Apollonia in the AM

Saturday we were blessed with a wonderfully warm and sunny day. My Albanian friends drove me and my Italian friends first to the archeological park of Apollonia, which we reached in 2 1/2 hours, after having the usual stop for an espresso along the way, while riding through some lovely hilly countryside.

A Greek colony, founded on Illyrian lands in about 600 B.C., this ancient city, named after Apollo, became an important cultural center where Octavian lived and studied in 45 B.C. before becoming Emperor Augustus. The original excavations were done by the French archaeologist Leon Rey, but, so far, only 10% of the ancient territory has been unearthed.









A beautiful Bizantine style church contains very nice icons, while the museum has extensive displays of artifacts.


Religious places like this were used as hostels by the communist regime. They have been restored after the country came out from that dark period, and in some cases elsewhere, the old cells used by the friars in ancient times, have been turned into modest, but comfortable travel lodgings.

As we left the Apollonia park I couldn't help taking a picture of this military bunker, one of the more than 600.000 that the ex dictator had built throughout the entire country to defend it in case of 'possible invasions' from foreign nations. Under his maniacal rule Albania remained isolated for more than 50 years.

wonder who left the graffiti?