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Durres

Durres, (Albanian definite form: Durresi) is the second-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durres County and Durres Municipality. It is one of Albania's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with roughly 2,500 years of recorded history. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of the Erzen and Ishem at the southeastern corner of the Adriatic Sea. Durres' climate is profoundly influenced by a seasonal Mediterranean climate. Durres was founded under the name of Epidamnos around the 7th century BC, by ancient Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra in cooperation with the Taulantii, a local Illyrian tribe. Also known as Dyrrachium, Durres essentially developed as it became an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. The Via Egnatia started in the city and led east across the fields, lowlands and highlands of the Balkan Peninsula to Constantinople.

In the Middle Ages, Durres was contested between Bulgarians, Venetians, local Albanian noble families and Ottoman dominion. The Ottomans ultimately prevailed, ruling the city for more than 400 years from 1501 until 1912. Following the Albanian Declaration of Independence, the city served as the capital of the Principality of Albania for a short period of time. Subsequently, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy in the interwar period and was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Durres experienced a strong expansion in its demography and economic activity under the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. The transport connections, concentration of economic institutions and industrial tradition underlie Durres' leading economic position in Albania. It is served by the Port of Durres, one of the largest on the Adriatic Sea, which connects the city to other neighbouring countries. Its most considerable attraction is the Amphitheatre of Durres that is included on the Albanian tentative list for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Once having a capacity for 20,000 people, it is the largest amphitheatre in the Balkan Peninsula.

Name

In antiquity, the city was known as Epidamnos and Dyrrhachion in classical Greek and then Epidamnus and Dyrrachium in classical Latin. Epidamnos is the older known of the two toponyms; it is widely considered to be of Illyrian origin, as first proposed by linguist Hans Krahe, and is attested in Thucydides (5th century BC), Aristotle (4th century BC), and Polybius (2nd century BC). Etymologically, Epidamnos may be related to Proto-Albanian *dami (cub, young animal, young bull) > dem (modern Albanian) as proposed by linguist Eqrem Çabej. Although the name Epidamnos/Epidamnus was more commonly used among Ancient Greek authors, the coinage of the city only used the abbreviations for the name Dyrrhachion/Dyrrhachium. Dyrrachium was chosen as the sole name of the city after the Roman Republic got control of the region after the Illyrian Wars in 229 BC. The Latin spelling of /y/ retained the form of Doric Greek Dyrrhachion, which was pronounced as /Durrakhion/. This change of the name is already attested in classical literature. Titus Livius, at the end of the first century BC, writes in Ab Urbe Condita Libri that at the time of the Illyrian Wars (roughly 200 years earlier) the city was not known as Dyrrachium, but as Epidamnus. Pomponius Mela, about 70 years later than Titus Livius, attributed the change of the name to the fact that the name Epidamnos reminded the Romans of the Latin word damnum, which signified evil and bad luck; Pliny the Elder, who lived in the same period, repeated this explanation in his own works. However, the Romans may have adopted the new name because it was already in more frequent use by citizens of the city. The name Dyrrhachion is usually explained as a Greek compound 'bad' and 'rocky shore, flood, roaring waves', an explanation already hinted at in antiquity by Cassius Dio, who writes it referred to the difficulties of the rocky coastline, while also reporting that other Roman authors linked it to the name of an eponymous hero Dyrrachius. The mythological construction of the city's name was recorded by Appian (2nd century AD) who wrote that "the king of the barbarians of this country, Epidamnus gave the name to the city. His daughter's son Dyrrachius, built a port near the town that he called Dyrrachium". Stephanus of Byzantium repeated this mythological construction in his work. It is unclear whether the two toponyms referred originally to different areas of the territory of the city or whether they referred to the same territory. Classical literature indicates that they more probably referred to different neighbouring areas originally. Gradually, the name Epidamnus fell out of use and Dyrrachium became the sole name for the city. Archaeological research has shown that at the time of the foundation of Durres, two distinct settlements existed on its territory. The first one is a hill site with no direct contact with the sea. It predates the colony and might represent the settlement which held the toponym known as Epidamnos in ancient literature. The hill site overlooks to its south the second site which is the territory of the port of Durres, where the colony was founded. Its location on a rocky shore struck by waves on all sides reflects the description of the toponym Dyrrhachion. The distinction between these two districts of the city remained in place even much later. In the 19th century, Durres proper was the district of the port, while the hill north of it was a separate settlement, Stani (Kodra e Stanit).

The modern names of the city in Albanian (Durres) and Italian (Durazzo, Italian pronunciation: [durazzo]) are derived from Dyrrachium/Dyrrachion. An intermediate, palatalized antecedent is found in the form Dyrratio, attested in the early centuries AD. The palatalized /-tio/ ending probably represents a phonetic change in the way the inhabitants of the city pronounced its name.
The preservation of old Doric /u/ indicates that the modern name derives from populations to whom the toponym was known in its original Doric pronunciation. By contrast, in Byzantine Greek, the name of the city is pronounced with the much later evolution of /u/ as /i/. The modern Italian name evolved in the sub-dialects that emerged from Colloquial Latin in northern Italy. The modern Albanian name evolved independently from the parent language of Albanian around the same period of the post-Roman era in the first centuries AD as the difference in stress in the two toponyms (first syllable in Albanian, second in Italian) highlights. In Aromanian, the city is known as Durus. During the 411-year Ottoman period, Durres was known in Ottoman Turkish as Dirac; with final consonant devoicing, the name has evolved into modern Turkish as Dirac. In Venetian it called Durazo, while in the South Slavic languages the city is known as Drac (Cyrillic). In English usage, the Italian form Durazzo used to be widespread, but the local Albanian name Durres has gradually replaced it in recent decades.

History

Earliest period

The territory of Durres was populated at least starting from the Eneolithic and then, from protohistoric times, it was inhabited by Illyrian peoples.

Antiquity

Though surviving remains are minimal, Durres is one of the oldest cities in Albania. In terms of mythology, the genealogy of the foundation of Dyrrhachium includes among the founders Illyrian men (the Illyrian king Epidamnos and his grandson Dyrrachos), Greek men (the Corinthian Falio, descendant of Heracles), heroes (Heracles who was given part of the lands) and gods (Poseidon, as father of Dyrrachos). Several ancient people held the site: the presence of the Brygi appears to be confirmed by several ancient writers, the Illyrian Taulantii (their arrival has been estimated to have happened not later than the 10th century BC), probably the Liburni who expanded southwards in the 9th century BC. The city was founded by Greek colonists in 627 BC on the coast of the Taulantii. According to ancient authors, the Greek colonists helped the Taulantii to expel Liburnians and mixed with the local population establishing the Greek element to the port. A flourishing commercial centre emerged and the city grew rapidly. The fact that about the 6th century BC the citizens of Epidamnus constructed a Doric-style treasury at Olympia confirms that the city was among the richest of the Ancient Greek world. An ancient account describes Epidamnos as 'a great power and very populated' city.
Silver stater of the Illyrian king Monunius, c. 280 BC from the Dyrrhachion mint. After 323 BC Epidamnus-Dyrrhachium was involved in the intervention in Illyria of the Macedonians under Cassander, who clashed with the Illyrians under Glaukias. In 314 BC the Macedonian king seized the city but the garrison he established there was in turn besieged and driven out by the Illyrian king and the Corcyrans. In 312 BC, after another unsuccessful attack of Cassander in the region, the city came under the protection of Glaukias. Those events marked the end of Macedonian presence on the Adriatic coast for almost one century. The city probably came under the control of Pyrrhus of Epirus at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. From about 280 BC the Illyrian king Monunius, and his successor Mytilos minted in Dyrrhachion silver and bronze coins respectively, bearing the king's name and the symbol of the city. The fact that their coins were struck in the city mint of Dyrrhachion stresses that they exercised to some extent their authority over the city.
Epidamnus came under the control of the Illyrian Ardiaei under Agron, who fortified the city (c. 250-231 BC). When the Romans defeated the Illyrians, they replaced the rule of queen Teuta with that of Demetrius of Pharos, one of her generals. He lost his kingdom, including Epidamnus, to the Romans in 219 BC at the Second Illyrian War. In the Third Illyrian War Epidamnus was attacked by Gentius but he was defeated by the Romans at the same year.

Geography

Durres is located on the Bay of Durres on a flat alluvial plain between the river mouths of Erzen and the Ishem along the Adriatic Sea within the Mediterranean Sea. The municipality of Durres is encompassed in the County of Durres within the Northern Region of Albania and consists of the adjacent administrative units of Ishem, Katund i Ri, Manez, Rrashbull, Sukth and Durres as its seat. It stretches from the mouth of Ishem River at the Cape of Rodon in the north across the Bay of Lalzi to the Shkembi i Kavajes in the south.

Politics

Durres is a municipality governed by a mayor-council system with the mayor of Durres and the members of the Durres Municipal Council being responsible for the administration of Durres Municipality. The mayor of Durres is elected by its people to act as the executive officer of the municipality. The Durres Municipal Council is the legislative body of the municipality and is also a democratically elected institution, comprising 51 councillors since the latest municipal election. Both, the mayor and members of the municipal council serve four-year terms without term limits.

Transport

Major roads and railways pass through the city of Durres thank to its significant location and connect the northern part of the country to the south and the west with the east. Durres is the starting point of Pan-European Corridor VIII, national roads SH2 and SH4, and serves as the main railway station of the Albanian Railways (HSH). The Pan-European Corridor VIII is one of the Pan-European corridors. It runs between Durres, at the Adriatic coast, and Varna, at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The National Road 2 (SH2) begins at the Port of Durres at the Dajlani Overpass, bypasses the road to Tirana International Airport, and ends at the Kamza Overpass in the outskirts of Tirana where it meets National Road 1 (SH1) State Road heading to northern Albania. The Albania-Kosovo Highway is a four-lane highway constructed from 2006 to 2013 between Albania and Kosovo. As part of the South-East European Route 7, the highway will connect the Adriatic Sea ports of Durres via Pristina, with the E75/Corridor X near Nis, Serbia. As most tourists come through Kosovo, the laying of the highway make it easier to travel to Durres. The Port of Durres, in the south-west of the city, is one of the major ports of the Adriatic Sea and plays a very important role in the city's economy. The port is located on an artificial basin that is formed between two moles, with a west-northwesterly oriented entrance approximately wide as it passes between the ends of the moles. The port is also a key location for transit networks and passenger ferry, giving Durres a strategic position with respect to the Pan-European Corridor VIII. The port has experienced major upgrades in recent years culminating with the opening of the new terminal in July 2012. In 2012, The Globe and Mail ranked Durres at no. 1 among 8 exciting new cruise ports to explore. It is one of the largest passenger port on the Adriatic Sea that handle more than 1.5 million passengers per year.

The railway station of Durres is connected to other cities in Albania, including the capital of Tirana, Vlore, Elbasan and Shkoder. The Durres-Tirane railway was a 38-kilometre (24-mile) railway line which joined the two biggest cities in Albania: Durres and Tirane. The line connects to the Shkoder-Vore railway halfway in Vore, and to the Durres-Vlore railway in Durres. In 2015, some rail stations and rolling stock along the Durres-Tirane line are being upgraded and latter colored red and white. A rail connection between Durres and Prishtina in Kosovo was proposed in 2021, with a feasibility study being prepared in 2022.

Climate

According to the Koppen climate classification, Durres is classified under the periphery of the hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa) zone with an average annual temperature of 15.9°C (60.6°F). Its climate is influenced by its proximity to the Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean Sea and the hills in the Western Lowlands in the hinterlands. The summers are predominantly hot and dry, the winters relatively mild, and falls and springs mainly stable, in terms of precipitation and temperatures.[67] The mean monthly temperature ranges between 7.5°C (45.5°F) in winter to 23.8°C (74.8°F) in summer. The highest temperature of 39°C (102°F) was recorded on 14 August 1957. The lowest temperature of -6.2°C (20.8°F) was registered on 26 January 1954. Durres receives most of the precipitation in winter months and less in summer months. The mean annual precipitation ranges between 1,000 millimetres (39 inches) and 1,273 millimetres (50.1 inches).

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