Tirana Times
TIRANA, April 11 – The museum center in the archeological park of Apollonia, southern Albania, risks remaining closed to tourists during this tourist season following the removal of objects displayed there on safety grounds. The objects were removed from the museum last February because of landslides threatening the collapse of the building. Some 36 objects including statues, vases, inscriptions and archeological findings were safely evacuated from the endangered building in cooperation with German archeologists, park authorities said as quoted by local media. The situation was a result of heavy rains during the first two months of this year.
Officials of the Apollonia archeological park have called on the Culture and Tourism Ministry to fund the restoration of the museum’s cracked walls.
The park’s director Marin Haxhimihali said earlier the only solution to prevent the collapse of the museum’s portico was intervention by the Institute of Monuments of Culture.
Established in the 7th century B.C., by Greek settlers, the ancient city of Apollonia is located 11 km to the west of the modern city of Fier. Among the most interesting monuments worth visiting are the Bouleterion (city council), the library, the triumphal arch, the temple of Artemis, the Odeon built in the 2nd century B.C., the two-storey 77 m long Stoa, a theater with a capacity 10000 spectators, and the Nymphaeum, a monumental water fountain covering an area of 2000m2.
