Pustec (; ) formerly known as Liqenas (1973–2013), is a village in Pustec Municipality,

Korçë County Korçë County (), officially the County of Korçë (), is a Counties of Albania, county in the Southern Albania, Southern Region of the Republic of Albania. It is the largest by area and the List of counties of Albania by population, fifth most p ...

, eastern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. Situated on the southwestern shore of

Lake Prespa The Lake Prespa is located on the tripoint of North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. It is a system of two lakes separated by an isthmus: the Great Prespa Lake, divided between the three countries, and the Little Prespa Lake, mostly within Greec ...

, it is home to much of the Macedonian minority in Albania.

Geography

Pustec is located on the southwestern shore of

and is the nearest village to the island of Maligrad. It sits at an elevation of above sea level. To the northeast, along the lake, lies Shulin, while in the southeast is the village of Leska. Pustec and the surrounding region lie within the Prespa National Park.

History

The village of Pustec was mentioned in the Slepche Beadroll from the 16th century. The survey by Dimitar Mishev (D. Brancoff) from 1905 shows that the inhabitants of the village of Pustec () were in the bosom of the

Bulgarian Exarchate The Bulgarian Exarchate (; ) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953. The Exarchate (a de facto autocephaly) ...

. There were 400 Bulgarian Exarchists in the village. The French linguist André Mazon in his study on Slavic folklore in Albania from 1936 noted Pustec as a Bulgarian village in the region of Mala Prespa. In 1939, on behalf of 70 Bulgarian houses in Pustec, Todor Postalov signed a request by the local Bulgarians to the Bulgarian

tsaritsa Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; ; ; ) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (monarch) of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, or the title of a tsar's wife ...

Giovanna requesting her intervention for the protection of the Bulgarian people in Albania – at that time an Italian protectorate. In 1973, the official name of the village was changed to ''Liqenas'' by the Albanian government. In 2013, however, the original Slavic name, ''Pustec'', was once again made official by the Albanian government.

Demographics

The majority of the population are

ethnic Macedonians Macedonians ( ) are a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group native to the region of Macedonia in Southeast Europe. They speak Macedonian, a South Slavic language. The large majority of Macedonians identify as Eastern Orthodox Christians, ...

Culture

The village of Pustec is situated near two centuries'-old rock churches. The first, Saint Michael the Archangel, is situated on the Lake Prespa shore. Its oldest frescoes date from the 12th century. The other, St Nicholas, contains only fragments of its original frescoes. Pustec is home to an ethnographic museum, established by Spase Trpo in 2023.

People from Pustec

* Trajan Gjorgjiovski, partisan * Mitre Kolevski, partisan * Edmond Temelko, mayor of Pustec Municipality and president of the Macedonian Party

References

{{Pustec div Populated places in Pustec Municipality Villages in Korçë County Macedonian communities in Albania