Kuçovë District
Administrative divisions
The district consisted of the following municipalities:
Note: - urban municipalities in bold
Description
Kuçovë is one of the main centres of the Albanian oil industry, and the town of Kuçovë was built with Soviet assistance in the 1950s. It is of interest to students of communist architecture and planning, although much of the oil infrastructure predates the communist period and was installed by the Italians during the Zogist period. Today all of the oil wells 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 period, there are many abandoned factories and power plants in and around the town, and is visibly poorer than the neighbouring towns such as Berat.
Kuçovë was formerly a closed military district, and the air base in Kuçovë remains one of the largest in Albania, and aged MiG fighters from the 1950s could be seen flying on a regular basis until they were finally grounded in late 2005.
References
- ^ Districts of Albania, statoids.com
- ^ "Portraits of poverty and inequality in Albania" (PDF). World Bank Group. 2016. pp. 33–40.