VALLÉE DE LA ZAGORIA

This beautiful valley (Lugina e Zagorisë) is part of the Zagoria Nature Park. The Zagoria river rises 7 km south of Sheper and flows 27 km northwards to join the Vjosa shortly after the Këlcyra gorge. The former municipality of Zagoria now has just 500 Albanian and Aromanian Orthodox inhabitants, divided between ten villages and hamlets: Sheper, Nivan, Koncka, Hoshteva, Vithuq and Doshnica on the right bank of the Zagoria, Ndëran, Topova, Lliar and Zhej on the left bank. A 64 km loop can be driven from Libohova via Poliçan, Sheper, Ndëran, Topova, Erind and Valara, ending in Gjirokastra. Sheper has a guest house, a small museum (often closed) and a recently restored ^18th-century church. But the most interesting place to visit is the beautiful Nivan bridge, which spans the Zagoria between Nivan and Ndëran, with two ancient monasteries nearby. There's also a restaurant and a beautiful church at Hoshteva and, 3.5 km below, the Hoshteva bridge (Ura e Hoshtevës), which crosses the Zagoria 15 m in length. From here, you can walk to Lliar and then on to the Çajupi plateau (6 km). The river's name comes from the Slavic word zagori, meaning "beyond the mountains". The Slavic tribes who flocked here from the ^6th century onwards gave the same name to the splendid Zagori region of Greece, located 70 km south-east of Gjirokastra, in the Vikos-Aoos National Park.