Rrajcë is a village and a former municipality in

Elbasan County Elbasan County () is one of the 12 counties of Albania. The population is 232,580 (as of 2023), in an area of 3199 km2. Its capital is the city Elbasan. Administrative divisions Until 2000, Elbasan County was subdivided into four districts: ...

, in 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 ...

. As of the 2015 local government reform, it became a subdivision of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Prrenjas Prrenjas (also written ''Përrenjas'', sq-definite, Përrenjasi) is a town and a municipality in Elbasan County, eastern Albania. The municipality was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Prrenjas, ...

. The population at the 2019 census was 12,121.2011 census results
The subdivision consists of seven villages: Rrajcë Fushë, Sutaj, Skenderbe, Skenderbe Bardhaj, Urakë, Katjel, and Kotodesh. The village of Rrajcë is found within the boundaries of

Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park Shebenik National Park () is a List of national parks of Albania, national park in eastern Albania adjacent to the border with North Macedonia. It encompasses and is specifically marked by a mountainous landscape supplied with glacial lakes, vall ...

. The nearby forest was declared part of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

's transnational natural site, The

Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe is a transnational serial nature UNESCO World Heritage Site, encompassing 93 component parts (forests of European beech, ''Fagus sylvatica'') in 18 European coun ...

Demographics

In statistics gathered by

Vasil Kanchov Vasil Kanchov (26 July 1862 – 6 February 1902) was a geographer, ethnographer and teacher who served as Minister of Education of Bulgaria. Early life and education Vasil Kanchov was born in Vratsa. Upon graduating from High school i ...

in 1900, the village of Rrajcë was inhabited by 840

Albanian Muslims Islam arrived in Albania mainly during the Ottoman period when the majority of Albanians over time converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. Following the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja) tenets and the de-emphasis of religious tradit ...

.Vasil Kanchov (1900).
Macedonia: Ethnography and Statistics
'. Sofia. p. 254. Other villages in the modern day municipality were not included in those demographic statistics. During the 2000s,

linguists Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures ...

Klaus Steinke and Xhelal Ylli, seeking to corroborate villages cited in past literature as being Slavic speaking, carried out fieldwork. Rrajcë was noted as being fully

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and Albanian speaking while the linguists found no contemporary speakers of Slavic languages in the village, with local elderly people stating they spoke only Albanian. "Die Suche nach weiteren Ortschaften mit slavischsprachiger Bevölkerung verlief ergebnislos. Vor allem die für den Raum Korça, Bilisht, Pogradec und Librazhd in der Literatur häufiger genannten Dörfer wie Miras (Božigrad), Bulgarec, Tren, Buzëliqen (Zagradec), Buçimas (Starova), Proptisht und Rajca haben, wie die Überprüfung vor Ort zeigte, keine slavischprachige Bevölkerung mehr.... Überall spricht man aber ausschließlich Albanisch, und bereits die ältere Generation hat angeblich nur diese Sprache benutzt.... Buçimas und die Nachbardörfer wie Zagorçan usw. (Informant: Shaban Hoxha) sowie Rajca (Informant: Spase Tanasov) haben eine rein moslemische Bevölkerung, und man spricht dort nur Albanisch."

References

Former municipalities in Elbasan County Administrative units of Prrenjas Villages in Elbasan County {{Elbasan-geo-stub