Vau i Dejës

4219.63333333333325Koordinaten: 42 ° 0 ' N, 19 ° 38' O

Vau Deja (also Vau - Dejës, Vau i Dejës ) is a community of urban type ( Bashkia ) in northern Albania, in the district of Shkodra. The multi- locations municipality with an area of 98.5 km ² has 8117 inhabitants ( 2011 census ). The local authorities, however, specify a number from 12,312 inhabitants ( 2008).

Geography

Vau Deja is around ten kilometers south of Shkodra on the Drin River that has influenced also the place name: to German it means ford of Deja. The place marks the transition between the Albanian coastal plain - the Adriatic Sea is about 20 kilometers away - and the Albanian mountains. The Drin, Albania 's longest river, enters here from the mountains and divides into two branches. He becomes the Liqen i Vaut të Dejës jammed at Vau Deja. Just below the dam, the dam Spathara follows, which is used for energy when under construction Ashta hydropower plant.

Center is the district Laç - Qyrsaçi, which is set just below the dam on the south shore of Drin and now often simply Qytet (city) is called. Another great district is Mjeda, two kilometers west of Laç. The village Spathar located on the opposite northern bank of the Drin. In the plain south of Mjeda scattered to find the villages Shelqet, Koca and NARAC. In the sparsely populated hill country east of Laç are the villages Dush and Gomsiqa and almost at the other end of the reservoir karma.

History

The Romans built in the hills south-east at Vig in the 4th century a fort to protect the road to Pristina against Eastern and Western Gothic attacks. Sarda (Albanian Shurdhahi ) is another Roman fortification. Situated on a hill system - Today, an island in the lake - but was already used by the Illyrians. The colonization of the almost urban Sarda lasted until the conquest of Albania by the Ottomans in the 15th century.

In 1361 a church was built in Vau Deja, one of the very few non- Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic buildings but Albania. Equipped with frescoes St. Mary's Church was destroyed. On the medieval castle there are still the remains of St. Mark's Church from the 14th century. The ford of Vau - Deja, then called Dagno in which was prior to the Ottoman occupation an important customs. Skanderbeg led because of their war with Venice.

Vau Deja since 1052 - with interruptions - seat of the diocese of Sapa. A newly built, Mother Teresa consecrated cathedral located in the center of Laç.

Subsidence or flooding in the years 1858/59 meant that the majority of the water masses of the Drin looked for a new way, and since then no longer flow to the south and Lezha into the sea, but further west open in Shkodra in the Buna.

Economy and Transport

In the 1960s, the dam, the lake was the construction started later impounded and taken 1975, the hydroelectric power plant in operation. The hydroelectric power plant is one of the largest electricity supplier in Albania.

The tourism potential of the scenic lake is still hardly used. Partly restaurants and bars that rent rooms, have originated on its banks. The ability to Botten with the ancient Sarda to visit the island Shurdhahi is used only sporadically.

The main road from Tirana to Shkodra performs some kilometers to the west past the church. In contrast, crossing the Albanian railway Hekurudha Shqiptare at Vau Deja the Drin; in Mjeda is a train station. In addition, the roads leading to Puka and Koman through the town.