Picalle
Village
Picalle
Coordinates: 41°17′N 19°48′E / 41.283°N 19.800°E / 41.283; 19.800
Country	Albania
County	Tirana
Municipality	Tirana
Municipal unit	Petrelë
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Picall is a village in the former municipality of Petrelë in Tirana County, Albania.^[1] At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Tirana.^[2]

Name

According to the sayings and legends, there are different versions regarding the origin of the name of the village. The name Picalle derives from the name Pici, of an early administrative or spiritual military leader in that territory, and the place was called the place of Pici or Picalle. This option is also shown as the name of the first resident placed there. He was called Picalli because he heard the saying "we are going to Picalli", and after his death the place took its name Picalle. Later the tribe expanded with other families expanding the village.

Geography

The village is located about 8 kilometers south of Tirana, behind the hills of Lake Tirana. It has an area of 10 km2 and is located 110 meters above sea level. It lies on the banks of the Erzen River on the northern side of the river. It is bordered by the village of Stermas in the east, with the village of Dumje in the south, with the village of Arbane in the west, while behind the hills of the village in the north is the city of Tirana.

To go to the village of Picalle, there are three starting points. The first point of departure is from the eastern side of Lake Thata (Lake Garrujsve), initially with a mountainous territory which is long and requires up to the neck about 60 minutes of travel. This paved road itinerary is incredibly panoramic, with almost no traffic until the neck between the tombstone and the obelisk. The second departure point (which takes 30 minutes of travel) starts at the last bus stop in Old Sauk. The third starting point is the entrance in front of the Farka bridge, on the road to Baldushk towards the west. The paved road ring that encloses the beautiful hills of Sauk-Bathore-Stërmas-Picalla, about 15 km, as a perimeter and land space is part of the Great Park of Tirana for work and life in very good environmental conditions, one of the suburban neighborhoods one of the most beautiful on the coast of Erzen. After you have left behind the neck of the lapidary, a wide hilly area opens in front of you, there begins the descent to the village of Picalle in a narrow entrance which comes widening as a view. The more you descend towards the center of the village on the paved road that winds through the open spaces between not-so-small hills or high banks, you become convinced of its uniqueness. The place is very open, on top of the first three hills you can see the houses of the three oldest and largest tribes of the village. They were the three earliest tribes, surnamed Dervishi, Qershori, Stafa, who named their neighborhoods as residences, and of course, near each neighborhood they also have old and new cemeteries located on top of the visible hills. Each of the tribes has been present there for several generations with 15-20 families each divided into branches, where many of them have left in the last 20-30 years.

Clime

The village has a subtropical-Mediterranean climate with cold winters and hot summers. The stretch along the Erzen River means that the summer is not hot, with an average July temperature of 24 °C, while the winter is cold, but not with very low temperatures, because the surrounding hills protect it from the cold northern winds. The average temperature in January is 7 °C. About 1,189 mm of rain falls per year.

References