State of Culture in Albania 2025 · Municipal profiles · Artivista Center (Qendra Artivista)
This profile is based on information provided by the Municipality of Belsh in reply to Artivista's request for information on culture (2026), the municipality's medium term budget plans (PBA), and INSTAT's 2023 Population and Housing Census. Amounts are in Albanian lek.
At a glance
| Region (qark) | Elbasan |
| Administrative units | 5: Belsh (centre), Fierzë, Grekan, Kajan, Rrasë |
| Area | 196.55 km² |
| Population, 2023 Census | 17,123 (about 87.1 residents per km²) |
| Change since 2011 | About 12.2% fewer residents (19,503 in 2011) |
| Residents aged 65 and over | 25.0% (national average 19.7%) |
| Planned culture budget | 5,328,850 lek in 2020; 11,400,000 lek in 2025 |
| Cultural institutions | None; culture is managed by a municipal team (4 to 8 staff) |
| Cultural events | From none in 2020 to nine in 2025 |
| Heritage restoration, 2020 - 2025 | None; two projects in preparation |
Summary
Belsh, on the Dumre plateau in Elbasan region, has steadily increased its support for culture over the period 2020 - 2025. The planned culture budget more than doubled, from 5,328,850 lek in 2020 to 11,400,000 lek in 2025, and the number of cultural events grew every year, from none in 2020 to nine in 2025. Two events, the Festa e Aferditës and the Maratona “Këngë Moj”, have become fixtures of the town's calendar and have been held every year since 2021.
This growth, however, has remained concentrated in the town. All reported events took place in Belsh itself, while the four other administrative units, Fierzë, Grekan, Kajan and Rrasë, did not host any. The gap matters in a municipality where one in four residents is aged 65 or over: older residents of the villages are the least likely to benefit from a programme that takes place only in town.
Belsh also manages culture without a dedicated institution or a culture strategy. A small municipal team, which grew from four to eight people, runs the programme, and the only planning document related to culture is a tourism marketing strategy. No funds were spent on heritage restoration during the period, although two projects, the Roman Baths in Rrasë and a new museum, are now in preparation. On the positive side, the municipality reports in unusual detail how its culture funds are spent.
1. Governance and institutions
Belsh has no cultural institution under its administration. Culture is delivered directly by municipal staff, a model that keeps costs low but leaves culture without a clear institutional home, a defined mandate or a separate budget line. As the programme grows, this arrangement makes it harder to plan beyond the annual calendar of events.
2. Funding
The culture budget has grown in every year of the period. Spending was very low in 2020, when only 709,438 lek of the planned 5,328,850 lek was used (13.3%), because no cultural events could take place during the pandemic. From 2021 spending recovered quickly as activities resumed: the municipality used 93.2% of its planned budget in 2022, 93.5% in 2023 and 98.7% in 2024. In 2025, it spent 9,437,791 lek of the planned 11,400,000 lek (82.8%).
Belsh earns no income from its cultural activities, so the programme depends entirely on the municipal budget.
3. Cultural programme
The programme has grown step by step, from three events in 2021 to nine in 2025. Its backbone is two annual events: the Festa e Aferditës and the Maratona “Këngë Moj”, which since 2022 has received 1,000,000 lek a year through its organiser, Shoqata Promotore. Around them, the municipality has added events such as Nimfa e Liqeneve, Dita e Verës and Festa e Balonave, and in 2025 a Summer Day Fest, a Miss Globe event and an International Watercolour Festival.
The venues have also diversified. Events took place in Sheshi Sami Frashëri and the Amfiteatri “Aferdita” from 2021, on Mali i Gradishtës from 2022 and in Dumrea Eco Park from 2024, making use of the area's natural and archaeological settings. For each event and year, the municipality listed the payments made to performers, associations and suppliers, a level of transparency rarely found in the other replies.
4. Heritage
Belsh has a rich heritage setting, including the Illyrian hilltop settlement at Gradishtë and the site associated with the Sanctuary of Aferdita at Seferani Lake. During the period 2020 - 2025, however, no funds were spent on restoring or rehabilitating heritage sites.
This may now change. The municipality has prepared two projects: the rehabilitation of the Roman Baths (Termet Romake) in Rrasë and the construction of a new municipal museum. If carried out, the Roman Baths project would also bring a heritage site back into use in one of the villages that has not hosted any cultural activity in recent years.
5. Staff
The number of staff working on culture has doubled over the period, from 4 in 2020 and 2021 to 5 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 7 in 2024 and 8 in 2025. Staffing has grown in line with the number of events, which suggests that the team is being expanded as the programme grows.
6. Planning and public participation
The only strategic document the municipality named is the Strategy for the Marketing, Promotion and Branding of the Tourism Package of the Municipality of Belsh. It was prepared in November 2024 by Shpëtim Çerri of the University “Aleksandër Xhuvani” of Elbasan, within a partnership between the municipality and the Italian NGO CIES, funded through the Italian Albanian Debt Swap Agreement (IADSA). The strategy is a useful tool for promoting Belsh to visitors, but it does not set priorities for the cultural life of residents, for heritage or for the villages.
No public consultations on cultural heritage were held during the period 2020 - 2025. Without such consultations, residents have had no formal opportunity to shape the growing programme.
7. Culture across the municipality
According to the municipality, all cultural activities took place in the town of Belsh, and none were organised in Fierzë, Grekan, Kajan or Rrasë. Because Belsh has many older residents and covers a wide rural area, bringing at least part of the programme to the villages would considerably widen its reach.
8. National and European context
Under the National Tourism Strategy 2024 - 2030, Elbasan region, including Belsh, belongs to the Central tourism cluster. Belsh is not yet among the attractions named for the cluster, although its lakes, festivals and archaeological sites match the cluster's general orientation.
As an EU candidate country, Albania has access to EU support for culture through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and the EU4Culture programme, both named in the European Commission's Culture Compass for Europe (2025). No evidence was found that Belsh has used these instruments for culture.
9. Key findings
- The planned culture budget rose from 5.3 million lek in 2020 to 11.4 million lek in 2025, and after a very low 2020, the municipality spent most of its planned budget each year.
- Cultural events grew from none in 2020 to nine in 2025, but all of them took place in the town of Belsh.
- Culture is run by a municipal team that doubled in size, without a dedicated institution or a culture strategy.
- No heritage restoration was funded during the period 2020 - 2025; the Roman Baths in Rrasë and a new museum are in preparation.
- No public consultation on cultural heritage was held, while one in four residents is aged 65 or over.
- The municipality reports in detail how culture funds are spent, event by event.
10. Recommendations
Give culture a clear institutional home
The programme has outgrown an informal arrangement. The Municipal Council could formalise the culture team as a unit with a written mandate and its own budget line, or establish a small cultural institution. This would make responsibility for culture visible, help the team plan beyond one year at a time, and make it easier to apply for external funding.
Prepare a culture strategy with residents
The tourism strategy of November 2024 promotes Belsh to visitors but does not address residents' cultural needs or heritage. The Mayor and the culture team could prepare a short culture strategy for the next three years, covering events, heritage and the villages, and present it to the Municipal Council. Holding at least one public consultation on the draft, the first on cultural heritage in this period, would give residents a voice in a programme that has grown quickly.
Take part of the programme to the villages
None of the four administrative units outside the town hosted an event during the period 2020 - 2025. The culture team could plan at least one event a year in each of Fierzë, Grekan, Kajan and Rrasë, for example by holding Dita e Verës or a smaller festival in a different village each year. Reporting the number of events per unit would show whether the programme is reaching the whole municipality.
Move the heritage projects from preparation to implementation
The Roman Baths in Rrasë and the new museum are the municipality's most important heritage plans. The municipality could publish a timeline and cost estimate for both projects and report on their progress each year. Because restoration on this scale usually exceeds a municipal budget, it could also seek support from the central government and from EU programmes such as IPA and EU4Culture, for which a clear project plan is the first requirement.
Keep and extend transparent reporting
Belsh's event by event reporting of culture spending is good practice. The municipality could publish it every year on its website, together with the number of events in each administrative unit and the progress of the heritage projects, so that residents can follow how the programme develops.
About the data
Population figures come from the INSTAT 2023 Census. Budget figures are as reported by the municipality; the share spent is the actual amount as a percentage of the planned amount.
This article was prepared within the CulturAL project, with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the National Centre for Community Services and Artivista Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
