Delvina is a
municipality in Southern Albania, 16 kilometers Northeast of Saranda, with a
population of 5,754 inhabitants. The town is built on a mountain slope. What is
very interesting of this small town is that it has a mosque, a Catholic church,
a Protestant church, and an Orthodox church. The history of it explains why.
Nearby are the remains
of a medieval castle. To the south west of the town is the site of ancient
Phoenice, declared an Archaeological Park in 2005.
In antiquity the
region was inhabited by the Illyrian tribe of the Kaonians.
In 1635, according to
the Codex of the church of Delvina, when the Muslims increased in number, they
settled in the areas inhabited by the Christian Orthodox, confiscated their
churches and converted them to mosques, thereby forcing the Christians to move
to other areas of the town.
The Turkish traveler
Evliya Çelebi visited Delvina around 1670 and gave some information about the
city in his travel journal. He reported that in the Middle Ages Delvina was in
the hands of the Spanish and later in the hands of the Venetians.
In his own time, Ajaz
Mehmet Pasha - a native Albanian - governed the Sanjak-bey of Delvina. The
sanjak covered 24 zeamets and 155 timars. Ziamet was a form of land tenure in
the Ottoman Empire, consisting in grant of lands or revenues by the Ottoman
Sultan to an individual in compensation for his services, especially military
services. A timar was land granted by the Ottoman Sultans between the
fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a tax revenue with an annual value of
less than 20 000 akçes. A Turkish garrison lived here, who had command over the
castle. According to the description of Çelebis, the small fortress had a good
cisterne, a depot of arms and a small mosque. In the city there were about 100
brick houses. These stood relatively far apart and nearly every house had a
tower. He noted that a town wall was missing. There were several mosques, three
“Medrese/Muslim schools that taught Islam Religion” and about 80 stores as well
as an open market place.
In 1878 a Greek
rebellion broke out. The Epirote revolutionaries took control of Saranda and
Delvina. This was suppressed by the Ottoman troops, who burned 20 villages of
the region. In the early 20th century the Albanian National Awakening was
established in Delvina, consisting of 200 activists. During the Balkan Wars and
the Ottoman defeat, the Greek Army entered the city on 1913. In the summer of
1914 Delvina hosted the assembly of the representatives of Northern Epirus. The
Protocol of Corfu was approved on July 26, 1914 in Delvina. Delvina became thus
part of the short-lived Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, a country only
recognized by Greece.
Until the Second World
War, a small Jewish community existed in Delvina. The Jews had come from Spain
during the time Delvina had been under Ottoman rule and had close connections
to the large Jewish community in Ioannina. After the war, nearly all the Jews
emigrated to Israel..