Korçë

Korçë, city, southeastern Albania.

It began as a feudal estate in the 13th century, and in 1484 the local lord, Koja Mirahor İlyas Bey, a Muslim convert active in the Ottoman siege of Constantinople (1453; now Istanbul), returned to the site and built the mosque that bears his name. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries Korçë was a centre of commerce and trade. The first school to use the Albanian language opened there in 1887; its building is now a museum of education. Occupied by the Greeks in 1912, Korçë was awarded to Albania in 1920 by the International Boundary Commission, following a four-year French occupation. Enver Hoxha, the Albanian communist leader, attended and later taught at the lycée (public secondary school) that the French founded there in 1916. Used as a military base by the Italians for operations against Greece during World War II, the city was occupied by the Greeks in 1940–41 and then by the Germans. Korçë was restored to Albania in 1944.

Korçë lies on a fertile plateau, 2,800 feet (850 metres) above sea level, that is surrounded by high, bare mountains. The plateau is one of Albania’s chief wheat-growing areas; sugar beets, apples, and grapes are also grown and processed. Korçë has a brewery and other food-processing plants, as well as light industry producing knitted goods, rugs, and carpets. To the northwest is a sugar refinery at Maliq, a new town established in 1951. Coal is mined at Mborje in the mountains to the south. Pop. (2001) 55,130; (2011) 51,152.