Selenicë ( "Selițcă") is a

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' ...

Vlorë County Vlorë County (; ) is one of the 12 counties of Albania with the city of Vlorë being the county capital. The county spans and has a total population of 146,681 people as of 2023. It borders the counties of Fier and Gjirokastër, as well as th ...

, southwestern

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 ...

. It was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Armen, Brataj, Kotë, Selenicë, Sevaster and Vllahinë, that became municipal units. The seat of the municipality is the town Selenicë. The total population is 16,396 (2011 census), in a total area of 561.52 km². The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 2,235. In the 2011 Albanian census, the former municipality of Selenica was the only commune where the number of self-declared

Aromanians The Aromanians () are an Ethnic groups in Europe, ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian language, Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgari ...

(16.6%) outnumbered the number of declared ethnic

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

(10%), while most inhabitants did not declare any ethnicity. According to a 2014 Albanian government report, around 100 Greeks also live in Selenicë. The town is well known for its bitumen mines. The

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club is KS Selenicë. On 23 September 2021, the 10 May 1905 School was founded in Selenicë. It is a school for Aromanian children, where they can study for some hours every day in Aromanian as well as in Romanian. The school has two classes, both named after prominent figures for

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n diplomacy:

Vasile Stoica Vasile Stoica (, also known as Basil Stoica; January 1, 1889 – July 27, 1959) was a Romanian political writer, diplomat, and close assistant of European statesmen Tomáš Masaryk and Ion I.C. Brătianu. Early life and education Stoica was bor ...

and Nicuță Balamaci. The school was founded without any financial support from the Romanian state by the Nicolae Iorga Foundation of

Sarandë Sarandë (; sq-definite, Saranda; ) is a List of cities and towns in Albania, city in the Republic of Albania and the seat of Sarandë Municipality. Geographically, the city is located on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea within the Mediterrane ...

, a cultural association of Albanian Aromanians then led by president Pano Bakali.

References

Municipalities in Vlorë County Administrative units of Selenicë Aromanian settlements in Albania {{Vlorë-geo-stub