Kostenjë is a village in the

Elbasan County Elbasan County () is one of the 12 counties of Albania. The population is 232,580 (as of 2023), in an area of 3199 km2. Its capital is the city Elbasan. Administrative divisions Until 2000, Elbasan County was subdivided into four districts: ...

, eastern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. Following the local governmental reform of 2015, Kostenjë became a part of the municipality of

Librazhd Librazhd ( sq-definite, Librazhdi) is a town and a municipality in Elbasan County, southeast Albania. The municipality was reformed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Hotolisht, Librazhd, Lunik, Orenj ...

and is under the municipal unit of

Lunik Lunik () is a band from Switzerland. There are currently three members. Lunik started in 1997 with Adi Amstutz, Luk Zimmermann, Mats Marti, Walo Müller and Anton Höglhammer. Singer Jaël joined the band in 1998 and Anton Höglhammer left the l ...

Name

The name of the village is a

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

toponym.

History

Kostenjë (''Kostenjani'') is attested in the Ottoman ''

defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

'' of 1467 as a village in the

vilayet A vilayet (, "province"), also known by #Names, various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...

of Çermeniça. It had a total of 17 households represented by the following household heads: ''Gjon Porteviri'', ''

Pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

Nikolla'', ''Gjon Dajçe'', ''Petër Dajçe'', ''Nikolla Mileva'', ''Gjon Bileci'', ''Nikolla Gjergji'', ''Aleko Dimitri'', ''Gjon Koleci'', ''Andrije Katadhota'', ''Gjergj Shirgji'', ''Gjon Draksha'', ''Pop Petri'', ''Vasili'' son of ''Kallogjer'', ''Petri'' son of ''Gjoni'', and ''Kristila''. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

on 8 January 1944, British

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

officers attached to the Albanian partisans were ambushed in the village of Kostenjë. The combined German and

Balli Kombëtar The Balli Kombëtar (literally ''National Front'') was an Albanian nationalist, Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, collaborationist, and anti-communist resistance movement during the Second World War. It was led by Ali Këlcyra a ...

ambush resulted in the capture of Brigadier Edmund Frank "Trotsky" Davies and death of Brigadier Arthur Nicholls.

References

{{Librazhd div Villages in Elbasan County Populated places in Librazhd