Koći (Cyrillic: Коћи; Albanian: Kojë) is a village in the municipality of Tuzi, Montenegro, near the border with Albania. The village is inhabited by ethnic Albanians of the Roman Catholic faith.
Koje / Koći Коћи Kojë | |
|---|---|
Village | |
  Koje / Koći Location within Montenegro | |
| Coordinates: 42°27′38″N 19°24′13″E / 42.46056°N 19.40361°E | |
| Country |  Montenegro |
| Municipality |  Tuzi |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 54 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Area code | +382 20 |
| Car plates | PG |
Geography
Koći lies east of the capital Podgorica, north of Ubli. Koći is a village in Koja e Kuçit, eastern Montenegro, bordering Albania.
Along with Albanian-inhabited Hoti and Gruda, Koći is, from Albanian point of view, part of the wider Malësia-region (Malesija).[1]
History
At the beginning of the Montenegrin–Ottoman War, the Kuči rose up against the Ottomans, who started dispatching soldiers at the frontier, including at Koći.[2]
According to Spiridon Gopčević, the area of Koći included 10 km2 and 550 inhabitants, out of which 480 were Catholics, 40 Orthodox, and 25 Muslims (1877).[3]
20th century
Traveler Arso Milatović (who wrote a travel book on his experiences 1935–45) stayed at Koći and described it as "a village neighbouring Malesia, misplaced and rugged, which a horse can't reach, thus donkeys and mules walk the rocks as squirrels on branches".[4] The inhabitants were Catholics, and the village had a church and priest, fra Marko.[4] A church was built by the ethnic Albanian migrant workers who left the village for Europe in the period of 1964–74.[5] The village population has since massively decreased.[5]
| Ethnic group | 1948 | 1953 | 1961[6] | 1971[7] | 1981[8] | 1991 | 2003[9] | 2011[10] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanians | 411 | 501 | 301 | 73 | 48 | |||
| Montenegrins | 35 | 19 | 77 | 8 | ||||
| Yugoslavs | 15 | 4 | ||||||
| Undeclared/ Others | 1 | 4 | 6 | |||||
| Total | 416[11] | 471[11] | 446 | 536 | 386 | 237[11] | 91 | 54 |
Culture
Some Albanian Catholics have the custom of family and tribe celebration of saints (called festa in Peja), as is found in the Serbian Orthodox tradition of krsna slava.[12]
Notable people
- Pretash Zekaj Ulaj (1882-1962), commander in the Battle of Deçiq against the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed]
References
Sources
- Erdeljanović, Jovan (1907). Kuči - pleme u Crnoj Gori (in Serbian).
External links
- Maplandia. "Koci Map — Satellite Images of Koci".