41°20N 19°50E, pop (2000e) 277 200. Capital town of Albania and of Tiranë district; in a valley in the foothills of the Kruja-Dajti Mts, 40 km/25 mi from the Adriatic Sea; founded by Turks in the early 17th-c; made capital in 1920; residential area built by the Italians (193943); industrial area to the W; university (1957); railway; airport (Rinas); textiles, foodstuffs, footwear, metalworking, ceramics, glass, engineering, wood products, distilling, building materials, furniture; coal mines nearby.
Tirana (Albanian: Tiranë or Tirana) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania.
Tirana is located at 41°19′48″N, 19°49′12″E (41.33°N, 19.82°E) in the eponymous district and county.
Population
In 1703, Tirana had 4,000 inhabitants and by 1820 there were 12,000. During the 1950s, Tirana experienced rapid industrial growth, raising the population to 137,000 by 1960.
After the end of the communist dictatorship, Tirana experienced its fastest population growth in the early 1990s when people from rural areas moved to the capital to find a better life. In 1990, Tirana had 300,000 inhabitants, but since then, the large-scale influx from other parts of the country has increased the population to over 700,000.
In 2003, its population was officially estimated at 380,400, although other estimates put the figure as high as 1,000,000.
Name
There are a number of theories concerning the origin of the name:
from the word "Theranda", used by Greek and Latin sources to refer to the area, after the local term "te ranat", meaning fallen material, in reference to the composition of the terrain from hard earth carried down by water from the nearby mountains. an often-repeated explanation, though ultimately fallacious, is that Tirana was so named by Sulejman Pasha after the Persian capital Tehran, to mark his conquest of Persia in the 17th century. When Sulejman Pasha was at the location of what would become Tirana, he came across an elderly woman and asked her what she was doing.History
The area now occupied by the city of Tirana has been populated since Neolithic times, as evidenced by various remains discovered there. There are references to "Tirana e Madhe" and "Tirana e Vogël" (Greater and Lesser Tirana).
The records of the first land registrations under the Ottomans in 1431-32 show that Tirana consisted of 60 inhabited areas, with nearly 1,000 houses and 7,300 inhabitants. The 1583 registration records that Tirana had 110 inhabited areas, with 2,900 houses and 20,000 inhabitants.
Süleiman Pasha Mulleti (or Sulejman Pasha), a local ruler, established the Ottoman town in 1614 with a mosque, a commercial centre and a hammam (Turkish sauna). During this period, the mosque in the centre of Tirana, the Et'hem Bey Mosque designed by Molla Bey of Petrela, began to be constructed. After 1816, Tirana languished under the control of the Toptani family of Kruja.
On February 8, 1920, Tirana was chosen as the temporary capital of Albania, which had acquired independence in 1912, by the Congress of Lushnja. Since 1925, when they were banned in Turkey, the Bektashis, an order of dervishes who take their name from Haji Bektash, a Sufi saint of the 13th and 14th centuries, made Tirana their primary settlement.
The centre of Tirana was the project of Florestano de Fausto and Armando Brasini, well known architects of the Mussolini period in Italy. Tirana was occupied until 1944, first by the Italians, and then by the Germans.
Climate
The average temperature varies between 44.0 °F (6.7°C) in January and 87.8°F (31°C) in July.
Districts
The two oldest neighbourhoods are Mujos and Pazari, located between the geographical centre and Elbasani Street on either side of the Lana River. In 2000, the centre of Tirana, from the central campus of Tirana University up to Skënderbeg Square, was declared the place of Cultural Assembly and given special claims to state protection. In the same year, the area began a process of restoration under the name ‘Return to Identity.’ The area to the west of the university, adjacent to Saint Prokopi park, was formally reserved for the occupation of important government and party officials.
Economy
Tirana is Albania's major industrial centre.
Tirana began to develop in the beginning of the 16th century, when a bazar was established, and its craftsmen manufactured silk and cotton fabrics, leather, ceramics and iron, silver, and gold artifacts. Sited in a fertile plain, the Tirana area exported 2,600 barrels of olive oil and 14,000 packages of tobacco to Venice by 1769. Tirana is currently trying to develop a tourist industry, although this effort has been hampered by the lack of infrastructure and the perception of political instability in the region,.
Education
Tirana hosts the University of Tirana, founded in 1957, and other governmental and social buildings such as the Albanian Institute of Sciences, the Academy of Arts, the Agricultural University, the Military Academy, the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the People's Assembly, and the High Court. In 2002, the first private university in Albania was opened in Tirana. University of New York Tirana is an American-accredited university with hundreds of students offering American style education and diplomas in different areas of studies. Since 2003, up to six other private universities have opened in Tirana and have attracted thousands of students.
Environmental problems
Currently, the city suffers from the problems of overpopulation, such as waste management, lack of running water and electricity as well as extremely high levels of pollution from the 300,000 cars moving around the city. Despite the problems, Tirana has also experienced a very rapid growth in the construction of new buildings, especially in the suburbs, where many of the new neighbourhoods do not yet have street names.(BBC).
In recent years, pollution has also become a very big problem for Tirana as the number of cars has increased to several orders of magnitude. There is, however, a unique trait to the city that effectively moderates the impact of air pollution: the Saint Prokopi park, a vast forested park in the outskirts of the city, absorbs and purifies much of the polluted air.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tirana was the focal point of violent demonstrations that ultimately led to the collapse of the communist government.
Transport
National and international transport links have developed over recent years as demand has increased.
Bus
International coach services connect to Greece, via Korçë and then taxis to the border, to Kosovo, and to Macedonia (FYROM). Coach and minibus services run, according to demand, to the coast and northern and southern Albania from different locations in Tirana. Local transport within Tirana is by bus or taxi.
Rail
There are regular passenger services to Durres and Pogradec, via Elbasan.
Air
Rinas Mother Teresa Airport is located 25 kilometres north-west of the city, off the road to Durres.
Several foreign airlines also serve Rinas Airport: Alitalia (from Rome and Milan), British Airways (from London), Austrian Airlines (from Vienna), Adria Airways (Ljubljana), Jat Airways (Belgrade), Malev (Budapest), Olympic Airlines (Athens), Hemus Air (Sofia) and Turkish Airlines (Istanbul).
Sea
Tirana’s port is Durrës.
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