Day 147: Blue Eye, Gjirokastër, and Butrint

Aug 28 - Today up for 9:00 ride to some nearby sites of interest. It is hot and cloudless. Driving through the valley to the east and up into the mountains, I think about whether it would have been a good idea to rent a car instead. There are an adequate number of road signs, and the road surfaces are not perfect but decent enough. The problem would have been access. All three of the places we go today have very limited parking. I’ve found that in Albania, there is normally not nearly enough space for vehicles, and it is expected that drivers will just figure out a place to go along the road or in a field. In addition, as one approaches sites of interest, there is sometimes a checkpoint barring random people from going any closer. This would add considerable walking time, along a road, to get access. In our case, the driver seems to be known to all the guards, as he blazes right through and drops us off at the end of the road or street.

We first stop at the Blue Eye (Syri i Kaltër), about 30 minutes west of Sarandë. This is a small national park, featuring a beautiful and prolific spring. It is about a 30 minute walk from the entrance gate to the spring. Along the way we pass by a lake, formed from several springs, now dammed. This park has a lot of wildlife, but the larger mammals (wolves, fox, and deer) I’m sure are all hidden deep in the forest.

From here we go up over the Gjerë mountain range and down into a wide valley, which we saw other parts of on our bus trip yesterday. It is a relief to get out of the mountains as the road has a lot of curves and the guy driving us is in a hurry.

The next destination is the city of Gjirokastër. This city, like Berat, is hugely important as an Albanian architectural and cultural landmark. The hilltop where the castle sits was originally the site of a Greek city (Antigonea) that allied itself with the Macedonian Empire to fight the Romans. But they failed and the city was completely destroyed by Rome in 168 BCE.

In its current form, it was first noted from records in 1336 by its Greek name, Argyrókastro. The city, like all of this southern tip of Albania, had a strong Greek affiliation due to its ethnic Greek population. Historically, it was contested between the ethnic Albanian tribes to the north, and the self-proclaimed Despotate of Epirus (a Greek breakaway state of the Byzantine Empire). This argument ceased when the region fell under the Ottomans in 1417, until 1913, during which the Ottoman influence and Muslim population grew. Upon being liberated of the Ottomans, Albania laid claim to the city and region, but the significant Greek population rebelled and proclaimed the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, with Gjirokastër as its capital. This autonomy was lost by 1921, when the region was finally awarded again to Albania.

One touchy subject, that I wasn’t sure would receive much space in the history museum, is Enver Hoxha. As mentioned previously, he was the Communist leader of Albania from 1946-85, and chief architect of one of the most repressive political regimes of modern times. He was also born in Gjirokastër. There was a small section to discuss him, but really there wasn’t much to say, as apparently since becoming leader of the country, he visited only a few times in those 40 years. And in each of those times, as with probably most of what he did, everything was staged for maximum propaganda effect. The one photo they showed was of him standing on the wall of the castle, waving to the adoring masses while his subordinates stand next to him, clapping. Identical to just about any photo we see today of Kim Jong-un.

From here we head back south, past Sarandë, all the way to the southern tip of a peninsula, past the beach town of Ksamil. Here is one of the most important archaeological sites in Albania, the ruins of Butrint. It sits right at the point where the Vivari Channel connects the Ionian Sea with Lake Butrint (a brackish water body). The channel itself is very narrow and a ferry, run by a cable, moves vehicles across.

The entrance fee for the archaeological park is 1000 lek/person (kids are always free), quite expensive comparatively for Albania.

There is a small temple to Asclepius in the above complex, and next to it are a few blocks with Greek inscriptions.

Note that in the above photo, there is water filling the area of the original church floor. Brackish water seeping into the structures became a real problem in medieval times, and by the time the Venetians were fortifying the complex, the problem became so pronounced that eventually the whole area was abandoned. In a sense this saved the archaeological value, because no further habitation occurred, and the structures were left to be overgrown with vegetation. So many times it happens that sites like this just end up buried under modern towns and cities, so its nice to see one left alone.