Libohovë


Libohovë is a town and a municipality in southern Albania. It is overlooked by Libohovë Castle and has a main street with views across the Drino valley. Libohovë is at the foot of the Bureto Mountain. The region forms part of the Zagori Regional Nature Park located in Zagori region.
The municipality was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Libohovë, Qendër Libohovë and Zagori, that became municipal units. The seat of the municipality is the town Libohovë. The total population is 3,667, in a total area of 248.42 km2. The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 1,992.
WWW bashkialibohove.gov.al

History

The archaeological evidence indicates a very ancient settlement which reached its zenith in the seventeenth century. It may be the exact site of present Dropull's former Catholic Diocese of Hadrianopolis in Epiro. In the late seventeenth century, the Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi passed through Libohovë noting it was inhabited by Muslim Albanians and had 200 houses, a mosque, prayer house, inn and small bathhouse. Between 1796 and 1798 the Libohovë Castle was built in the city. In the early nineteenth century during the rule of Ali Pasha, British diplomat William Martin Leake during his journey from Vlorë to Gjirokastra and later to present-day Greece, in his diary describes his arrival on December 26, 1804, in the region of Derópoli, or Dropull as it was known from the local Albanians. According to him, Libohovë, then part of the same region, numbered about 1000 Muslim families and 100 Christian families.
During the interwar period Libohovë was a well-watered, large and wealthy settlement located among extensive groves containing 500 houses, its inhabitants spoke Albanian and were mostly Muslim. Libohovë was a centre for the Muslim Sufi Bektashi order with several tekkes located in Dropull., members of the Greek minority also lived in the town. Muslims formed most of Libohovë's population in the late twentieth century. A small settlement, Libohovë is a centre of Sufi Bektashism.

Places of interest

Notable locals