Italian army camp was converted by the post-war Communist regime to a forced labor camp. It had a bad reputation for brutality and disease and was referred to as the "Albanian Belsen". Here were detained families, the elderly, women and children. The most important families of "Albania that the Communist regime wanted to destroy and annihilate. Many died and their graves were made to disappear.The land was plowed and sowed of rye. So there remained no sign of the tombs. Was uncork himself dictator Enver Hoxha, who had given the order to make disappear the graves, when he learned that the tombs are of the condemned were locked up in that camp. The camp was closed in the 1954. In this camp, many children and old people died, of cholera, of hardship and deprivation. A cholera epidemic had killed most of the inmates.
In the 1997 unrest in Albania, Tepelenë became a focal point for the uprising against Sali Berisha's government. A people's committee took charge of the town in March 1997 and released opposition politician, Fatos Nano, from the local prison. The movement spread immediately to Gjirokastër where weapons were distributed from Tepelenë.
The local mineral water plant is an important and successful local enterprise.
The football club is SK Tepelena
