Durres
A TASTE OF ANCIENT LEGEND
if the city could speake
I could see the spirit of the city through the thickness of the hills, through the spray of the waves crashing against the embankment. He stood in front of me, not old, but not young either, in a wore but obviously expensive Italian suit and a similar Italian hat. A merchant or a middle-aged businessman who had once been rich and then lost everything, but who had managed to get his business back.
Tell me your name, and I’ll reveal your true soul
I had a lot of names
E megjithatë kush jeni ju?
Do you have time to hear them all?
I'll listen for as long as it takes!
Epidamn, as I was first called in 627 B.C. My founders, the Greeks, borrowed this name from the Illyrians, into whose lands they came.
He spoke softly, sometimes quietly, like the coastal wind, picking up the right phrases, sometimes a little faster, like the running of the waves.
I also had a second name, Dirrachion, which was minted on coins and known by merchants all over the Mediterranean.
Teuta Illirian Queen
Coin 100 LEK
I grew up surrounded by steep cliffs. I was impregnable until the quarrels of my founders resulted in my having a new host, the Illyrian king Glaucius.
In 229 B.C., the Illyrian queen Teuta, revered to this day, became the new mistress of the city.
In 229 B.C., the Illyrian queen Teuta, revered to this day, became the new mistress of the city.
Teuta didn't own me for long. The Romans came. Being superstitious, they gave me the new name Dirrachium, thinking that the root of my former name was an ominous prediction (lat. Epidamnum - defeat).
In 146 B.C. I was the beginning of the great Egnatia road, which linked Rome with Byzantium. In memory of those times, the rruga (street) Egnatia runs through my very heart even now.
In 146 B.C. I was the beginning of the great Egnatia road, which linked Rome with Byzantium. In memory of those times, the rruga (street) Egnatia runs through my very heart even now.
I remember Cicero walking along my promenade; he lived here in exile. One of the streets (rruga Ciceroi) is named after him. It is very close to the amphitheater. There is also a street in honor of one of his mentors, rruga Aristoteli.
I was the battlefield of Caesar and Pompey; under Emperor Octavian Augustus I was a veteran colony and received the status of a sovereign city (civitas libera), and in the 4th century I became the capital of the Roman province of Epirus Nova.
Emperor Anastasius I ran through my streets as a child. He also rebuilt and strengthened the city walls, creating the strongest fortifications in the western Balkans, after the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The walls, 12 meters high, were so thick that four horsemen could ride over them.
I was the battlefield of Caesar and Pompey; under Emperor Octavian Augustus I was a veteran colony and received the status of a sovereign city (civitas libera), and in the 4th century I became the capital of the Roman province of Epirus Nova.
Emperor Anastasius I ran through my streets as a child. He also rebuilt and strengthened the city walls, creating the strongest fortifications in the western Balkans, after the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The walls, 12 meters high, were so thick that four horsemen could ride over them.
And you should have seen the Roman amphitheater (Amfiteatri i Durrësit) in those days. It could hold 20,000 people. Gladiators, tigers, lions, blood, death, spectacles - it was all here. And then the Christians found another use for it. But even now you can judge how great it was.
Then there were the hordes of barbarians. I passed into their hands, and then again became part of the Byzantine Empire as an important port and the main link with Western Europe. After the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, I reverted to Venice, and in 1258 the Sicilian king renamed me Durazzo.
Then there was a succession of new owners: Sicilians, Serbs, Venetians. I withstood the siege of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1466. But fell in 1501, when his son, Sultan Bayazid II, reached me.
Then there was a succession of new owners: Sicilians, Serbs, Venetians. I withstood the siege of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1466. But fell in 1501, when his son, Sultan Bayazid II, reached me.
This is how I lived under the Ottoman yoke until the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the population was converted to Islam, churches were rebuilt into mosques. And they began to call me Dirash, in the Turkish manner. Once in bloom, I was fading. There was no trace of the noisy crowds, and only a handful of residents occasionally remembered my old name
A foreigner once kicked a stone with his foot and said: "What a ruin this city is, surrounded by dilapidated walls. The Byzantine citadel is gone, and the harbor is covered with sand".
But I survived. I became one of the centers of the Albanian national liberation movement. In the fall of 1912, the Albanian flag was raised over the city.
On March 7, 1913, I became the first capital of Albania.
On March 7, 1913, I became the first capital of Albania.
During World War II, I became a Durazzo again. I was occupied by Italian and German troops. Albania surrendered without a fight then, but I honor the names of my true heroes, who stood up to the invaders at the cost of their lives. You will see their monuments right in my heart.
At the end of the 1980s, I was renamed Durres-Enver Hoxha. I don't want to talk about this dictator, it's a sore subject.
In the 1990s, I became the center of mass migration to Italy, it was hard for me to see the best people looking for a better life across the sea. And in 1999, I became the protector and shelter of 110,000 refugees from Kosovo.
In the 1990s, I became the center of mass migration to Italy, it was hard for me to see the best people looking for a better life across the sea. And in 1999, I became the protector and shelter of 110,000 refugees from Kosovo.
Ship Vlora in Bari’s port (Italy) on 8 August 1991
"You know, my friend, a name is only the wishes of others to see me as someone. But look at the faces of those who walk these streets every day. Look how they are ready at any moment to help you, to guide you to the right place. They can't smile callously, and if they smile, it's from the heart. And they help you because it's in their blood. They are different, they are just as strange as I am. They have Illyrian, Greek, Roman and Ottoman blood in their veins. They do not divide themselves by creed, but take pride in who they are-my people, the Stiptars."
He smiled and showed me a steep path between tree roots and a dozen bunkers straight to Zog's Villa of Durrës, and when I looked on Google maps, he drew the shortest way there with a sunbeam :)
He smiled and showed me a steep path between tree roots and a dozen bunkers straight to Zog's Villa of Durrës, and when I looked on Google maps, he drew the shortest way there with a sunbeam :)
Кратчайшая тропа к вилле Зога
" And of course you'll wonder why buildings don't have addresses and bus schedules are like a quest, why there's a train station but no trains. Just remember that my walls weren't built all at once, either."
He went to meet another ship coming into port. After all, he is a merchant city, accustomed to receiving visitors from all over the world.