Elbasan
Elbasan (Scampa, Scampis, Hiscampis, Skampius) (population some 140.000) is one of the most important towns of Central Albania positioned on the Skhumbin River /Scampinus, Scumpino/, i.e. Genusus in antiquity, some 50 km south of Tirana. Under the Roman Empire it was the town of Scampis on the Via Egnatia – Roman trading road that connected Dyrrachium and Constantinople. The ancient town of Ganusus was just a few km away from the road-station Ad Quintum, that is nowadays site located in the village of Bradashesh – some 6 km away from the present Elbasan. In 519 Elbasan became a garrison town with clearly defined Christian settlement and the seat of a bishop within the fortified area, and a cathedral and a basilica outside the walls.
When Constantinople became the capital of the Byzantine Empire, the Via Egnatia trading route gained principal importance as a connection to the Western Provinces of Apollonia and Dyrrachium, the Balkans, and in particular to the Italic peninsula. During this period /already most likely around 320 A.D/ the town of Scampinus /ancient name for Elbasan/ was fortified with a surrounding wall which was able to house an entire legion. It was equipped with 26 towers and its main purpose was to protect against the barbaric invasions. The four-sided fortification castrum system established the actual decumanus of the Via Egnatia route. Inside the Elbasan fortress visitors can visit the Royal Mosque, from the 15th century, the Orthodox Church of Holy Virgin-Saint Mary, built in 1650, and the Byzantine Church.
In 1381 Prince Carlo Topia restored the Monastery established by and dedicated to Saint John Vladimir – Saint Jovan Vladimir – Shen Joan Vladimirit – at the entrance outskirts of Elbasan, where he transferred from Durres the holy relics of the saint martyred on May 22 1016. Saint John Vladimir was the most powerful Serbian ruler of lands of Duklja – Doclea and the maritime zhupas – Illyria and Dalmatia, as well as Debar, Mat, Dukadjin and other Serb lands. Saint John Vladimir – Sveti Jovan Vladimir has been mentioned in hagiographic scripts since the end of the 14th century by the name Holy Jovan Vladimir. The holy relics of Saint Jovan Vladimir /tibiale, parts of fingers and head of the Saint/ were kept in the wood-carved coffin in the Saint John Vladimir Monastery in Elbasan from 1381 until 1995 when they were transferred to the Orthodox Cathedral of the Christ Resurrection in Tirana, which is the seat of the Orthodox Church of Albania. The National Historical Museum in Tirana houses the southern portal of the Church of Saint John Vladimir – Šin Jon, Shën Joan Vladimirit. On the marble lintel above the southern door there is the donor’ s inscription of Carlo Topi dating from 1383. Somewhere above this inscription there is the Greek inscription, while on the left side is the board with the Latin inscription. The Old-Slavonic inscription is located right from the portal, just next to the coat of arms of Carlo Topi. The Cyrillic inscription is the earliest, and dates from 1383, positioned in the honored place with inscription:„Siju svetu crkvu Svetog Jovana Vladimira stvori Karl Topija gospodar rabanski u 22 leto gospodstva svojego i svrši ju v leto 24 gospodstva svojego“ /meaning The Holy church of the Saint Vladimir was built by Carlo Topi, the raban prince, in the 22nd year of its rule, and completed in summer of its 24th year of rule/.
“Andrew Topia was born in 1336 in Durres. He was the Serb lord and prince of the Topia family who ruled the parts of the present Albania /1359-1388/. Andrew Topia was the last ruler of the medieval Serbian Littoral state of Zeta, his endowment is the Monastery of Saint John Vladimir. His family was supported by the Angevins of Naples, while his grandfather Tanus – Atansius ruled the area between the rivers of Mat and Shkumba. In 1359 Andrew Topia was succeeded by Carlo Topia who actively took part in fights that spread along the Serbian Empire after the death of emperor Dusan Nemanyic, king 1331-1346, emperor 1346-1355, primarily between Dusan’s son Uros /1355-1371/ and semi brother Simeon /1359—1371/. Carlo Topia extended his rule in Kroja in 1363 while fights with the Balsic family started in the same year. In spring of 1364 Carlo Topia captured Djuradj I /1362—1378/ and made peace in 1366 by mediation of Dubrovnik people. Carlo Topia took the rule over areas south of Skumba river in 1367, while in 1368 he took Durres – the important point of the Balkans which he managed to keep despite that he lost it in few occassions in 1376 and in 1385. As per foreign researchers, around 1370 he married Voislava Balšić, the daugher of Balša I Balšić /1356-1362/, but she is not mentioned in books of the Serbian historians until 1988 and the study “Serbia in the middle ages” published by Academic prof. dr Milos Blagojevic. Interests of Carlo Topia over the portions of present Albania were contrary to the interests of the Balsics which generated repeated fights in which he lost Durres in 1385 although he recaptured it a bit earlier, in 1383. With the help of Ottomans who won the Battle of Berat on 18th September 1385 when Balsa II was killed /1378-1385/, Carlo Topia regained control over Durres. Already the next year, on the 17th August he made alliance with the Venetians and offered them Durres in exchange for estates in Creta and Euboea. Carlo Topia died in January 1388 and was buried in his endowment of the Monastery of Saint John Vladimir in Elbasan. He erected the monastery in 1381 on the foundations of an earlier chuch on which testifies the carved inscription in Greek, Serbian and Latin, where he transferred remains – holy relics of the Serbian Prince John Vladimir that were kept in Durres since the middle of the 13th century. Carlo Topia was succeeded by his son Djuradj Topia who handed over the city of Durres to the Venetians. Djuradj Topia was lord of Durres from 1388 until his death in 1392. His mother was Voislava Balsic, the daughter of Balsa II and sister of Djuradj, Stracimir and Balsa II Balsic. Djuradj was married to Teodora, daugher of Branko Mladenovic and sister of Vuk and Grgur Brankovic and Nikola Radonja Brankovic. Carlo Topia had daughter Jelena who married the Venetian Marko Barbariga and ruled Kroja after father’s death in 1388. Her youner brother Nikita Topia ruled the areas south of Durres until his death in 1399 when Jelena annexed Durres to her state. Jelena Topia was the medieval noblewoman of the Topia family. Her husbands ruled in Kroja from 1388 until 1392 and from 1394 until 1403. After death of her father, Jelena married the Venetian nobleman Marko Barbadigo. She inherited administration over Kroya that was ruled by Marko from 1388 until 1394. In 1392 after the defeat of Dimitrije Jonim by the Ottomans who captured Shkoder, Marko handed over Kroja to them. Ottomans appointed Konstantin Balsic for the ruler of Kroja, who was son of Djuradj Balsic and Teodora Dejanovic. As the Turkish vassal, Konstantin ruled over Kroja from 1394 until 1403. Jelena broke up the marriage with Marko Barbadigo and married Konstantin Balsic. A year after death of Konstantin, Nikita Topia, brother of Jelena, took over Kroja. Jelena and her son tefan settled in Venetia when they lived by the Jelena’s sister Maria. Stefan, son of Jelena later was one of the important allies of Balsa III Balsic in the Second Shkoder War, 1419-1423 and the mercenary of the Venetian Republic”. Source Dejan Bešović
The Ottoman invasion in 1466 led by Sultan Mehmet, which occurred after a century of wars and rebellions, marked the end of a long and extraordinary period of the Roman-Byzantine rule and architecture. Sultan Mehmet constructed a massive four-sided castle with a deep moat and three gates. He named it Elbasan, meaning in Turkish ‘crushing fist‘. Elbasan became a center of Ottoman urban civilization during the next 400 years and remained a center of Islam in Albania even after the Ottoman occupation was finished. The Ottoman invaders built a military camp there, followed by urban reconstruction. Remains of once monumental Elbasan Kala Castle are by far the city’s best known landmark and attraction. The Royal Mosque in Elbasan is one of the earliest shrines Albania, dating to 1492. This sanctuary complies with all other royal mosques erected by Sultan II Bajazit in the late 15th century. The Royal mosque in Elbasan was closed during the communist dictatorship in 1967 and reopened after 1990. Inside the walls of the Elbasan Kala Fortress there are numerous traditional homes and authentic Ottoman heritage structures, as well as the 16th century Turkish bath, known as the Women Hammam /bath/. Elbasan’s old town is surrounded by high Medieval Ottoman walls and has been built upon the Byzantine and Roman foundations. It was spared the indiscriminate urban renewal ordered by Albanian leader Enver Hoxha for the simple reason that his bulldozers could not fit through the four narrow gates of the old part of the town.
The Communist regime set out to transform the Albanian people from peasants into proletarians, when the great friendship with China imported industrialization. In the 60s and 70s, the Metalurgjiku was built – the Albanians’ pride and joy, which processed the heavy metals that supplied the whole Albanian industry. Then came a large cement factory at the end of the ’60s, nickel in 1981, and ferro-chrome in 1988. The communist legacy became heavy and toxic – not only in the city of Elbasan, but also in the surrounding area. An iron and nickel company operated in Librazhd (a town of 10,000 inhabitants in the region of Elbasan), a mineral one in nearby Prrenjas, and a battery storage in Gramsh.
On the Pazhok plain, 25 km to the south-west of Elbasan, a large tumulus – necropolis has been discovered comprising evidences of the Bronze age and the beginning of the Iron age. The holy relics of the Serbian Prince Saint Jovan Vladimir, the ruler of Doclea from around 1000 til the 1016, who is considered the first ruler-martyr of the Serbian Medieval history, are kept and highly venerated in the Orthodox Monastery of Shen Joan – the Saint John Vladimir Monastery, near Elbasan, some 7 km from the center.
Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park is a protected national park located in the north-eastern part of the Librazhd District, Elbasan County in central Albania. The Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park covers an area of 33,927.7 hectares and shares a border with the Republic of Macedonia. Elevations in the Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park vary from 300 meters to over 2200 meters at the peak of Shebenik Mountain, which, along with Jablanica Mountain give name to the park. The Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park is one of Albania’s newest, created in 2008. Within the Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park region dwell a number of different species that are fast becoming rare in Albania, including the brown bear, grey wolf and the endangered Balkan Lynx. Further, the park is home to a number of endemic and rare plants. The nearest towns to the Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park are Librazhd and Prrenjas. On 21 April 2011, the PPNEA (Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania) research team got the first photo of an alive Balkan lynx living within the boundaries of the Shebenik – Jabllanice National Park.
