Tirana is the capital and largest city of Albania. The area was once the site of the capital of the Illyrian Taulantii tribe, and it was later inhabited by the Romans and Byzantines; Emperor Justinian founded the castle of Tirkan in the 6th century AD. By 1431, Tirana had a population of 7,300 people, and, while it was a small village for most of its early history, Tirana developed as a bazaar with several watermills before Ottoman governor Sulejman Bargjini founded the present-day city in 1614. He oversaw the construction of a mosque, a small commercial center, and a Turkish bath, and his descendant Molla Bey of Petrela built the Et'hem Bey Mosque, which was completed in 1821. In 1800, Aromanian settlers became the first Christians to arrive after the creation of the town, and, in 1889, the Albanian language began to be taught in Tirana's schools. On 28 November 1912, Albanian independence was declared, but Tirana was occupied by the Serbian army during the Balkan Wars. On 8 February 1920, the Congress of Lushnje proclaimed Tirana the capital of Albania, and it was named the permanent capital on 31 December 1925. In 1939, Italian fascist forces occupied Tirana and established a puppet government, and the town became the center of communist resistance to the Italian and Nazi German occupiers during World War II. On 17 November 1944, the Albanian partisans liberated Tirana from the Germans, and, from 1944 to 1991, the communists built massive apartment complexes and factories, redesigned Skanderbeg Square, and erected the Pyramid of Tirana in honor of their late leader Enver Hoxha. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Tirana underwent urban renewal as illegally-constructed buildings were demolished, the roads were widened, and buildings were repainted in brighter colors, although Tirana continued to suffer from shortages of drinking water and electricity, poor quality of teaching, high tuition rates, and political corruption. In 2011, Tirana had a population of 557,422 people, of whom 55.7% were Sunni Muslims, 29.1% were irreligious, 6.4% were Orthodox Christians, 5.4% were Catholics, and 3.4% were Bektashi Shi'ites.
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