Elbasan

Elbasan castle is a 15th-century fortress in the city of Elbasan, Albania. The castle was initially composed of 26 equidistant 9-metre (30 ft) high towers. Part of Via Egnatia passes through the castle Foundations. The Elbasan Castle was built upon Roman and Byzantine Foundations and the original settlement was built in the 3rd century.There were periods of settlement in Elbasan castle. 3-4th century,5-6th century and finally 11-15th century and finally the ottoman era.

The Illyrians were a group of Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo-Balkan populations, along with the Thracians and Greeks.

In the Roman Empire, a mansio was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or via, maintained by the central government for the use of officials and those on official business whilst travelling.

In modern historiography, Ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire.

Byzantium or Byzantion was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinization Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand year existence of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium was colonized by Greeks from Megara in the 7th century BC and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453.

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western Roman Empire to Germanic kings conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Because of these events, along with the gradual Hellenization of the Eastern Roman Empire, historians distinguish the medieval Roman Empire that remained in the Eastern provinces as the Byzantine Empire.

The Itinerarium Burdigalense, also known as the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, is the oldest known Christian itinerarium. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim from the city of Burdigala in the Roman province of Gallia Aquitania.

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and chronicled in the New Testament.

The Bulgars were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomadic equestrians in the Volga-Ural region, but some researchers say that their ethnic roots can be traced to Central Asia. During their westward migration across the Eurasian steppe, the Bulgar tribes absorbed other tribal groups and cultural influences in a process of ethnogenesis, including Iranian, Finnic and Hunnic tribes. Modern genetic research on Central Asian Turkic people and ethnic groups related to the Bulgars points to an affiliation with Western Eurasian populations. The Bulgars spoke a Turkic language, i.e. Bulgar language of Oghuric branch. They preserved the military titles, organization and customs of Eurasian steppes, as well as pagan shamanism and belief in the sky deity Tangra.

The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century, having crossed the Lower Danube. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under the influence of the Amal dynasty, the family of Theodoric the Great.

The League of Lezhë, also commonly referred to as the Albanian League, was a military and diplomatic alliance of the Albanian aristocracy, created in the city of Lezhë on March 2, 1444. The League of Lezhë is considered the first unified independent Albanian country in the Medieval age, with Skanderbeg as leader of the regional Albanian chieftains and nobles united against the Ottoman Empire. Skanderbeg was proclaimed "Chief of the League of the Albanian People," while Skanderbeg always signed himself as "Dominus Albaniae".

The Naziresha Mosque is a Cultural Monument of Albania, located in Elbasan. It was built in 1599 by a Naziresha (Nazire), the daughter of a Nazır (minister). After being partly damaged in 1920 due to an earthquake, it became a Cultural Monument in 1948.

The Myzeqe is a plain in the Western Lowlands of Albania. The Myzeqe is the largest and widest plain, measured by area, in the Lowlands.

The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, German climatologist Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981) introduced some changes to the classification system, which is thus sometimes called the Köppen–Geiger climate classification.

In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates" or falls. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but colloids, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers.

Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used in some countries.

An alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The consumption of alcoholic drinks, often referred to as "drinking", plays an important social role in many cultures. Most countries have laws regulating the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Regulations may require the labeling of the percentage alcohol content and the use of a warning label. Some countries ban such activities entirely, but alcoholic drinks are legal in most parts of the world. The global alcoholic drink industry exceeded $1 trillion in 2018.

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.

A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finished casting products are made from molten pig iron or from scrap.

Ferrochrome or ferrochromium (FeCr) is a type of ferroalloy, that is, an alloy of chromium and iron, generally containing 50 to 70% chromium by weight.

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance or energy. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants.

The King Mosque or Sultan Bayezid Mosque is a historical Ottoman-era mosque within the Ottoman Elbasan Castle in the town of Elbasan, Albania.

Bulgarians are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. The Bulgarians form the majority of the population in Bulgaria as well as historical minority communities in the neighbouring countries from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, more specifically in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and in other countries situated throughout the Balkan peninsula.

Austrians are the citizens and nationals of Austria. The English term Austrians was applied to the population of Habsburg Austria from the 17th or 18th century. Subsequently, during the 19th century, it referred to the citizens of the Empire of Austria (1804–1867), and from 1867 until 1918 to the citizens of Cisleithania. In the closest sense, the term Austria originally referred to the historical March of Austria, corresponding roughly to the Vienna Basin in what is today Lower Austria.

Italians are a Romance ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region and its neighboring insular territories. Italians share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. Their predecessors differ regionally, but include the ancient Greeks in Magna Graecia, the Etruscans in northern Italy and, most notably, the Romans in central Italy, who helped create and evolved into the modern Italian identity. Legally, Italian nationals are citizens of Italy, regardless of ancestry or nation of residence and may be distinguished from ethnic Italians in general or from people of Italian descent without Italian citizenship and ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to the Italian peninsula without Italian citizenship. The Latin equivalent of the term Italian had been in use for natives of the geographical region since antiquity.

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered around the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam, called Muslims, number approximately 1.9 billion globally and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.

Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, 14 kilometres north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing with Greece. The city stands at an important junction connecting the south of the Adriatic Sea region with the Aegean Sea and Central Europe, and it is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It has been known since the Ottoman period as the "City of Consuls", since many European countries had consulates in Bitola.

North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's 1.83 million people. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities.

The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions, it forms the Latin script that is used to write English and other modern European languages. With modifications, it is also used for other alphabets, such as the Vietnamese alphabet. Its modern repertoire is standardised as the ISO basic Latin alphabet.

Albanian is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that language family. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. With perhaps as many as 7.5 million speakers, it comprises an independent branch within the Indo-European languages and is not closely related to any other modern language.

The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the third-most by number of users.

Kostandin Nelko, known as Kostandin Kristoforidhi, was an Albanian translator and scholar. He is mostly known for having translated the New Testament into Albanian for the first time in the Gheg Albanian dialect in 1872. He also provided a translation in Tosk Albanian in 1879 thereby improving the 1823 tosk version of Vangjel Meksi. By providing translation in both dialects, he has the merit of founding the basis of the unification of both dialects into a national language.

Aleksandër Xhuvani was an Albanian philologist and educator. Xhuvani spent much of his career working for the improvement of Albanian schools; he also advocated the standardization of the Albanian language in the years following Albania's independence. Among his writings are grammars in Albanian, as well as a dictionary of the language. Xhuvani also served as a politician, sitting in both the Constituent Assembly of the Albanian Kingdom and as a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania. In the latter he served as vice-president of the Presidium towards the end of his life.

Sedefkar Mehmed Agha Biçakçiu or Sedefqar Mehmeti of Elbasan is recorded as the Ottoman architect of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul.

Ibrahim Aqif Biçakçiu was an Albanian landowner and Axis collaborator, Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee from September 14 to October 24, 1943, and Prime Minister of Albania from September 6 to October 26, 1944 during the Nazi occupation.

Aqif Pasha Biçaku mostly known as Aqif Pashë Elbasani was an Ottoman Albanian political figure in the Sanjak of Elbasan and after the Young Turk Revolution became an activist for the Albanian national cause.

Lef Nosi was an Albanian publisher, archivist, philologist, folklorist, ethnographer, numismatist, archaeologist and politician. On 28 November 1912, he was as one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, representing Elbasan. During the Second World War, Nosi was a leading member of Balli Kombëtar and was chosen as a member of the Albanian High Council.

Qemal bej Karaosmani was one of the signatories of the Albanian Declaration of Independence, and an activist of Albanian education. He served as General Secretary and briefly as Minister of Agriculture in the Provisional Government of Albania.

Mahir Domi (1915–2000) was an Albanian linguist, professor, and academic. He was one of the organizers and main participants of the Albanian Orthography Congress, and member of the follow up commission responsible for deploying the orthographic rules of the Standard Albanian language.

Shefqet Mehmetali Stringa was a banking pioneer in Albania.

Eva Murati is an Albanian actress and TV host. Starting her career at the age of 15, she made herself known in Albanian showbiz through different commercials and modeling jobs. Eva hosted her first TV program Antilope in 2013 and then she co-hosted with Adi Krasta Duartrokitje, both of them at Agon Channel. She then moved to Vizion Plus in 2016 where she hosted Miss Universe Albania and VIP Zone. She is currently hosting the Studio UEFA Champions League and Sports Week at Tring Sport. Murati debuted in film in The Outlaw in 2013. She then starred in 2017 in Ti mund të më quash Xhon. In 2016 she starred in the TV series Skanderbeg. Her most recent project is Familja Kuqezi which is currently filming.

Lindita Idrizi is an Albanian model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Albania 2016 and represented Albania at the Miss Universe 2016.

Saimir Pirgu is an Albanian international opera singer (tenor). In 2014 he was awarded the Italian citizenship by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano.

This is a list of places in Albania which have standing links to local communities in other countries known as "town twinning" or "sister cities".

Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary has a population of 9.7 million, mostly ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian, the official language, is the world's most widely spoken Uralic language and among the few non-Indo-European languages widely spoken in Europe. Budapest is the country's capital and largest city; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs, and Győr.

Dunaújváros is an industrial city in Fejér County, Central Hungary. It is a city with county rights. Situated 70 kilometres south of Budapest on the Danube, the city is best known for its steelworks, which is the largest in the country. It was built in the 1950s on the site of the former village of Dunapentele and was originally given the name of Sztálinváros before acquiring its current name in 1961.

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe. Its coast lies entirely on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Italy to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city, Zagreb, forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, with twenty counties. The country spans 56,594 square kilometres, and has a population of nearly 3.9 million.

Osijek is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja County. Osijek is on the right bank of the Drava River, 25 km (16 mi) upstream of its confluence with the Danube, at an elevation of 94 m (308 ft).

Montenegro is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is a part of the Balkans and is bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, Croatia to the northwest, and the Adriatic Sea to the west with a coastline of 293.5 km. Podgorica, the capital and largest city, covers 10.4% of Montenegro's territory of 13,812 square kilometres (5,333 sq mi), and is home to roughly 31% of its total population of 621,000. Cetinje is the former royal capital of Montenegro and is the location of several national institutions, including the official residence of the president of Montenegro.

Bar is a coastal town and seaport in southern Montenegro. It is the capital of the Bar Municipality and a center for tourism. According to the 2011 census, the city proper had 13,503 inhabitants, while the total population of Bar Municipality was 42,068.

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,528 km2 (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of 376/km2 (970/sq mi). Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven.

Liège is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from borders with the Netherlands and with Germany. In Liège, the Meuse meets the river Ourthe. The city is part of the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia. It still is the principal economic and cultural centre of the region.