Where everyone is hundred years old!

March 03, 2010| Erind Kurti, ALBANIAN TIMES

Plyku is a small village in the district of Fier, about three kilometres outside the city of Fier in the south west of Albania. A village first habited just before the 1800 has taken its big name from the long life of its people. The population of the village increased to 10 000 in the last few decades with 2500 houses but most of those now empty because of the immigration and only used as holiday homes in the summer. In the village only old people can be seen! When you first arrive you feel like you are in a different planet! You don’t hear babies crying, you can’t see kids running, no teenagers playing and not a young man standing in the street flirting as can be seen in most villages around. This is a particular one hence the feeling of a different planet!


Emigration has played a big role in the village of Plyku, first migrating in during communism era, from the mountains in the hope of an easy and good paid job in the industrial town of Fier. Then during democracy, the young leaving the village heading west in a hope for a better life has left the old generation behind and that factor makes the village of Plyku feeling old!

In the early 1900 there were only three tribes and about 50 houses but this number increased to 6 000 in early 1990s. It has now decreased again to less than 3 000 hit by people emigrating in the 1990s and is now only inhabited by grannies. The village is all surrounded by olive trees, flowers in the streets and very nice houses with large balconies covered by the large trees in the gardens.

District of Fier is well known for its ancient city, known as “Apollonia”, where Cicero, the famous Roman orator had studied for a small period of time.

Fier is the most important industrial city of Albania. It is build by the Gjanica tributary of the Seman River and is surrounded by reclaimed marshland. With nearby Patos town, it is the centre of the oil, bitumen and chemical industries in Albania.

District of Fier is ranked number one in Albania for the long life but this was mainly because of one village where everyone lives over hundred and the young people have migrated to Greece and Italy. Interested and curious of this fact, I went to the village of Plyku in hope of finding out what the secret is so we can share it with the world.

You are amazed when you first enter in the village of Plyku. We parked the car walking around the village you only see very old people and you don't see a kid nor a teenager in the street, makes you feel like you are in a different planet! It’s quiet on a sunny and hot Saturday afternoon walking around the village, on the balconies you see groups of old people playing and chatting with each other and staring at us, you ask yourself, is this a forgotten world!?

As we approach to the centre of village where shouting and disagreements can be heard from distance, we see few dozen old man and women. Man playing dominos and cards whilst women doing handmade clothes on the other side. The youngest there looks older then my 86 year old grandmother. We stop and take a seat in a table with a group who are talking about football.


The centre of the village is covered on olive trees, with a bar in the side and about dozen wooden tables under the shadow where the shouting disagreements makes it hard to hear the person you are talking to. We ask the waiter for two coffees and two grappa’s. A 90 year old waiter, also the owner of the bar says, the only alcohol we have here lads, is the dirty tab water from the well below, you’re welcomed to have that for free he says smiling at us whilst we both look at each other having find the first clue why people in this village grow hundred years old. We order the coffees and the free water from the well and i start talking to Rrape Bogdani who is sitting beside me. An old women born in 1912, her husband is playing dominos at another table who she says is 3 years older then her.

We ask Rrape, what is the secret of this village where everyone lives this long and where are her children and grandchildren!?


Since the communism collapsed young people have emigrated to Greece or Italy in search for a better life. With no perspective here and not having jobs in the village they have all left. Everyone here knows each other and when the first ones left the village in the 1992 migrating to Greece everyone was very sad and talking about it! They started pulling each other and now there is no one under 60 years old in the village and having a child home looks like an old fashion!

Xhevria Kallashi sitting across the table was born in 1908 and she starts talking. She got married in 1930 and she has 8 children, 50 grandchildren and grand grandchildren. She says I only see my children in the summer when they come back from Italy only on holidays. I am alone here with my husband and every day we do community work or play cards to keep ourselves busy.

It was heart breaking at the beginning and there are times that I am very sad and down that I don’t see my children only once a year. Once you are outside the door of your house you forget about it and you see that everyone else is at the same situation so you try and keep busy. We get along very well here and that makes life easier. We are a very well organised village and we are all involved in community work, whether that is, decorating the street with flowers, taking care of the trees, cleaning the streets, or organising sport activities and celebration events where everyone can have fun and that is the secret that keeps us going.

She continues, I am 102 years old because I have never smoked and have never drunk alcohol. We eat fruits and vegetables planted in our gardens, eat meat and poultry done by us at home and i think the most important things are milk and olive oil. We only use our own olive oil for cooking and I think that is the secret. We make everything in the village, we only ever see post man who also brings us news papers, the rest of food and drink is all done in the village.

All the women here comes from different parts who are married in the village, they bring different cooking traditions and we are very passionate about cooking. We mostly bake and we have the wood bakery in the village which we use whilst the secret of a good cooking is to cook in open fire. If I bake the same dish in my gas oven at home it does not taste anywhere close to how it would taste when baked in the open fire. We never eat alone, we have few other couples over and we eat and play a game of dominos or cards.

We were invited for lunch by Nekie Bogdani where she had about 20 other invitees from the village but there was food for a wedding: she with the help of 3 other women had baked 4 pans of byrek, about dozen chickens frown in her home baked in wood fire, 5 different salads freshly made from vegetables grown in her garden, homemade white goat cheese. There was food for at least 50 people, we kept eating and chatting away all afternoon.


Eat well, be happy, don’t work hard, don’t smoke and don’t drink alcohol is the secret to get you to hundred years old says Nekia.


We leave the village of Plyku with some good memories. Everyone is waving at us as we drive away and having become friends Nekia’s family, we will definitely come back again but next time we will make sure to bring the grappa with us.



The age of the ones we talked to:
Rrape Bogdani – 1912
Kasem Bogdani – 1909
Nekie Bogdani – 1915
Rabushe Kallashi – 1010
Xhevrie Kallashi – 1908