During our stay in Sarande, one of the places we visited was Butrint.
The bus stop was only a five minute walk from the hotel and it arrived shortly after us. We found seats and then promptly sat there for 20 minutes while the bus filled up and up until the doors could hardly close. Amongst the throng was the bus conductor who was issuing tickets, I’m not sure how he checked who had tickets or not. The journey takes around 30 minutes and for 3 Euros each I thought it wasn’t bad. There is only one restaurant there and we ate lunch here after our walk.
Butrint has been inhabited since prehistoric times and also home to many different nations, including Romans, Byzantines and Venetians. The last person who live here was Ali Pasha, an Albanian Ottoman ruler who controlled Butrint and the area until its final abandonment.
Butrint is now home to a vast array of flora and fauna. The excellent preservation of the remaining structures bear witness to the amazing building skills of all the previous inhabitants, especially the Romans.
We enjoyed our two hour walk around the site marvelling in turn and discussing the history as we walked.
Sitting by the Venetian Tower and soaking up the atmosphere.
I didn’t realise how vast Butrint actually is, it covers 9,000 hectares and there are steep hills and tracks around and across it. Looking at the map I’m not sure we covered everything there was to see.
Possibly a Roman civic house from the 5th century and the views across Lake Butrint.
Most of the monuments were discovered by the Italian Archaeological Mission between the years 1928 – 1939. The team who worked here were guided by Luigi Maria Ugolini. Imagine the excitement on finding such historical structures.
The mosaic has now been covered over again for preservation and apparently it is cleared every few years for viewing.
reconstructed in the 1930’s
This was a fabulous place to spend an afternoon if you are interested in history. Because of the many factions living here it was all the more interesting trying to piece together the timeline. It was such a peaceful afternoon, we were lucky that we had managed to avoid the tour buses.
Linking to Jo’s Monday Walk
