Traces of ancient Via Egnatia shown in Elbasan

TIRANA, Feb. 23 – The traces of the ancient Roman road Via Egnatia linking Rome to Constantinople, (nowadays Istanbul) are being shown in a photo exhibition in the central Albanian city of Elbasan. The exhibition is part of the Appia Agnaltia festival, and is brought by three professors of the Elbasan University and an engineering professor from the Polytechnic University of Tirana.
Photos of the “Ad Quintum,” a well preserved station of the Egnatia road in the small Bradashesh village in Elbasan, and other traces including reliefs, bridges are shown in the exhibition.
The Via Egnatia is an ancient roman road constructed in the second century BC. The road stretched from Durres, on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, through the Balkans, to Constantinople. It serves as a tangible reminder of the importance which the region that now constitutes the Western Balkans enjoyed for centuries. The route which extends through present day Albania, Macedonia and Greece into Turkey was the principal connection between Greece and Rome, the capital of the empire. With the rise of the Byzantine Empire, it continued to serve as an important link between Eastern and Western Europe.
In Albania the Via Egnatia connected the important towns of Durres and Apollonia. The port of Durres was opposite Brindisi on the Western coast of the Adriatic, a stretch that could be navigated fairly easily by ship. From Brindisi there was a direct route to Rome on the famous Via Appia. The Via Egnatia was thus a direct extension of the main road to Rome, making the port of Durres a natural gateway to both Italy and the Balkans.