Gjirokastra is a town in southern Albania. Its in a valley between Mali i Gjerë (the Wide Mountain) and the valley of Drino. It’s at 300 metres above sea level.

Gjirokastra adriseismic partner Albania old town castle Unesco heritage

Its old town is a Unesco World Heritage Site as “a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, built by farmers of large estate”. Gjirokastër Fortress overlooks the city and it’s the stage of the Gjirokastër National Folklore Festival. It is the birthplace of former Albanian communist leader, Enver Hoxha, and author Ismail Kadare.

 

The history of Gjirokastra

The city appears in the historical record dating back in 1336 by its Greek name, Αργυρόκαστρο – Argyrokastro. It became part of the Orthodox Christian diocese of Dryinoupolis and Argyrokastro after the destruction of nearby Adrianoupolis.

Later the Despotate of Epirus and the Albanian clan of John Zenevisi contestated Gjirokastër before falling under Ottoman rule for the next five centuries (1417–1913). Throughout the Ottoman era Gjirokastër was officially known in Ottoman Turkish as Ergiri and also Ergiri Kasrı. During the Ottoman period conversions to Islam made Gjirokastër go from being an overwhelmingly Christian city in the 16th century into one with a large Muslim population by the early 19th century. Gjirokastër also became a major religious centre for Bektashi Sufism.

Taken by the Hellenic Army during the Balkan Wars of 1912–3 on account of its large Greek population, it was eventually incorporated into the newly independent state of Albania in 1913. This proved highly unpopular with the local Greek population, who rebelled. After several months of guerrilla warfare, the short-lived Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was established in 1914 with Gjirokastër as its capital.

It was definitively awarded to Albania in 1921. In more recent years, the city witnessed anti-government protests that led to the Albanian civil war of 1997. Along with Muslim and Orthodox Albanians, the city is also home to a substantial Greek minority. Together with Sarandë, the city is one of the centers of the Greek community in Albania, and there is a Consulate of Greece and an Italian Consulate of Honour.

Gjirokastra adriseismic partner Albania

Gjirokastra today

The town of Gjirokastër, by the population is the largest municipality in the Gjirokastër County. In 2011 Gjirokastër Municipality had 28.673 residents living in 6.919 housing units, while the county as a whole has a total of 72.176 inhabitants.

The population of the municipality includes the urban and rural population in its Administrative Units such as: Antigonë; Cepo; Lazarat; Lunxhëri; Odrie and Picar.

The city of Gjirokastër itself has a resident population of 19,836 inhabitants which are a predominantly urban population. 

Gjirokastra adriseismic partner Albania

The role of Gjirokastra in the Adriseismic project

The Municipality of Gjirokastra has the first urban regulation for the historic centre of the country. The main objective is to face the challenges of the sustainable development of the city, protecting its heritage value. Furthermore, thanks to different cooperation programs, the Municipality has completed ambitious projects such as:

  • the Digital Cartography of the city
  • the activation of a dedicated Office for the implementation of the Recovery Plan of the Historic Centre
  • several training courses for specialists

Moreover, the Recovery Plan of the Historic Centre is the basis for the definition of the new General Urban Plan of the city of Gjirokastra.

Its main goal is to define innovative strategies for the sustainable development of the city, as a whole. Thanks to these experiences, the Municipality of Gjirokastra has a solid base on which to build a shared and innovative regulative framework. This defines more effective processes for the reduction of the seismic vulnerability of the buildings with heritage values. The implementation of this project will give prospect to a different approach in:

  • protecting the cultural historic values of the area
  • improving the condition and the security of the inhabitants of the area
  • creating training and jobs opportunities
  • promoting all the cultural, historic, architectonic and spiritual values of the city

 

Gjirokastra, the City of a thousand stairs

This is the “City of a thousand stairs”, involving hundreds of home-tower of Ottoman style with distinctive stone roofs, wooden balconies and stone walls sometimes white washed. 56 buildings in Gjirokastra are cultural monuments of first category. The City Hall of Gjirokastra consists of 6 former municipalities. All of them rich in cultural and historic monuments.

Developing this project in the framework of protecting this cultural heritage from unpredictable factors consists in one of the main priorities of the Municipality. In particular, the Municipality of Gjirokastra will contribute to the collection, analysis and comparisons of the different norms, techniques and trainings concerning seismic vulnerability reduction in historical buildings, which will lead to the definition of a shared and innovative frameworks.

Therefore, Gjirokastra will have the opportunity to benefit of the harmonization of norms, innovative methods and techniques and of the educational programs and training courses that will be developed by the project, improving the knowledge and the skills of the technical actors involved.