Albania Orientale
In December 1916, French troops advanced up the Devoll valley and proclaimed a short-lived autonomous republic in Korça: an almost...
Updated 9 July 2026
Albania Orientale
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The story
The story of Albania Orientale
History: a land of passage and shifting borders
The history of eastern Albania is that of a land of passage, crossed for centuries by armies, merchants and transhumant shepherds heading toward the Macedonian plateau or the central Albanian plain. In ancient times the region was inhabited by Illyrian tribes and later fell within the Roman and Byzantine orbit, with the nearby Via Egnatia, the great road linking the Adriatic to Byzantium, skirting the shores of Lake Ohrid a little further north. In the Middle Ages it came under Byzantine and Slavic-Macedonian influences, before entering, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Ottoman orbit, where it remained for almost five centuries and which left the deepest mark: bazaars, mosques, two-story houses with wooden overhangs. It was precisely in Korça that in 1887 the first school in the Albanian language opened, at a time when teaching in the national language was forbidden by the Ottoman authorities: an episode that made the city a symbol of the Albanian cultural awakening, the Rilindja. The twentieth century then brought French, Italian and German occupation and finally the long communist regime of Enver Hoxha, which isolated the entire border strip for decades.
Lake Ohrid and Pogradec
Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lake basins in Europe, of tectonic origin dating back more than a million years: such a long history has allowed it to develop a unique ecosystem, with dozens of endemic animal and plant species found nowhere else, foremost among them the Ohrid trout, locally called koran, fished and served for generations on the tables of the area. Its waters, shared between Albania and North Macedonia, are protected by UNESCO as both a natural and cultural heritage site. On the Albanian shore stands Pogradec, a town of ancient origin that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries became the country's main lakeside holiday destination: a lakefront of pebbles and sand, water clear and cool even in the height of summer, restaurants serving lake fish and a compact center that comes alive with evening strolls in summer. From here boat trips also set off toward the villages of the coast and toward the border with North Macedonia, just a few kilometers away.
The Drilon springs
A few kilometers south of Pogradec, near the village of Tushemisht, the Drilon natural park springs up around a series of karst springs that flow out at the foot of the mountains, feeding small lakes with incredibly clear turquoise waters. Small islets linked by wooden footbridges, navigable channels with rowing boats and a shaded grove make it one of the destinations most loved by the people of Pogradec for a day out, especially on summer weekends. On the estate there is also a building that once served as a representative residence of the communist regime, today converted into accommodation, testimony to a past in which the area was reserved for the party nomenklatura. The springs also partly feed the Drin Nero, the river that flows out of Lake Ohrid and then runs down toward the rest of Albania: an important water source for the entire basin.
Korça, cultural capital of the southeast
Korça as we know it today developed from the fifteenth century onward around a fortified market built at the will of a local Ottoman lord, growing over the following centuries thanks to its position as a trading hub between the Balkan hinterland and the Adriatic ports. In the nineteenth century the city accumulated mercantile wealth that allowed it to fund schools, churches and libraries, placing it at the forefront of the Albanian national movement. In 1917, in the midst of the French occupation, the National Lyceum of Korça opened there, an institution that for decades trained a significant part of the country's intellectual and political class, among teachers, writers and Albanian scientists. Even today Korça retains a distinctive urban identity, made up of tree-lined avenues, late-nineteenth-century bourgeois townhouses and a cultural life, spanning theaters, museums and galleries, disproportionate to the size of the city, which have traditionally made it the main cultural reference point of southeastern Albania.
The Ottoman bazaar and the museums of Korça
The Ottoman bazaar of Korça, rebuilt and restored after decades of neglect, has once again become the commercial hub of the old town, with artisan workshops, cafés and the typical overhanging houses that look out onto cobbled alleys. Not far away stands the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, rebuilt in the 1990s after the original was demolished during the communist regime's atheist campaign: today it is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the country. Korça is also home to two museums of national importance: the National Museum of Medieval Art, which holds the most important Albanian collection of Orthodox icons and iconostases recovered from churches throughout the region, and the Bratko Museum, born from the donation of a private collection of Oriental, Chinese, Japanese and Ottoman art, assembled over the course of a lifetime spent in the Far East.
The Korça serenade and Korça beer
Nighttime Korça has a soundtrack of its own: the Korça serenade, an urban love song performed in multiple voices by groups of men who once wandered the streets beneath the windows of their sweethearts. The tradition, handed down from generation to generation, has grown into a city festival that every December brings the practice back to the squares and theaters, and is now recognized as intangible cultural heritage. The same city is also credited with the birth of the Albanian brewing industry: in 1928 the country's first brewery, Birra Korça, opened there, and it still produces beer today according to recipes dating back to those years, having become a brand as much a part of local identity as the serenades. It is no surprise that one of the most heartfelt moments of the local calendar is the summer beer festival, with concerts and tastings in the streets of the center.
Lake Prespa and its parks
A few kilometers as the crow flies from Ohrid, but almost eight hundred meters higher up, lies Lake Prespa, divided into a larger basin, shared between Albania, North Macedonia and Greece, and a smaller one almost entirely within Greece: a rare point in Europe where the borders of three states meet on the water. The two lakes, though separated by the Mali i Thatë range, communicate through underground karst channels that carry part of Prespa's waters toward Ohrid. On the Albanian side the lake is protected by Prespa National Park, a refuge for pelican colonies and other waterbird species that nest undisturbed among the reed beds. The Albanian shore, less touristy than that of Ohrid, is home to fishing villages where a Macedonian-speaking minority lives, with Pustec as the main center: an area still visited at the slow pace of border regions, amid vegetable gardens, boats pulled up on shore and small rural Orthodox churches.
Voskopojë and the frescoed churches
On the plateau at around 1160 meters above sea level, half an hour by car from Korça, stands Voskopojë, once one of the most flourishing cities in the Balkans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Populated mainly by Aromanian communities engaged in itinerant trade, the city came to have dozens of churches, a printing house among the first in the region and an academy that made it a major intellectual and economic center. The armed raids of the late eighteenth century, linked to the conflicts with the pasha of Ioannina, put an end to this era: the city was sacked several times and never recovered its former population or wealth. Today only a handful of houses remain, and above all a few Orthodox churches, such as that of St. Nicholas, which preserve cycles of eighteenth-century frescoes painted by masters of the local school, with biblical scenes also depicted on the outer facades: an artistic heritage disproportionate to the size of today's village.
The mountain nature of eastern Albania
The territory east of Korça rises rapidly toward the Gramoz and Morava mountains, ranges that mark the border with Greece and that rise above two thousand meters, a land of summer pastures and transhumance still practiced by a few shepherd families. A few kilometers from the city, Bredhi i Drenovës National Park protects one of the best-preserved black pine and Macedonian pine forests in the Balkans, crossed by hiking trails suitable even for a half-day outing. Further south, toward the Kolonjë district, the landscape becomes even more rugged, with narrow valleys, stone villages perched on the slopes and an economy still tied to sheep and goat farming. It is a Mediterranean mountain environment, with snowy winters and cool summers, very different from the climate of the Albanian coasts just a few hours away.
Boboshtica and the stone villages
Around Korça lies a constellation of mountain villages worth a detour. Boboshtica, perched on a slope a few kilometers from the city, is known for the multi-story stone houses built by local merchant families between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, and for a craft tradition that has never been interrupted: the production of a sweet liqueur made from fermented grape must, still prepared today according to family recipes. Not far away, Vithkuq, another ancient Aromanian center linked to the history of Voskopojë, was the birthplace of Naum Veqilharxhi, among the first intellectuals to propose an original alphabet for the Albanian language in the nineteenth century. These villages, with their neighborhood churches, stone fountains and fortified houses, convey the image of a rural mountain society that for centuries coexisted with long-distance trade.
Flavors and culinary traditions
The cuisine of eastern Albania is that of a region of both lakes and mountains: freshwater fish, especially trout and carp, shared between the tables of Pogradec and those around Prespa, and cheeses and dairy products from mountain pastures in the higher areas toward Gramoz and Morava. Korça has a culinary tradition of its own, with dishes based on beans seasoned with smoked meat, artisan-made sausages and naturally leavened bread still baked in wood-fired ovens in the oldest neighborhoods. To drink, besides the local beer already mentioned, there are fruit spirits produced in private homes in the mountain villages, often made from plums, grapes or walnuts, offered as a welcome even before the meal begins. The grape harvest season and the winter pig slaughter remain, in the villages, collective moments that still mark the area's agricultural calendar.
When to go and how to experience the area
The best time to visit eastern Albania runs from May to October, when the long days allow visitors to alternate swims in Lake Ohrid, mountain hikes and evenings in the venues of central Korça. July and August are the hottest and most crowded months on the lake, also due to the traditional summer beer festival in Korça; late spring and early autumn offer milder temperatures and countryside colored by blossom or grape harvest. Winter, harsh especially in Korça and on the Voskopojë plateau, where snow is not uncommon, has in recent years gained a popularity of its own thanks to the city's Christmas lights, which have become among the most elaborate in the country and a destination for visitors from all over Albania. In general, the region is best visited over several days, moving at a leisurely pace between the lake, the city and the mountains: the distances are short but the changes in landscape, and often in climate too, are sharp.
- Swimming or taking a boat trip on Lake Ohrid from Pogradec
- Strolling among the channels and turquoise springs of Drilon park
- Getting lost among the workshops of the Ottoman bazaar of Korça
- Visiting the National Museum of Medieval Art and its icons
- Listening to a Korça serenade during the December festival
- Going up to Voskopojë to see the frescoes of the eighteenth-century churches
- Looking for pelicans on the shores of Lake Prespa
- Walking in the Bredhi i Drenovës pine forest
- Tasting the Boboshtica liqueur in the stone village
FAQ
Come si arriva a Korça e al lago di Ohrid?
Qual è il periodo migliore per visitare la regione?
Cosa vedere se si ha solo un giorno a disposizione?
È adatta a una visita con bambini?
Dove si trovano i valichi verso Macedonia del Nord e Grecia?
Conviene fermarsi più di un giorno?
Getting there
- Aeroporto Internazionale di Tirana 'Nënë Tereza', circa 180 km da Korça
- Da Tirana si segue la statale SH3 attraverso Elbasan e Librazhd fino a Pogradec, per poi proseguire verso Korça; la strada è asfaltata e panoramica ma di montagna, con curve soprattutto nel tratto verso il lago.
- Meglio noleggiare un'auto o affidarsi ai pullman di linea Tirana-Korça, frequenti durante il giorno; d'inverno conviene controllare le condizioni della strada verso Voskopojë, che può chiudere per neve.
Perfect for
Ohrid e Prespa regalano acque limpide, spiagge di ciottoli e gite in barca tra due dei bacini più antichi d'Europa.
Korça concentra musei, bazaar ottomano e la tradizione delle serenate urbane, patrimonio immateriale ancora vivo.
Le chiese affrescate di Voskopojë raccontano il declino di quella che fu una delle città più ricche dei Balcani.
I monti Gramoz e Morava, le foreste di Bredhi i Drenovës e i pascoli d'alta quota sono terreno ideale per il trekking.
Birra artigianale, trota di lago, formaggi di malga e distillati di villaggio compongono una tavola tipicamente montana.
To see
