Selenicë

This article is about the village in Vlorë County. For the village in Korçë County, see Qendër Ersekë.

Selenicë (Aromanian: Selenitsã^[1]) is a municipality in Vlorë County, southwestern Albania. 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.^[2]

Selenicë Selenitsã
Municipality
The city and the mines from the north
Emblem
Selenicë
Coordinates: 40°32′N 19°38′E
Country	Albania
County	Vlorë
Government
• Mayor	Nertil Bellaj (PS)
Area
• Municipality	561.52 km2 (216.80 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Municipality	16,396
• Municipality density	29/km2 (76/sq mi)
• Municipal unit	2,235
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal Code	9427
Area Code	(0)392
Website	www.selenica.gov.al

The total population is 16,396 (2011 census),^[3] in a total area of 561.52 km².^[4] The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 2,235.^[3] In the 2011 Albanian census, the former municipality of Selenica was the only commune where the number of self-declared Aromanians (16.6%) outnumbered the number of declared ethnic Albanians (10%), while most inhabitants didn't declare any ethnicity.^[5] According to a 2014 Albanian government report, around 100 Greeks also live in Selenicë.^[6]

The town is well known for its bitumen mines. The football (soccer) 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 Romanian diplomacy: Vasile Stoica and Nicuță Balamaci. The school was founded without any financial support from the Romanian state by the Nicolae Iorga Foundation of Sarandë, a cultural association of Albanian Aromanians then led by president Pano Bakali.^[7][8]

References

1. Kahl, Thede (1999). Ethnizität und räumliche Verbreitung der Aromunen in Südosteuropa. Universität Münster: Institut für Geographie der Westfälischen Wilhelms. p. 146. ISBN 3-9803935-7-7. "Selițcă"
2. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF) (in Albanian). p. 6376. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
3. "Population and housing census - Vlorë 2011" (PDF). INSTAT. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
4. "Correspondence table LAU – NUTS 2016, EU-28 and EFTA / available Candidate Countries" (XLS). Eurostat. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
5. 2011 Census, Communes by Ethnicity
6. Fourth Report submitted by Albania pursuant to Article 25, paragraph 2 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Report). Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Albania. p. 60. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
7. "În ziua de 23 septembrie 2021 la Selenița se va inaugura școala "10 mai 1905"". Arumun.com (in Romanian). 22 September 2021.
8. "A fost inaugurată prima școală românească din Albania". R3media (in Romanian). 24 September 2021.