Many consider the village of Jale to be one of the most beautiful hamlets on Albania’s Riviera. Two authors of children’s books who come from the area have often featured its deep-blue waters and sandy beaches, giving this coastal village on the Ionian Sea the image of a paradise on earth.
The families living here have a history dating back 300 years, owning small plots of land that were handed down from father to son. Their prosperity has ebbed and flowed like their sea-surrounds. Neglected by the Stalinist regime of the late Enver Hoxha, the village was spared the mass industrialization that blighted the landscapes of other parts of the country. The majority of houses in the village were little more than shacks when the regime imploded in 1991.
