Poliçan ''( sq-definite, Poliçani)'' is a city and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

situated in south-central

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. It was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Poliçan,

Tërpan Tërpan is a village and a former municipality in Berat County Berat County (; sq, Qarku Berat, italic=unset), officially the County of Berat ( sq, Qarku i Beratit, italic=unset), is a county in the Southern Region of the Republic of Albania. ...

and

Vërtop Vërtop is a village and a former municipality in Berat County, central Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Poliçan Poliçan ''( sq-definite, Poliçani)'' is a city and a municipality situated ...

, that became municipal units. The seat of the municipality is the town Poliçan. The total population is 10,953 (2011 census), in a total area of 272.20 km². The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 4,318. Historically, Polican has been part of Berat County except from 1978 to 1991 when city was made part of Skrapar due to political pressure from the regime at that time. It was established as an industrial center.

Geography

The city is situated 256m above sea level, but the proximity with the

Osum The Osum is a river in southern Albania, one of the source rivers of the Seman. It is long and its drainage basin is . Its average discharge is . Its source is in the southwestern part of the Korçë County, near the village Vithkuq at an altitu ...

river maintains a typical Mediterranean

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

, with all the four seasons accentuated. Poliçan is surrounded by several hills, said from which the name is derived. Its neighbourhoods include Plirez, Pronovik, Kalluc, Poligon, Lavdar and City center.

History

The city was built in the 1960s by the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

government with the purpose of creating an industrial town for the production of

weapons A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...

and

munition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

s. It was long regarded as a "ghost" town because little was revealed for security reasons about the place and its industrial activities.

Economy

The economy of the town is concentrated in the weapons industry although with the fall of the communist regime in 1990 it caused production to collapse. The industrial sector is also active through a small factory for the production of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

Agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

activities include the production of

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

s and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s. In the surrounding hills

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

s, nuts,

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

and

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s are also cultivated. Grapes are mainly produced for raki. There is also a

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

of 0.5 km².

Notable people

Below are notable personalities born in Poliçan or that spent most of their lives in Poliçan: * Aleksandër Kuro, football player

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polican Municipalities in Berat County Administrative units of Poliçan Towns in Albania