territorial reforms of 2015, the municipalities of Devoll region were transformed into the new municipality of Devoll, which was placed withinKorçë County.

Today, there is again mass emigration, although this time the local Muslim population is emigrating in larger numbers and higher proportions than the Christian population, a reverse of the "Kurbet" of the previous century.

Geography

The Small Prespa Lake, at the southwestern end, near the village of Zagradec.

Devoll is located in the southeast of Albania. The border settlementKapshticëis not far from the easternmost point in Albania. The entire eastern and southern borders of the municipality are also the national border withGreece.On the western and northern sides, the municipality neighboursKolonjë,Korçë,MaliqandPustec.

The municipality is located in the upper reaches of theDevollriver, which originates in the southwestern part of the area. Bilisht is located at around 900 m above sea level on a plain which is surrounded on all sides by mountains. The bordertown of Kapshticë is located at a height of 1048 mmountain pass.The western border is formed by the Malet e Moravës mountain range, whose highest mountain is the 1806 m high Maja e Lartë. The city of Korçë lies on the other side of this mountain range. There are only three passes through these mountains. In the northwest, the Devoll flows through a narrow canyon into the Plain of Korçë. In the northeast a long arm of theSmall Prespa Lakestretches almost all the way to the Plain of Bilisht. In the southeast, the plain breaks off here and there almost imperceptibly into the Kore river valley, which cuts through the mountains here. This river, which is a tributary of theHaliacmon,makes a detour through Albanian territory of about 5 km. The few square kilometres of its drainage basin located in Albania are the only part of Albania which drains into theAegean Searather than theAdriaticorIonian Seas.

The Plain of Bilisht has been made fertile by means of numerous irrigation canals. As a result of heavy rainfall and spring snow melt, the water flows out of the Small Prespa Lake through a natural outlet, into the Devoll and then directly into the Adriatic. From the 1950s, until around 2000, the Devoll was redirected into the Small Prespa Lake during floods. The excess water was used to irrigate the Korçë Plain.

In the mountains east of Bilisht, along the Greek border, there are richnickeldeposits, concentrated in two main deposits, at Verniku and Kapshtica West.

Demography

The population is overwhelmingly ethnically Albanian, with the majority of Albanians there having been Muslim at the end of the Ottoman era, while a minority of the Albanians, especially those that resided especially in high altitude areas, remainedOrthodox Christian.The Albanian Christian population lives mostly in the upper valley of the Devoll river, in the town ofHoçisht,inBilishtand in the village of Tren, and insist on being called only Albanian and not Greek.

Bilisht, its mosque and houses and the Devoll plain in the far background

In the region there are small numbers of Aromanians with further numbers ofGreeks.Post-communism, a part of the original Albanian Muslim population has converted to Orthodoxy as part of emigration to Greece.

There are alsoRomapresent as well asMacedoniansin the village ofVërnik.The Slavic-speakers of Vernik identify as Aegean Macedonians and refuse any Bulgarian or other identity. The Roma are mainly Muslim while the Macedonians are Orthodox Christians. In modern times, among the Albanian population, there has been extensive intermarriage between the Muslim and Christian populations, with the result being that many of the ethnically Albanian youth in the area identity with both traditions, as "half-Muslim, half-Christian". Like elsewhere in Albania, actual religious observance is typically lax although due toOttoman historyeven among some non-practicers, religious identity may still plays a role in social relations, being more significant among the older generations.

The Albanian population speaks with aTosk dialect,while the Macedonian population speaks theKostur dialect.The entire Slavic-speaking Macedonian population is also bilingual in Albanian nowadays.

Economy

Border sign of the old region

The border settlement of Kapshticë is among the most important routes from Albania into Greece. As a result, the whole region, which is isolated from the rest of Albania, is heavily dedicated to border trade with Greece. Despite being a primarily agricultural area a large service industry has developed around the border trade. In particular, many young men of this area worked in Greece in the 1990s, mostly illegally, in order to escape the poverty at home. Subsequently, it often happened that their families have joined them.

List of Mayors

Mayors who have served since theAlbanian Declaration of Independenceof 1912:

No.	Name	Term in office
1	Etem Osmani	1921	1924
2	Etem Osmani	1926	1926
3	Etem Osmani	1936	1937
4	Faik Babani	1939	1939
5	Sali Shehu	1944	1944
Executive Committee (1944–1992)
6	Shefqet Fifo	1962	1963
7	Myftar Grabocka	1964	1964
8	Shefqet Fifo	1966	1966
9	Myzafer Sulejmani	1966	1966
10	Meleq Babani	1969	1969
11	Gjergj Grazhdani	1974	1985
12	Shpëtim Qyta	1986	1990
13	Besnik Diko	1992	1998
14	Avdyl Spaho	1998	2000
15	Arben Graca	2000	2003
16	Valter Miza	2003	2014
17	Bledjon Nallbati	2015	2019
18	Eduard Duro	2019

Bibliography

• Bejko, Lorenc (2016). "Social Landscape and Tumuli Burials in Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Southeastern Albania". In Henry, Oliver; Kelp, Ute (eds.).Tumulus as Sema: Space, Politics, Culture and Religion in the First Millennium BC.De Gruyter.doi:10.1515/9783110267501.ISBN978-3-11-025990-2.
• Gilles de Rapper (2002). "Grenzen überschreiten. Migration in der albanischen Grenzregion Devoll". In Karl Kaser; Robert Pichler; Stephanie Schwander-Sievers (eds.).Die weite Welt und das Dorf. Albanische Emigration am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts = Zur Kunde Südosteuropas: Albanologische Studien.Vol. Bd. 3. Wien: Böhlau-Verlag.ISBN3-205-99413-2.
• Gilles de Rapper (2008).Religion in Post-communist Albania – Muslims, Christians and the idea of 'culture' (Devoll, Southern Albania)(PDF).Anthropological Notebooks. Vol. 14. pp. 31–45.

External links

• bashkiadevoll.gov.al– Official Website(in Albanian)