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Ruins of Ancient Aulona

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The city of Aulona has often been mentioned by ancient authors, but until today this city has not been definitively discovered by archaeologists, even, like Epidamni and Durrah, it is divided between the sea and the land. Many of the authors place this on the seashore in the area of the village of Zvërnec, which is called by the locals with the enigmatic name Triport, based on the fact that in this area, on a low hill on the seashore, there are some ruins of ancient walls, accompanied these with walls that are submerged in the sea and that are visible enough from above. However, there are other authors who place Aulona a few kilometers away from the sea coast, at the foot of the hills that today surround the city of Vlora. And as additional information to their aid came the discovery, in the early 70s of the last century, of some ruins in the center of the city of Vlora, behind the Independence Monument at "Flag Square". But since these ruins of fortification walls, from the type of construction, belong to the period of the rule of the Roman Empire, i.e. to a later time, while Aulona as a city is mentioned in a much earlier time, the discovery of this ancient city with the name of remains a task still unsolved by archaeologists. But it must be said that even these ruins of the Roman construction style show that the ancient Aulona must also be near them. The opinion that ancient Aulona must have been where today lies "Historic Vlora", is reinforced by what, to my knowledge, both the archaeological and the monuments institutions, a protected area, designated as area A, have documented precisely this area where the old center of the city of Vlora used to be, around "Flag Square". We, with impatience, can ask: where is our Aulona? But, just where the pick of the archaeologist would consecrate and revive ancient Aulona, the many-storied palaces erected in these dark times, have buried it deeper and deeper, perhaps, never to be discovered again, unless some hand the divine, some day, would resemble them.

 

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