Forsaken Albania

By Artan lame
Durr쳠1914. The Gateway City to the Balkans, founded by the Greeks during their expansion throughout the northern part of the Adriatic, Roman under Rome, Byzantium and the cradle of Byzantium Emperors under Byzantine, Anjou, Venetian and Ottoman, as one Century followed the other; very little remained of any former splendour, when in 1914, fate crowned it the capital of the newly proclaimed Albanian Principality. The traveler who disembarked from the sea, stepped down onto the small, narrow, wooden platform (1) and headed towards the offices of the Port(2), next to the storage depots of the Customs ( 3). This was all that was left from the glorious two and a half thousand year old sea port. The building to the right (4) was known as “The Chamber” and served as the Seat of the Turkish Governor of the city. Being the biggest existing building, it was renovated as a Royal Palace for Prince Vid, who spent six forlorn months in it-the extent of his reign. The fate of the building followed on the heels of the fate of Prince Vid. After Vid departed from Albania, the troops of Esat Pasha were the first to take over the building, and one by one, the Pasha relieved it of its valuables without attracting attention at all. After the withdrawal of Esat and with the entrance of the troops of Haxhi Qamili, this building was stripped from top to bottom, as only the Albanians know how to do. However, this was not the end. During the encirclement of Durres in 1916, by Austrian forces, in an attempt to seize the city from the Italians, the Chamber went up in flames after being hit by shells and was razed to the ground. All that was left standing were the walls. After the War, the stones in the walls were wrenched out and stolen, used by the locals in building. But this did not mark the end either. The end came about with the beginning of the application of the city’s town planning scheme, drafted by the Italians in the thirties’. The last remnants of the building were demolished to the foundations and the site was turned into public gardens that exist to this day. The photo shows the flag pole, which dates back to the time of Turkey, where the Albanian flag has been hoisted. Adjacent to this (5), there was another building, which was associated to the Chamber. This building lived longer, but had an even more barbaric end. It survived the turn of the Century and two World Wars, the town planning scheme, communism, and even the first ten years of Albania’s transition period, only to be demolished at the beginning of the new millennium. It was replaced by a fourteen story concrete and steel block of apartments. The demolition of this building and the construction of the fourteen story monstrosity is perhaps the greatest urban crime committed to date in Durres since 1990. In the background you can see the rims of the walls of the castle and one of its guard towers (6), half of this section exists to this day. Coastal walls and towers (7) have all disappeared from the castle, sacrificed according to a debatable plan in the Thirties’. The building of the State Bank stands on this section today. The only tower that still exists today on the coastline is the round Venetian Tower, which today is close to the entrance to the port and which in the photograph can only be seen slightly in the corner (8). Everything has changed since then, or has disappeared. The sport from which the photographer took this shot is no longer sea today, but has been filled in with earth and gravel and was tar sealed in the 40-ties during the implementation of the project to build the port that exists today.