Borsh, a forgotten oasis

Beyond this, another image appears, completely different.

The tourist season will find again an island totally forgotten at the Southern Albania. Amongst the many areas, small or large, where there have been investments in these 20 years, Borshi is the only one that has traveled in a different direction. This oasis along the longest coastal line of the Ionian Sea has not received much, except of political promises coming from left and right centered parties. Borsh has been ignored from almost every government project for the tourist development of the Southern Albania.

Peeled off concrete layers that have been built in the communist era follow the road that leads to the Borsh seaside, looking like a borderline that divides this area from the other southern villages. Hundreds of meters that feel like an endless road, in the midst of potholes and dust which have no connection to a tourist area.

“From Dhermi to the Lukova Cave, all the beaches that are connected to the sea have had their roads paved and have been regulated. For Borsh, they keep lying as day after day: ‘We will do this today, that tomorrow’, but nothing has been done. You can see it by yourself”, says Seit Xhani.

The coastal line looks forgotten among the abandoned cafes and bunkers, lined one after another along a road that now is difficult to be distinguished through the dust.

Any attempt to find the most minimal investment would be useless. The hand of the state is nowhere to be seen. Communist buildings, ruined by the time, are the only relics of an era when somebody gave a thought about this village. From the “Holiday House of Orphan Children, today remain only the walls, freed by the burden of the roof and its tiles.

“Borsh has stayed at the same place as it came out of the communist era, maybe even worse. It’s getting worse”, says Qetësor Marku.

Between the chaos of real estate ownership and being abandoned by the state, the residents of Borsh try to survive by their hospitality and family tourism that attracts 10 thousand of holiday-makers each season. Many of the citizens think that the 20 year isolation of this village is due to the combination of irresponsibility of the local administration, left or right centered, with the other obstacles that have appeared, according to them, because of the dominating religion in Borsh.

“This tourist village that hosts 10 to 15 thousand visitors every two weeks in the summer has been ignored by investments, because this is the only Muslim village along the entire seaside. We, as Borsh residents, want to live like all other people, in civilization”, says Qetësor Marku.

The absence of a regulatory plan has resulted with constructions that have been built without a project, and if this wasn’t enough, the residents say that Borsh suffers the lacking of running water. And during the tourist season, there are also problems with the energy, since the voltage is very low.

Nature has been very generous with Borsh, different to the ignoring state administration, a fact that can be seen best at the bottom of the village, where you cannot find a single modest park or sport area.

The former Borsh communist prison has completely disappeared without a sign. The new residents that have found shelter for 20 years in the buildings, and other newcomers from every part of the country, make the painful comparison of this area with the deep northern corners of Albania.

“This landscape here is rare even for the seaside. But now, this place has ended now like my birthplace, at Iballa of Puka”, says Dede Zefi.

This reality casts over Borsh not only the shadow of the other southern villages, but also that of the Greek islands which appear and disappear here and then between the clouds of the distant horizon.

Nothing changes even at the upper part of the village: unpaved roads and people that wander through the cars that drive with difficulty in the steep road.

“Jala has only 50 meters of beaches, not seven kilometers. Look at the constructions that have been built there. The tourists come here and than turn back, because the bad road doesn’t allow them to get inside the village”, one resident says.

The present and the past, between the same destinies, have merged almost in an inseparable way. The history could not be different from the present reality of Borsh, which has been ignored and thrown away like a useless object. The pedestrian road that leads to the castle, inaugurated not a long time ago, is broken along all its length. The castle that dates from the third or fourth century B.C, offers a magical landscape for its position, but also a sore one, for the lacking of the maintenance.

The mosque inside the Sopoti castle, one of the oldest in the southern Albania, is barely standing on the walls that give the impression that will crumble upon your head at any moment.

With the high mountains at one side, the olive groves, the destroyed roads, bunkers, ancient histories, the residents, the dust that rises between the houses, the sea that meets the sky at the horizon; in the midst of these strong contrasts and the broken promises of the politics, stands the village of Borsh, the forgotten treasure of the Southern Albania.

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