Kuçovë District () was one of the 36

districts of Albania Districts ( or ) were first and second-level administrative subdivisions of Albania, administrative divisions of Albania from 19132000. Their number, size, and status changed over time. From 1991 to 2000, the 36 districts were organized into 12 ...

, which were dissolved in July 2000 and replaced by 12

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. It had a population of 35,571 in 2001, and an area of , making it the smallest district of Albania. It was in the centre of the country, and its capital was the former

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

Kuçovë Kuçovë ( sq-definite, Kuçova) is a municipality in south-central Albania. It was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Kozare, Kuçovë, Lumas and Perondi, which all became municipal units. The ...

(which in 2015 became a subunit of the larger municipality of the same name). Its territory is now part of

Berat County Berat County (; ), officially the County of Berat (), is a Counties of Albania, county in the Southern Albania, Southern Region of the Republic of Albania. It is the ninth largest by area and the List of counties of Albania by population, ninth m ...

— the Municipality of

(partly).

Administrative divisions

The district consisted of the following

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

: * Kozare *

Perondi Perondi is a village and former municipality in Berat County, central Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality of Kuçovë. The population in the 2011 census was 9,005. General information The munic ...

Note: - urban municipalities in bold

Description

Kuçovë is one of the main centres of the

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 ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

, and the town of Kuçovë was built with

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

assistance in the 1950s. It is of interest to

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

s of

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...

, although much of the oil

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

predates the communist period and was installed by the

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

during the Zogist period. Today all of the

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas m ...

s are functioning, and in some places oil seeps to the surface. Kuçovë has had the largest oil reserves in Albania and there is currently a lot of oil unexplored. The communist regime built Kuçovë into an industrial city, among the most industrialized in the country. The town had suffered very badly during the

post-communist Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or transition in post-Soviet states and other formerly communist states located in Central-Eastern Europe and parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, in which new governments ...

period, there are many abandoned

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

and

power plants A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many power ...

in and around the town, and is visibly poorer than the neighbouring towns such as

Berat Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and ea ...

. Kuçovë was formerly a closed

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

, and the

air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

in Kuçovë remains one of the largest in Albania, and aged

MiG Mig, MiG, or MIG may refer to: Business * MiG, a Russian aircraft corporation **Any of the MiG aircraft *Marfin Investment Group MIG Holdings S.A. (also known as MIG) is a Greece, Greek investment company. It has acquired several companies an ...

fighters from the 1950s could be seen flying on a regular basis until they were finally grounded in late 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kucove District Districts of Albania Geography of Berat County