What is "elbasan"

Elbasan ( Albanian: Elbasan or Elbasani) is a city and a municipality in Elbasan County, central Albania. One of the largest cities in Albania, it is located on the Shkumbin River in the District of Elbasan and the County of Elbasan. The present municipality was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Bradashesh, Elbasan, Funarë, Gjergjan, Gjinar, Gracen, Labinot-Fushë, Labinot-Mal, Papër, Shirgjan, Shushicë, Tregan and Zavalinë, that became municipal units. The seat of the municipality is the city Elbasan. The total population is 141,714 (2011 census), in a total area of 872.03 km. The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 78,703.

It was called Neokastron (New Castle) in Greek, Novigrad (new city) in Slavic and Terra Nuova in Italian. The modern name derives from the Turkish il-basan ("the fortress").

Elbasan is a Unicode block containing the historic Elbasan characters for writing the Albanian language.