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Durrës

Chief port of Albania, on the Adriatic Sea; population (2003 est) 113,900. It is the country's leading commercial and communications centre, with a dockyard and shipyard; it has flour mills, soap and cigarette factories, distilleries, and an electronics plant. The seat of a Greek Orthodox metropolitan (archbishop) and, since AD 449, of a Roman Catholic archbishopric, it was the capital of Albania 1913–20.

History

Founded c. 625 BC as Epidamnus, a joint colony of Corinth and Corfu, it became an important trade centre. The city passed to Rome in 229 BC, and became a military and naval base. Under the Romans it was known as Dyrrachium, from which its modern name is derived. It passed to the Byzantine empire in the 8th century, to the Normans of Sicily in 1185, to Naples in 1272, and to Serbia in 1336. It was held by Venice from 1392 until 1501 when it passed to the Turks. It declined rapidly under Turkish rule, and was occupied by the Serbs in 1912 during the First Balkan War. Italy (1915) and Austria (1916–18) also occupied the city. It was assigned to Albania in 1913, and revived economically after becoming Albania's capital.

Durrës has many mosques, a Roman amphitheatre, three Byzantine towers, and medieval fortifications erected under Venetian rule.

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