Place · city

Elbasan

Also known as Scampa

Elbasan is a city in central Albania on the Shkumbin river. As Roman Scampa it was a station on the Via Egnatia, the road across the Balkans from the Adriatic to Constantinople. In 1466 Sultan Mehmed II built a fortress there during his campaigns against Skanderbeg, and the town grew into an Ottoman trading and craft centre. It remains one of the largest cities of Albania.

Elbasan
Image: Pasztilla aka Attila Terbócs · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 state histories

Principality of Albania (medieval)Principality of ArianitiRepublic of Central Albania

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Elbasan. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/elbasan
MLA
“Elbasan.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/elbasan. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Elbasan.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/elbasan.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Elbasan’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/elbasan (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻