Introducing Extended Albania Stamp Listings

County Stamp Center has just added extensive new listings for Albania issued between 1925 and 1989. Covering a wide range of popular topics, the stamps feature colorful folk costumes, dance and art as well as ancient through modern history. Communist Party and revolutionary stamps are prominent, reflecting Albania's 50-year history as a communist state. Click here to view the complete listing of 338 philatelic products from Albania.

Located in the Balkans of Southeastern Europe between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, the Republic of Albania has often been swept along in the path of invading empires. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans have all left their mark -- and ruins. Albania was first settled in the Stone Age, its favorable climate and geographic location drawing Paleolithic man. Marauding armies later used it as an outpost as they moved through Europe expanding their empires. In 1200 BC Albania was settled by the Illyrians who brought culture and civilization to the western Balkans. Descendants of Neolithic man, their kingdom of Illyria followed much of the border of modern Albania.

It was during its years under Turkish rule as part of the Ottoman Empire, that most Albanians converted to Islam. The Turks were routed from Albanian soil during the second Balkan War, and in 1925 President Ahmet Zagu crowned himself King Zog I. His family's reign was short-lived when the Germans overran Albania early in World War II. The communists gained control of the country after the war. It was not until the 1996 general elections that communism was definitively defeated.

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