Half day tour with lunch from Vlora to Apollonia, Albania

Day trips from Vlore County: Apollonia guided tour

Apollonia guided tour

Visit the Apollonia UNESCO archaeological site, the ancient commercial and cultural center, first Greek and then Roman. Stroll through the wonderful ruins of one of the best-preserved archaeological parks in all of Europe.After a short stop, you will get back in our vehicles and head towards Pojan, the place where the Apollonia archaeological park is located. This archaeological site is certainly the largest in the entire Balkan area. Although in Albania you can find other very interesting ruins such as that of Butrint, Apollonia has fully conquered the name of the Albanian Pompeii.In the early 1930s, a team of French archaeologists became interested in a series of ruins that emerged in the surroundings of the village of Pojan, a few kilometers away from the city of Fier. According to archaeologists' calculations, the remains of a large city should have been found there. In a few years the excavations began to bring to light a big center built, layer by layer, on two adjacent hills. An area that today is estimated to extend for almost 140 hectares, and which could still contain many hidden treasures underground. Thanks to the land that over time has covered houses, temples and a theater, Apollonia has come down to us in exceptional conditions.

Apollonia was erected in 588 BC. in the hills already inhabited by the Illyrians, after the foundation of the ancient Dyrrachium. It was a group of Greek colonists from Corfu and Corinth, under the leadership of Gylax, who founded it. A young Augustus, not yet emperor, but already protected by Caesar, came to study in Apollonia. Here merchants and men of letters, commanders and religious passed by.The public buildings of the city developed in the middle of the two hills, between an area dedicated to military training (Arx) and an area dedicated to worship (Temenos). In Temenos you find the Temple of Apollo and the remains of some monuments from the 6th century BC. alongside a Doric temple, warehouses and two small sanctuaries. The center of Apollonia's life was the agora, which contained several buildings. A Greek theater and a monument dedicated to the nymphs, some political buildings such as the Bouleterion, the Odeon, the Library, the Arc de Triomphe, the Temple of Diana and the Prytaneion, the small local parliament of the time.