Tour to Butrinto

Meeting at the Sarande port. Transfer the city of Butrinto, on the way we will enjoy a wonderful panoramic sight of the channel of Corfu and its numerous coves.
Butrinto is located on the Albanian southern coast, in a peninsula between a lagoon (Lake of Butrinto) and the Ionic sea, opposite to the island of Corfu and very close to the city of Sarande. Inhabited from prehistoric times, it was a Greek colony, Roman city and after the godforsaken Venetian occupation until in 1928 it was "re-discovered" across the numerous excavations that left to the overdraft a fifth part of the city. We will begin our visit on foot for a city that is considered to be at present one of the more important archaeological and monumental sets of Albania. The first occupation evidences go back a VIIIth and Xth centuries B.C. and its population was tied to the neighbor Greek colony of Corfu. In its origin Butrinto it was a rural establishment dedicated to the supplying of meal to Corfu. From the IVth century B.C., in the period helenístico, he acquired major commercial importance as colony. Of this epoch they emphasize some of the best remains from the city, like the Greek Theater and the Acropolis, in that there was erected a temple devoted to Asclepio, Greek god of the medicine. There attracts attention the Door of the León of the same IVth century B.C., which was one of six earnings to the city. After the conquest of the city for the Romans in the IInd century B.C., Butrinto experienced a cultural process of romanización, which included the construction of a proper port for the city. From this period he emphasizes a small Roman bath and a palace located next to the ancient port; the temple of a Nymph of the water, the ancient forum and the baptistry paleocristiano, of the Vth century d. C, constructed on an ancient Roman bath, and arranged of circular form. In the center of the ancient room there is located the font, which is circulated by a concentric colonnade that was supporting the covering of the enclosure. The soil of about the battery was decorated by a marvelous mosaic of symbols and animal representations, which still survive of partial form. The baptistry is one of the best and most beautiful samples of the art paleocristiano preserved in Europe. The most ancient remains of the emplacement are the colossal walls of stone, which were protecting the city. The enmurallado dates of the epoch prehelenística, approximately of the VIIIth century B.C.

In 1992 the UNESCO declared to the ruins of the city and its surrounding area Patrimony of the Humanity. The Albanian Government established in 2000 the National park of Butrinto, which protects 29 square kilometers of territory of big historical, archaeological and ecological value in the environment of the archaeological place of Butrinto and who was added to the original extension of the UNESCO.
Transfer to the city of Sarande where we will enjoy some free time. Return to the ship.

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