Grilë


Grilë is a settlement in the former Gruemirë municipality, Shkodër County, northern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Malësi e Madhe. It is part of the Vraka region, inhabited by a majority of Serbs–Montenegrins, who call the village Grilj.

History

1990

In 1990, there were 85 households, of which 76 were Montenegrin and 9 were Albanian. Of a total of c. 750 people, c. 680 are Montenegrins, the rest Albanians. Descendants of various Montenegrin clans live in the village. Most numerous are the families of Zlatičanin, then Peljčić, Krstović, Camaljić, Hajković, Brajović and others. There is only one primary school in the Vraka region, located in Grilë, having had c. 450 pupils in 1990. The teachers were mainly Albanians, though at times teachers were from Vraka.
The education was strictly in Albanian language, which led to great uninterest in education in the children, principally due to them not speaking Albanian before entering school; this is believed to be one of the causes that the educational success of children in Vraka was low. However, the number of those who continued studies had increased in the last period, which had up until then been rare.

2010s

During the early 2010s linguists Klaus Steinke and Xhelal Ylli seeking to corroborate villages cited in past literature as being Slavic speaking carried out fieldwork in settlements of the area. Grilë in the Shkodër area is one of a number of villages with a Slavophone population that speak a Montenegrin dialect.
The village of Grilë officially has 1,090 inhabitants or 195 families, whereas the number of Orthodox Montenegrin families ranges between two, three to ten. An Albanian school exists in Grilë along with a newly built Orthodox church that is without a priest. According to Slavophone locals, the Orthodox population moved from Montenegro to Darragjat, due to blood feuds and later between 1935-1936, they relocated themselves to the Vraka area in places such as Grilë. Some Orthodox Montenegrins from the village moved to Montenegro in the 1990s with some thereafter returning to Grilë.