Like all other coastal cities in Albania, Durrës attracts the attention of many tourists from different countries of the world. But because it has numerous beaches and because of its proximity to other cities in the country, this coastal city is visited by a considerable number of locals, especially during the tourist season in the summer season.

The city of Durrës, which is also the second largest city in Albania and the largest port city in the country, is known as the place that offers the most populated beaches in Albania, but also offers cultural, historical and family tourism for local and foreign visitors. Durrës is a city with an ancient culture, its own ancient origin. But this city would receive a boost in economic development after the overthrow of the communist regime, after 1990, developing the tourism, trade, telecommunications, etc. sectors.

The city has inherited many monuments and historical values ​​of the past, historical and archaeological centers such as the Amphitheater, the Venetian Tower, the Byzantine Wall, the Hamam, the Castle Surrounding Wall, etc. But the city also has cultural and religious centers such as the ruins of the Basilica in Arapaj, the Rodoni Castle, the “Fatih” Mosque, the Great Mosque, the Catholic Church “St. Lucia” etc.

The Hamam is a public building with typical Ottoman architecture and was built in the 18th century in the southeastern part of the city. It was reconstructed in 1980.

While the “Fatih” Mosque, belongs to the time of Sultan Mehmet II and from historical data it is learned that it was built around 1502-1503. While the Great Mosque was built in 1938. After the 90s, the Great Mosque returned to its function as a cult object and preserved its original architecture. Meanwhile, in the coastal city is also the Palace of King Zog I, which was built in 1937.

Part of the city’s historical heritage is also the Mausoleum of Martyrs, built in memory of the fallen of World War II. Meanwhile, the Archaeological Museum was inaugurated on April 13, 2002, based on the materials of the first Archaeological Museum, opened on March 13, 1951.

The origin of the name of the city “DURRES”

Dyrrah, the grandson of Epidamnus. He was born to Melissa, the daughter of Epidamnus, by the god of the sea. Compared to his grandfather, Dyrrah also has his birth half-deified. Here, the information provided by Stefan Byzantini is important, that previously the name Dyrrah was used to name the peninsula where the city was initially built. Then, in a second phase of construction, the lower harbor of the city was called Dyrrah. Over time, the name Dyrrah became dominant. Later, the name Dyrrah became definitive. We emphasize the origin of the cult of Dyrrah from the world of maritime mythology, as has happened with many other Illyrian legends.

Epidamnus, the hero and cult of the Taulants, who hold him as the founder of the city, actually before the arrival of the colonists in 627 BC. Legend presents him as the king of the “barbarians” (“taulants”), who was worshipped as the creator not only of the city, but also of the legendary genealogy of the Illyrian royal dynasty with its central city and its vast area.

In this case we have a local hero, not a deity in the true sense of the word. The creation of his cult is in the nature of the creation of hero myths, of the deification of the cult of the ancestors. The same process has occurred in the creation of many Illyrian legends. Thus, Stefan Byzantium records the legend of the Liburnians being named after a hero named Liburnus, the legend of the naming of Ambracia after Ambracus, the son of Laocoon of Thesprotus (in a second variant from Ambracia, the daughter of Aegeus), of the nickname of the Molossian province Apheidantes by King Apheidas, of Hellopis from Hellopis, the son of Ion (another legend records that Hellopis was also called the province around Dodona Molossus and its inhabitants were called helloi and selloi), of the city of Ephyra from the name Ephrys, the son of Amarak of Thesprotus, of the city Lyncus of Epidamnus is typological for these types of legends. This cult is well documented even at the time when the city was called Dyrrachium, because a monument of a powerful person in this city in the 2nd century AD was discovered, called Syr Epidamni, in whose name Leon Hezei rightly sees an echo of the cult of the legendary Illyrian ancestor, the first founder. Procopius of Gaza in the “Panagerikon” dedicated to the Byzantine emperor Alexios Durrasakus, originally from this city, expressly says that here “the local hero was born, who gave the name to the city”. So, in the 5th and 6th centuries the cult of Epidamni is alive. Even until the 11th century Anna Komnene mentions the echo of this name with mythological attributes.

Of course, Epidamni does not enter the “elite” of the Illyrian pantheon: rather than a literal deity, we have a deified mortal man. We are not able to answer in detail what role his cult played today.