Travelogue 4 – Saranda to Gjirokaster

After the long drive down the Albanian coast, we arrived in the popular seaside resort of Saranda, which is said to have 300 sunny days a year. We stayed two nights and explored the nearby Butrinti Archaeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town has doubled in size in the past few years and now has a glut of apartments, many of which still stand empty. The tourist season will not begin for several weeks, and most of the people on the somewhat empty promenade seemed to be locals. The town is located on a broad gulf of the Ionian Sea. We had a sweeping view from our hotel balcony.

Dinner our first night in Saranda was at the waterfront restaurant in lower left.

We walked the entire length of the Saranda promenade.

Our next morning was entirely devoted to the city of Buthrotum, which is located a few miles south of Saranda. The ancient town, part of the Butrinti Archaeological Park, is one of the most important archaeological sites in Albania. It is also a UN World Heritage Site, which in our travels we have found to be a reliable indicator promising a worthwhile visit. The impressive ruins, many of which have been partially restored, are spread over a considerable area. Following well-marked paths that meander beneath a dense canopy of elm, oak, and other large shade trees, we visited the principal sights including the Greek theater, the Roman bath, the paleo-Christian baptistery, the Byzantine basilica, and the Venetian fortress. We also visited the museum with its impressive collection of artifacts discovered at the site. In the Roman period, the city was served by an elaborate 5 km. elevated aqueduct, only foundation elements of which remain today.

The amphitheater, originally Greek now of Roman design, could hold about 20,000.

Roman walls sometimes used older Greek stones like these that recorded the freeing of

slaves.

We spent the morning in the Butrinti ruins receiving Enea’s expert introduction to Greek and Roman antiquities, and then drove to nearby Ksamil for lunch at the aptly named Panorama Restaurant. We were the only customers and enjoyed a marvelous meal of bruschetta, Greek salad, fried calamari, whole fresh cod, and fruit. The restaurant was directly on the sea with a view of the Island of Corfu in the distance.

We had a great meal and wondered why we were not swimming in the invitingly clear

water.

While there were few if any other tourists in this idyllic spot, crowds were expected later in the season to judge from the number of beach umbrellas getting ready for service.

These beach umbrellas were being re-thatched for the upcoming tourist season.

After lunch we drove up to the 17th century fortress of Lekuresi with beautiful views of Saranda, the Corfu strait, Corfu, and the surrounding valley. We stopped to look at a bunker, large numbers of which were built by the Communist government following WWII. Hundreds of these small round cement humps are found all over the country.

From this small cement bunker near the fortress of Lekuresi we had a view of Corfu in

the distance.

The next morning, we visited the ruins of the St. Nicholas Monastery Church near Mesapotam (between rivers) an hour or so from Saranda. The monastery is thought to have been built in 1224 or 1225. Its double apse makes it unique in that it might have been used for both Catholic and Orthodox rites. We enjoyed the Monastery’s bucolic setting and were pleased to get a look inside the main building. But the restoration has a ways to go to make this visit interesting to other than a student of ancient Albanian church architecture.

This is what remains of the bell tower of the St. Nicholas Monastery Church.

Enea showed us this dragon, one of several carvings on the St Nicholas Monastery

wall.

Our next stop was at the remarkable Blue Eye natural water spring near Muzinë. Clear blue water bubbles forth in impressive volume (discharge rate: 4,860 gallons/sec.), a quite unusual natural phenomenon creating a swiftly flowing stream. The water gets the striking blue hue from its mineral content.

An impressive volume of water gushes up from the Blue Eye Spring into this deep pool.

Following an excellent Greek lunch at Ndrico Restaurant, run by Enea’s cousin, we drove on to Gjirokaster, where we spent the night. This well-preserved old Ottoman town is a UN World Heritage Site, and the location of an imposing 13th-century hilltop fortress, the last redoubt of Ali Pasha, a ruthless Albanian (1740 –1822) who is legendary for defying the Turkish Sultan.

The galleries below the fortress had an extensive collection of WWII artillery.

Panorama of Gjirokaster from the XIII-century fortress

Gjirokaster also has an interesting Ethnographic Museum contains numerous household items, folk costumes, and cultural artifacts typical of a wealthy Gjirokaster family of merchants or Ottoman administrators living in the 19th century.

The Gjirokaster Ethnographic Museum was erected on the site of communist dictator

Enver Hoxha's birth home.