Qeparo

Qeparo (; , Kiparo) is a seaside village in the municipality of Himara in Vlorë County, Albania. The village is part of the Albanian Riviera and is divided into two parts – Upper or Old Qeparo on higher ground, and Lower or New Qeparo on the coast. Qeparo is an Albanian-speaking village.

==Name== The first identified form of the name of the village is "Clapero" in the 1566 correspondence of the people of Himara who were seeking refuge from the Ottoman Empire with the Kingdom of Naples. The name is thought to derive from the word kllapë and the Greek suffix -erό, which is commonly used in toponyms (e.g. Vromero). As "kllapë/klapa" has nearly the same meaning in the local Albanian and Greek dialects, the question arises as to whether the name is Albanian or Greek. The form Qeparo is a later innovation which was produced via vowel metathesis and the typical shift of /kl/ to /q/ in southern Albanian dialects.