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Tepelenë (Tepelena) is a city and a municipality in Gjirokastër County, in the south of Albania. The town is on the left bank of the Vjosa River, about three kilometres downstream from its union with the Drino.
Until the abolition of Districts in 2000, Tepelenë was the seat of the Tepelenë District. Its location is strategically important and there is a ruined citadel occupying a point 300 metres above the river. Ali Pasha of Yanina was born at the nearby village of Beçisht, and Tepelena along with Ioannina were Ali's headquarters. In 1847, the British writer Edward Lear visited the town and noted the devastated buildings.
In early July 1833 the inhabitants of Tepelenë rose in revolt against Emin Pasha.
The Young Turks revolutionaries met in Tepelenë in February 1909, in an attempt to persuade Albanian nationalists to join them.
In 1920, an earthquake severely damaged the town which was completely rebuilt afterwards. Local tradition says that if Tepelenë exceeds 100 buildings it will be destroyed. In the same year, 400 Italian soldiers surrendered to the Albanians during the Battle of Vlora.
On 7 April 1939, Italian forces landed in Albania and took control of the country and Tepelenë in the beginning of World War II.Piero Crociani, "Gli albanesi nelle forze armate italiane, Roma 2001". After the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940 failed, the Albanian troops in Tepelenë under the command of Colonel Prenk Pervizi deserted the Italian army. The colonel protested by telling the Italian command that the Albanians were not cannon fodder.Pjeter Hidri, "The General Prenk Pervizi, Toena, Tirana, 2002. As a consequence, Colonel Pervizi as well as other officers and Albanian troops were transferred into the mountains of northern Albania and isolated there.
Greek forces counter-attacked and advanced towards Tepelenë in a general offensive on Vlorë. Despite several attacks and assistance for the Greeks by the British Royal Air Force, the Italians managed to hold the town and in late April 1941, following the German invasion of Yugoslavia, the Greek army was forced to withdraw.
Later, the post-war socialist government converted the local Italian army camp into a labour camp. Among those detained were influential Albanian families involved in the previous governments. Some died and their graves were unmarked.Lek Pervizi, "Ankimi i Zanave, (poetry), Arberia, Tirana, 2002. The camp was closed in 1954. At one point a cholera epidemic killed many inmates.Gjuliana Malaj, "Une Beba, qe u futa ne camp kater muajshe e dola 42 vjeçe, Panorama, Tirana, 25 october 2012.
In the 1997 unrest in Albania, Tepelenë became a focal point for the uprising against Sali Berisha's government. A people's committee took charge of the town in March 1997 and released opposition politician Fatos Nano from the local prison. The movement spread immediately to Gjirokastër where weapons were distributed from Tepelenë.
Tepelenë was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Kurvelesh, Lopës, Qendër Tepelenë and Tepelenë, that became municipal units. The seat of the municipality is the town Tepelenë.
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