"Elbasan" a Elbasan Travel Page by sisterjenche

Elbasan is the site of the ancient city of Skampa founded in the 1st century A.D. It came into being and developed during the construction of the Egnatia route - a main road artery in the land communications and trade and commercial interchanges between the Apennine Peninsula, on one side and the Balkan Peninsula and the East on the other. The surrounding walls of the town were built in the 4th century, having 3 entrances and 26 towers. Its fortress was built during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (483-565) by which time Skampa had become the seat of a Bishopic with a Cathedral and a Basilica outside its surrounding walls. After the failure of the second Turkish siege of Kruja, Sultan Muhamet II rebuilt the fortress in 1466 and renamed the town Elbasan (El-basan is turkish for Fortress).

In the 16th and 17th century, Elbasan became an important centre of trade and handicrafts noted for its leather, wood, silk and metal work (especially silver). In the 19th century local feudal lords led an uprising against the Turks, who destroyed the walls of the fortress in 1832, so that only their southern part still stands. One of the gates of the fortress is still in use. Beside the hotel 'Skampa' is a bath-house of the Turkish period. A museum relating the history of the Elbasan district is located in the fortress. It's exhibits include the tombs of an Illyrian warrior, with helmet, arms and household utensils and two statues of Apollo. Today Elbasan has a population of 70,000 inhabitants, and it is Albania's fourth largest town and the administrative centre of a district. The town is the birthplace of the teacher Theodor Haxhi Filipi known as Dhaskal Todri (1730-1805) and of the lexicographer Kostandin Kristoforidhi (1827-1895). In Elbasan was opened the first teachers training college (1909) the 'Alexander Xhuvani' University, named after the poet and publicist.