New Butrint Park director appointed

TIRANA, August 16 – Rajmond Kola has been appointed the new director of the national Butrint Park, replacing Ylli Cerova who was dismissed because of mismanagement and failing to keep the park clean.
His dismissal is also related to some damage made to the UNESCO World Heritage site during the Butrint theatre festival held last month.
The new director is an author of many cultural heritage publications and has been a correspondent of the “Voice of America” in the local Albania service for 15 years.
For the past three years he has also been the director of the Gjirokastra Administration and Coordination Office.
The ancient town of Butrint is one of Albania’s and the Balkans’ major archaeological centers and is protected under UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is located on the shores of Butrint Lake, south of Saranda on the Greek border.
The first archaeological excavations at Butrint were made by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Ugolini in 1926-1936, who headed an expedition on the Finiq zone.
The city of Butrint was most probably built during the third century B.C., on the south side of the hill. At this time a theatre and a temple were built. However, the fertile land attracted Roman curiosity and the area was turned into a Roman colony in the first century B.C., when much of the population was romanized. A great many artifacts have been found in Butrint’s theatre, among which are the Goddess of Butrint, Zeus’ marble head, Agripa’s portrait and many inscriptions in Greek and in Latin.
The city is surrounded by a wall built in the fourth and third centuries B.C., which enclosed a large city of 11 hectares including a theatre, trade centers and temples.