Delvinë (Albanian: Delvinë or Delvina, Greek: Δέλβινο, romanized: Delvino) is a town and a municipality in Vlorë County, southern Albania, 16 kilometres (10 miles) northeast of Sarandë. It was formed in the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Delvinë and Vergo, which became municipal units. The seat of the municipality is the town Delvinë.[1] The population of the municipal unit Delvinë at the 2023 census was 4,952 and of the municipality was 6,166.[2]
The town is built on a mountain slope. It has a mosque, a Catholic church, a Protestant church, and an Orthodox church. Nearby are the remainders of a medieval castle. To the southwest of the city is the site of ancient Phoenice, which was declared an Archaeological Park in 2005.[3]
The town's population consists of a majority of Albanians and a substantial Greek minority. Other communities include Balkan Egyptians and until WWII, Jews. There is little local employment apart from that provided by the state, and Delvinë benefits little from the tourist boom in Sarandë.
Etymology
The Albanian toponym Delvinë (Albaniandefinite form: Delvina) is connected to the Albanian dele, delmë, meaning 'sheep'.[4] Linguist Xhelal Ylli translates Delvinë as 'white sheep'.[5] In Greek it is known as Δέλβινο, Delvino and in Turkish as Delvine.
The separate Sanjak of Delvina was established in the mid-16th century[8] due to the need to secure Ottoman control in the region towards potential Venetian infiltration from nearby Butrinto and to control the rebellious zone of Himara.[9] The county town was Delvinë, yet during the 18th century the local Pasha moved the seat of the sanjak from Delvinë to Gjirokastër. The official name did not change, however, as it was also referred to as the Sanjak of Gjirokastër.[10]
In an ecclesiastical entry of 1635, the Codex of the church of Delvinë written in Greek noted that the Muslim population had increased and dwelt in quarters inhabited by Orthodox Christians, had confiscated their churches and converted them into mosques, thereby forcing the non-Islamized Christians to move to other quarters of the town.[11] The Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Delvinë around 1670 and gave information about the city in his travel book. He reported that in the Middle Ages Delvinë was in the hands of the Spanish and later the Venetians.[12] In his own time, Ajaz Mehmet Pasha – a native Albanian – governed the Sanjak-bey of Delvinë.[13] The sanjak covered 24 zeamets and 155 timars.[13] There was a Turkish garrison, whose command on the castle was from Delvinë.[13] According to the description of Çelebi, the small fortress had a good cistern, an ammunition depot and a small mosque.[13] In the city there were about 100 brick-built houses.[14] These stood relatively far apart and nearly every house had a tower.[14] He noted that a town wall was missing.[14] There were several mosques, three medreses and about 80 stores, as well as an open marketplace.[15] Çelebi also observed that during this time, all the inhabitants of Delvinë spoke the Albanian language while having no knowledge of the Greek language.[16]
In an ecclesiastical entry of 1730, the Codex of the church of Delvinë noted that some of the Christian Greek clergy had linguistic difficulties in administrating their congregations, as there were Christian villagers living within the region of Delvinë who were Albanian-speaking.[17] The local diaspora in Venice as part of the Venetian Greek community's Brotherhood of Saint Nicholas financially supported various initiatives for the expansion of Greek education in the 18th century.[18] Thus, in two instances in 1713 and 1749, Spyros Stratis and Spyridon Rizos respectively, notable members of the local diaspora in Venice, financially supported the expansion of the local Greek education system, as well as donating vast sums of money to local Orthodox monasteries and churches.[18][19][20]
Delvinë was seized by Ali Pashë Tepelena in 1784. Delvinë was taken over by Albanian rebels in 1833 causing the Ottoman government to comply to the rebel requests.[21]
Some Ottoman inscriptions have been preserved in Delvina. They are written mainly on tombstones, and some graffiti also appear in the porch of the Gjin Aleksi Mosque. They consist of simple verses and invocations made by the pilgrims who visited this important centre. Delvina hosted dervishes of the Halveti order, which was spread towards Albania by Helvacı Yakub Efendi around 1530. In the Xhermahalle section of Delvina a Bektashi tekke can be found. Monuments like the citadel, the mosque, the Halveti tekke, the Bektashi tekke, and the hamam, indicate Delvina's great importance in the Ottoman period. [22]
In 1847, when an Albanian revolt broke out, 500 revolutionaries led by Zenel Gjoleka took over Delvinë.
In 1878 a Greek revolt broke out, with a unit of 700 revolutionaries, mostly Epirotes from the Ionian Islands, taking control of Sarandë and occupied Delvinë. However, it was suppressed by the Ottoman troops, who burned 20 villages of the region.[23] In September 1912, the Greek Band of Ioannis Poutetsis was defeated by Albanian groups and a Turkish detachment in the vicinity of Delvinë, and Poutetsis was killed.[24]
During the socialist period, Delvinë was a major population centre. However, much of the fighting in the 1997 Albanian civil unrest took place there, and the city is now depopulated, like most of rural Albania, and many buildings still show visible signs of the war.
Demography
In the early 19th century during the rule of Ali Pasha, British diplomat William Martin Leake arrived in town on December 24, 1804. According to him, the town had an Albanian Muslim majority who had eight or ten small mosques. The Greeks occupied the eastern suburbs called Láka and consisted of about thirty families, ten of whom had the surname Kanáki.[30]
The town has a majority population of Albanians alongside communities of Greeks and Balkan Egyptians.[31][32] According to the Human Rights Watch, Greeks constituted 50% of the town's population in 1989 (~4000 individuals), but this fell to 25% (500) in 1999.[33] According to fieldwork by Kallivretakis (1995), the town had an Albanian majority and populations of Albanians (Muslims and Christians) and Greeks.[31] The villages Rusan, Vllahat, Bamatata, Kopaçezë, Varfaj were inhabited by Albanians. Greeks lived in two villages of the municipality, Lefterhor and Kakodhik, while Vlachs in one village Vana.[31]
The population of the city alone in the 2011 census was 5,754 and the total registered population of the same year was 14,218. With the administrative addition of Vergo in the municipal reform in 2015, the total resident population of Delvinë municipality was 7,598 and the total registered population was 18,074.[34][35][36] Apart from Albanians, according to a 2014 report by the Albanian government, there were 2,300 Greeks in the number of total registered citizens in the municipality of Delvinë.[37]
According to the 2011 census, Albanians constituted approximately 66% of the total population, Greeks constituted approximately 6% of the total population, Roma 0,25%, with the remainder not being registered.[38] In the 2011 census, Albanian was recorded as the mother tongue of ~95% of the population, ~4% Greek, 0.02% Macedonian[39]
During the procedure organizations of the Greek minority and Albanian nationalist parties called for a boycott.[40] Indeed the census results were affected by boycott by a significant number of the Greek community.[38] According to the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the 2011 census is unreliable, inaccurate, and incompatible with established standards for the protection of national minorities.[41][42] As of 2014, there are 134 students in the municipality of Delvinë who are enrolled in Greek-language education.[37]
Until the Second World War, a small Jewish community existed in Delvinë. It consisted of Jews from Spain who had come to Delvinë when under Ottoman rule and had close connections to the large Jewish community in Ioannina. After the war, nearly all the Jews emigrated to Israel.
Education
The first school in Delvina, a Greek-language school, was founded in 1537, when the town was still under Venetian control, and was maintained by bequests from wealthy local families.[43] Moreover, in 1875 a Greek female school was founded.[44]
^Schütz, István (2006) [2002]. Fehér foltok a Balkánon (in Hungarian). Budapest: Balassi Kiadó. p. 127. ISBN9635064721. A dalmata/delmata illír törzs, Dalmatia/Delmatia terület, Delminium/Dalmion illír város neve, továbbá a mai Delvinë és Delvinaqi földrajzi tájegység neve az albán dele (többese delme) 'juh', delmer 'juhpásztor' szavakhoz kapcsolódik. Strabon Delmion illír város nevéhez ezt az éretelmezést fűzi „...πεδιον μελωβοτον...", azaz „juhokat tápláló síkság".
^Delvina, Sherif (2006). Low Albania (Epirus) and Cham issue. Eurorilindja. Afterwards, when the Sanjak of Delvina has been created (about the middle of XVI century),
^Dankoff, Robert, & Robert Elsie (2000). Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions: Kossovo, Montenegro, Ohrid. Brill. p. 59.
^ abcdDankoff & Elsie. Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions. 2000. p. 59.
^ abcDankoff & Elsie. Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions. 2000. p. 61.
^Dankoff & Elsie. Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions. 2000. p. 59, 61.
^Dankoff & Elsie. Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions. 2000. p. 61. "The inhabitants all speak Albanian and do not know Greek."
^Xhufi, Pëllumb (2006). Dilemat e Arbërit[Arbëria's Dilemma]. Pegi. pp. 464-465. "Gjurmët e kësaj politike “informale” të realizuar nën hijen dhe nën mbrojtjen e Portës së Lartë, i gjejmë edhe një shënim të harruar të Kodikut të Delvinës të vitit 1730, i cili tregon se si peshkopi grek Genadhi e braktisi detyrën e bariut të të krishterëve të atyre trevave, “pasi nuk mund të duronte që banorët e tyre të flisnin gjuhën shqipe”. [Th. Bamichas, Kodiks tou naou tes poleos Delvinous, në: “Epeirotika Chronika” 5 (1930), f. 60 e vijim.]"
^ abApostolidis-Kusserow, Karin (1983). "Nationalbewegungen auf dem Balkan". Die Griechische Nationalbewegung [The Greek National Movement] (in German). 5. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag: 79–80. ISBN9783447022385. ISSN0170-1533. Retrieved 20 June 2015. In diesem Zusammenhang ware als nur ein Beispiel die "Griechische Bruderschaft St. Nikolaus... Delvino und Joannina finanziert... Der Kaufmann Spyridon Rizos... 200 Dukaten zur Verfugung.
^Pollo, Stefanaq (1984). Historia e Shqipërisë: Vitet 30 të shek. XIX-1912 (in Albanian). Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë, Insituti i Historisë. OCLC165705732.
^Kondis Basil. Greece and Albania, 1908-1914. Institute for Balkan Studies, 1976, p. 132: "Throughout the period of the constituent assembly which convoked at Delvino to discuss the Corfu agreement... the constituent assembly approved the agreement on July 26, 1914."
^Carr, John (2013). The Defence and Fall of Greece, 1940–41. Pen and Sword. p. 57. ISBN978-1-4738-2830-8. On 5 December the Greek 3rd Division marched Delvina and took Sarande, Albania's southermoust port, a stone-built town on a bushy slope overlooking the north coast of Corfu.
^ abcKallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography]". In Veremis, Thanos (ed.). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. pp. 43, 54. ISBN9600800545. Ακόμη και εκεί που η ύπαιθρος είναι ελληνική ή ελληνίζουσα, οι πόλεις διαθέτουν αλβανική πλειοψηφία. Αυτό φαίνεται καθαρά στις περιπτώσεις Αργυροκάστρου και Δελβίνου, όπου οι Νομαρχίες πέρασαν στα χέρια της μειονότητας, όχι όμως και οι Δήμοι των αντιστοίχων πόλεων. (p.43)
^Demjaha, Agon; Sela, Ylber (2018). "Inter-Ethnic Relations in Albania: The Causality Between Inter-Ethnic and Inter-State Relations". Revista de Științe Politice (59): 37, 39, 42 – via Central and Eastern European Online Library. However, in the last minute, the Albanian authorities made amendments that introduced fines for incorrect responses to the questionnaire. According to these changes, a response not corresponding with the data contained in the civil registry would be considered as incorrect. Namely, according to article 20 of the Census law, anyone who would declare anything other than what was written in the civil registry might be risking a fine of up to 1,000 USD. OMONIA and Greek opposition parties heavily criticised such amendments and again called to boycott the census.... Although the census held in 2011 has for the first time since the fall of the communism contained questions on ethnic origin, it clearly failed to yield reliable data about the exact number of minorities in the country. On the one hand, the figures produced by the census were questioned by representatives of almost all minorities. On the other hand, the fact that some 14 percent of the population did not answer the question on ethnic origin is certainly quite troublesome.... The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities also considered the 2011 census in Albania as unreliable, inaccurate, and incompatible with established standards for the protection of national minorities.
1 Includes localities with a substantial ethnic Greek population, or otherwise with any kind of cultural or other type of significance, historical or current, for the Greek minority in Albania. 2 Includes individuals not necessarily of Greek ethnicity but with important contributions to Greek civilization.
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