The Village They Left Behind
Discover Strëmbec, a remote Albanian village abandoned after communism. Now a family is investing in tourism, hiking trails, and authentic hospitality to revive it. Can a hidden waterfall and mountain beauty save a dying community?
Journey along the Vjosa valley.
One of Albania's most special villages awaits: Strëmbec.
Just kilometers from the main road.
Stone houses nestled together.
Gramozi and his wife left Tiranë to invest in Strëmbec tourism.
They have restored a beautiful home for visitors.
Young people are leaving Përmet for Germany and beyond.
We must show them what they are missing.
The waterfalls. The canyons. The natural beauty.
A month in Germany is more than enough.
The air here fills your lungs differently.
Sopot waterfall is about 6 km on foot from the village center.
But the path is gentle, not steep.
All ages can make this journey.
March, April, May are fantastic months.
Everything is green. The snow begins to melt.
More water flows from the mountain.
Tourists come from everywhere now.
Zero to five months old, carried in arms.
Up to 80 years old.
Foreigners ask no questions about distance.
They just want to know where to go and they come.
Albanians, they want the car to drive to the waterfall.
Social media has changed everything.
Photos and videos of Sopot spread everywhere.
What was known only to mountaineers is now viral.
The ancient water channel still flows.
Built decades ago with volunteer labor.
Designed to irrigate the fields below.
I remember childhood here. The best days of my life.
Until age twenty, we had dances and celebrations.
This was the cultural heart of the village.
The school, the shop, the library.
A movie theater where they showed films.
A sewing workshop. A bakery. An ambulance.
Then came communism.
A teacher was arrested for saying he drank wine in Greece.
He spent years in prison for those words.
Spies listened everywhere in this village.
After 1990, everyone left.
To Greece. To Tiranë. To Italy.
By 2000, the houses began to collapse.
The village was abandoned.
Now only fifteen families remain.
But some have returned to invest.
Three or four families buying and restoring homes.
If ten families settle here, others will follow.
Inside the old cultural center, bones lay scattered.
The graves of monks from the ancient monastery.
Desecrated during communism.