State of Culture in Albania 2025 · Municipal profiles · Artivista Center (Qendra Artivista)
This profile is based on information provided by the Municipality of Dropull 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) | Gjirokastër |
| Administrative units | 3: Dropull i Poshtëm, Dropull i Sipërm, Pogon |
| Area | 448.45 km² |
| Population, 2023 Census | 8,259 (about 18.4 residents per km²) |
| Residents aged 65 and over | 35.7% (national average 19.7%) |
| Cultural institutions | Cultural Centre and Painting and Sculpture Gallery (Dervician); Cheese Museum and Polyphony Studio (Grapsh); 5 staff |
| Cultural activities | 2 in 2020; 15 in 2025 |
| Main investment | Dervician Cultural Centre restored with Interreg IPA funds: 80,430,671 lek |
| Culture budget | Not given in the municipality's reply; see Section 2 |
Summary
Dropull, on the border with Greece in Gjirokastër region, has built a varied cultural offer for a small and ageing population. It has four small institutions, each with a clear role: a Cultural Centre and a Painting and Sculpture Gallery in Dervician, and a Cheese Museum and a Polyphony Studio in Grapsh. The number of cultural activities rose steadily, from 2 in 2020, a year affected by the pandemic, to 15 in 2025.
Dropull is also one of the few municipalities in this series that has used EU funds for a cultural facility. The Dervician Cultural Centre was restored through the Interreg IPA Greece-Albania cross-border programme, in a project called G.A.M.E.S., worth 80,430,671 lek. The municipality has also co-financed other cross-border projects related to culture, such as “Polyphonia”.
The municipality's reply does not give a figure for the culture budget, and its budget plans give only partial totals. Dropull held no public consultation on culture during the period 2020 - 2025 and earns no income from its cultural institutions. With more than a third of its residents aged 65 or over and only 5.5% under 15, keeping cultural life active and accessible across its villages is both a challenge and a priority.
1. Governance and institutions
Each of Dropull's four cultural institutions has a specific function. In Dervician, the Cultural Centre hosts cultural activities, festivals, concerts and theatre, with 2 staff, and the Painting and Sculpture Gallery exhibits works and promotes local artists, with 1 staff. In Grapsh, the Cheese Museum promotes local gastronomy through educational programmes, and the Polyphony Studio promotes polyphonic singing through recordings, each with 1 staff. Together they employ 5 people, within a wider culture workforce of 9 in 2025 (Section 5).
2. Funding
The municipality's reply does not give an approved or actual culture budget for the period 2020 - 2025. The budget plans show that culture has been a separate budget programme since 2020. The plan for 2022 - 2024 records 139,000 lek of actual spending in 2020, an initial budget of 24,460,000 lek for 2021, a year in which the municipality expected to co-finance two Interreg IPA projects, “Polyphonia” (6,823,000 lek) and “CLLD-CULTOUR” (15,303,000 lek), and planned amounts of 2,800,000, 2,940,000 and 3,020,000 lek for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
From 2024 the municipality moved the staff of its heritage, museum and library services into the culture programme, from the general administration programme. The plan for 2026 - 2028 values this staff at 7,500,000 to 8,200,000 lek a year and foresees higher spending for the library in Dervician, the Polyphony Centre in Grapsh and the cheese museum. Because the totals for these years were not available, the full cost of culture in Dropull after 2024 cannot be given.
3. Cultural programme
The number of activities rose from 2 in 2020 to 6 in 2021, 11 in 2022, 13 in 2023 and 2024 and 15 in 2025; the municipality explains the low figures of the first years with the effect of the pandemic. The programme combines traditional celebrations, such as Carnival Day and the White Moon (Hena e Bardhë), commemorations, such as the anniversary of 25 March, the Dervician International Short Film Festival, sports events such as the Dropull Run and the Murgana mountain run, and activities for local products, such as the raki feast in Klishar at the opening of the tourist season.
Cross-border ties are an important part of Dropull's cultural life. The dance group of Dropull took part in a traditional pita-cutting celebration in Athens together with a twinned municipality, and the annual meetings of the people of Pogon bring together communities on both sides of the border. In 2024 the restored Cultural Centre was inaugurated, and in 2025 the Gallery of Arts, Paintings and Sculptures of Dropull.
4. Heritage
The main investment of the period was the restoration of the Dervician Cultural Centre, financed by the Interreg IPA CBC Greece-Albania 2014 - 2020 programme through the G.A.M.E.S. project, at a cost of 80,430,671 lek. This is the largest single investment in a cultural building recorded in this series so far, and a concrete example of EU funds being used for culture at municipal level. The municipality also uses its heritage sites as venues, such as the ancient theatre of Sofratikë, which has hosted the Short Film Festival, and the church of Shën Mëri in Peshkëpi e Sipërme.
5. Staff
The number of staff in the structures responsible for culture was 4 in each year of the period 2020 - 2023, then rose to 7 in 2024 and 9 in 2025, in line with the opening of the restored Cultural Centre and the Gallery.
6. Planning and public participation
Dropull has no separate culture strategy. According to the municipality, its annual activity budget works as a strategic and local plan for culture, and for 2026 it plans cultural and traditional activities, commemorations and tourism events, including a tourist map of monuments and points of interest. No public consultation on culture was held during the period 2020 - 2025.
7. Culture across the municipality
The reply lists, year by year, the places where activities were held, from the squares of Dervician, Sofratikë, Vrisera, Jorgucat, Poliçan, Sotirë, Klishar, Selo, Hllomo, Dhuvjan and Grapsh to memorials in Glinë, Vrahogoranxi and Vrisera and a school in Bodrisht. The summary by administrative unit shows that Dropull i Poshtëm, where Dervician is located, hosted 37 activities, Dropull i Sipërm 16 and Pogon 2. These add up to 55, while the yearly totals add up to 60, so the two tables in the reply do not fully match.
8. National and European context
Under the National Tourism Strategy 2024 - 2030, Gjirokastër region, including Dropull, belongs to the Southern Inland cluster, where culture is a main tourism product, anchored by the UNESCO city of Gjirokastër. Dropull is not among the attractions named for the cluster, but its polyphony, its cross-border celebrations and its proximity to Gjirokastër give it a distinctive place within this offer.
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. Dropull has already used cross-border IPA funds, which makes it one of the better prepared municipalities in this series for future applications.
9. Key findings
- Cultural activities rose from 2 in 2020 to 15 in 2025.
- Four small institutions, in Dervician and Grapsh, each have a clear role, with 5 staff, within a culture workforce of 9 in 2025.
- The Dervician Cultural Centre was restored with Interreg IPA funds worth 80,430,671 lek.
- The municipality's reply gives no culture budget, and the budget plans give only partial totals.
- Most activities take place in Dropull i Poshtëm; Pogon hosted 2 of the 55 activities reported by unit.
- More than a third of residents are aged 65 or over; there was no public consultation on culture and no income from culture.
10. Recommendations
Report the culture budget every year
The reply gives no budget figure for culture, although the budget plans show a separate programme. The finance directorate could publish each year the planned and actual budget of the culture programme, including the staff moved into it in 2024, so that residents can see the full cost of the four institutions and of the activity programme.
Turn the activity budget into a culture plan
The municipality uses its annual activity budget as a plan. A short culture plan for the next three years, prepared with residents and the communities of the three administrative units, could set priorities for the new Cultural Centre and Gallery, for the villages and for older residents, and would hold the municipality's first public consultation on culture.
Bring more activities to Pogon and Dropull i Sipërm
Most activities take place in Dropull i Poshtëm. The municipality could plan a minimum number of events a year in Pogon and Dropull i Sipërm, for example by holding part of the festivals in their squares, and correct the difference between the two activity tables in its reporting.
Use the experience with EU funds
Dropull has shown that it can carry out a large cross-border project. It could prepare a new application, through Interreg IPA or EU4Culture, for the programme of the Polyphony Studio and the Cheese Museum, linking living heritage with the tourism of the Gjirokastër region.
Test modest income from culture
The Gallery, the Cheese Museum and the Polyphony Studio could offer guided visits, tastings or recordings for visitors, with modest fees. Even small income would help cover running costs and show the value of these institutions.
About the data
Population figures come from the INSTAT 2023 Census. Activities, staff and investment are as reported by the municipality; budget figures come from its medium term budget plans (PBA) for 2022 - 2024 and 2026 - 2028.
Every effort has been made to base this analysis on the data provided by the municipality, complemented with data from its Medium Term Budget Programmes (PBA) published online. For comments or questions, please contact artivista@arti-vista.org.
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.
