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39°52′N 20°00′E / 39.867°N 20.000°E / 39.867; 20.000

Place in Vlorë County, Albania
Sarandë Sarandë / Saranda
File:Saranda new!.JPG
Country Albania
CountyVlorë County
DistrictSarandë District
Government
 • MayorEdmond Gjoka (PD)
Population
 • Total30,200
Time zoneUTC+1 (Central European Time)

Sarandë (Albanian: Sarandë or Saranda, Greek: Άγιοι Σαράντα, Agii Saranda "Forty Saints") is the capital of the District of Sarandë, Albania, and it is one of the most important tourist attractions of the Albanian Riviera. Situated on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea in the Mediterranean, at 39.88°N, 20.00°E. The city of Saranda has a population of about 30,200 people (2008 est.). Near Sarandë are the remains of the ancient city of Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site.


History

The ancient Greek city of Onchesmos, mentioned as a port in the 1st century B.C, it's what's known today as Sarandë or Saranda. In the 4th century A.d. the city was fortified with walls. Inside the walls have been excavated the remains of dwellings, water cisterns and an early Christian Basilica of the 5th and 6th century, containing a beautiful multicolored floor mosaic. Other mosaics are to be found in the district museum. The ruins are also preserved of an early Christian Monastery, of the Forty Saints, from which the modern name of the city (Saranda, which means forty in Greek) is derived. Prior to Byzantine rule, the city was called by its Greek name, Onchesmos or Anchiasmos (Greek,Όγχησμος) and it was a vital part of Epirus inhabited by the Greek tribe of Chaonians. The city was an important port in antiquity. Its current name is derived from "Agioi Saranda" (Greek, Άγιοι Σαράντα) after the Forty Martyrs of Sebastea, traditionally commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 10 March. The city was temporarily called "Porto Edda" in honor of Edda Mussolini, the eldest daughter of Benito Mussolini, during World War II when Albania was annexed to Italy.

The city

The sea panorama, the variety of flora, as well as the soft Mediterranean climate, are among the things that make Saranda the preferred recreational center, and an important tourist attraction. The number of couples who arrange to spend their honeymoon in Sarandë, is impressive. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that Saranda is known as the honeymooners' city. Over the last two decades, Saranda has become a favorite tourist destination. Saranda's population nearly doubles every summer season - May through October. Opposite of Sarandë is another tourist attraction, the Greek island of Corfu, and there are daily ferries between them.

Population

Today, Saranda's population is mostly ethnic Albanians with a minority of Greeks and Vlachs. There are different percentages presented from the two main ethnic groups. Albanians claim that a lot of ethnic Albanians have declared themselves Greeks in order to get a pension given by the Greek government to its ethnic minority in Albania, but these claims are not evidence based. On the other hand, Greeks declare that there has been an Albanisation of the Greek minority. The Greeks of Northern Epirus and of all Albania have been under a policy of heavy Albanization from the era of King Zogu up to this day. Albanians today are thought to compose 88% of the total population of the town, and the Greeks and Vlachs 12%.

Gallery


References

  1. Epirus Vetus: The Archaeology of a Late Antique Province by William Bowden ,ISBN-10: 0715631160,2003,page 14,"Anchiasmos (Onchesmos)"
  2. Saranda - Ancient Onchesmos: A Short History and Guide by Richard Hodges,2007
  3. Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World - page 815 by Richard J. A. Talbert, Roger S. Bagnall - 2000,"R harbor, cape or town in Epirus between Onchesmos"
  4. Hammond, NGL (1994). Philip of Macedon. London, UK: Duckworth. "Epirus was a land of milk and animal products...The social unit was a small tribe, consisting of several nomadic or semi-nomadic groups, and these tribes, of which more than seventy names are known, coalesced into large tribal coalitions, three in number: Thesprotians, Molossians and Chaonians...We know from the discovery of inscriptions that these tribes were speaking the Greek language (in a West-Greek dialect)"
  5. Strabo. The Geography, Book VII, Chapter 7.5,"these mountains one comes to Onchesmus,427 another harbor, opposite which lie the western extremities of Corcyraea"
  6. Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks by Esther Eidinow,2007,ISBN-10: 0199277788,Back Matter: ". Onchesmos was the principal port of Phoinike, the capital of Chaonia, ..."
  7. www.saranda-city.com/history_en.html
  8. "coastal town of Saranda, home to a large minority population,","The concentration of ethnic Greeks in and around centers of Hellenism such as Saranda and Gjirokastra",http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97 Defense Academy of the United Kingdom
  9. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"the area studied was confined to the southern border fringes, and there is good reason to believe that this estimate was very low"."Under this definition, minority status was limited to those who lived in 99 villages in the southern border areas, thereby excluding important concentrations of Greek settlement in Vlora (perhaps 8000 people in 1994) and in adjoining areas along the coast, ancestral Greek towns such as Himara, and ethnic Greeks living elsewhere throughout the country. Mixed villages outside this designated zone, even those with a clear majority of ethnic Greeks, were not considered minority areas and therefore were denied any Greek-language cultural or educational provisions. In addition, many Greeks were forcibly removed from the minority zones to other parts of the country as a product of communist population policy, an important and constant element of which was to pre-empt ethnic sources of political dissent. Greek place-names were changed to Albanian names, while use of the Greek language, prohibited everywhere outside the minority zones, was prohibited for many official purposes within them as well."
  10. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,onset in 1967 of the campaign by Albania’s communist party, the Albanian Party of Labor (PLA), to eradicate organized religion, a prime target of which was the Orthodox Church.Many churches were damaged or destroyed during this period, and many Greek-language books were banned because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, as with other communist states, particularly in the Balkans, where measures putatively geared towards the consolidation of political control intersected with the pursuit of national integration, it is often impossible to distinguish sharply between ideological and ethno-cultural bases of repression. This is all the more true in the case of Albania’s anti-religion campaign because it was merely one element in the broader “Ideological and Cultural Revolution” begun by Hoxha in 1966 but whose main features he outlined at the PLA’s Fourth Congress in 1961.
  11. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97," under communism, pupils were taught only Albanian history and culture, even in Greek-language classes at the primary level." ,
  12. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"Under King Zog, the Greek villages suffered considerable repression, including the forcible closure of Greek-language schools in 1933-1934 and the ordering of Greek Orthodox monasteries to accept mentally sick individuals as inmates. "
  13. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"the area studied was confined to the southern border fringes, and there is good reason to believe that this estimate was very low"."Under this definition, minority status was limited to those who lived in 99 villages in the southern border areas, thereby excluding important concentrations of Greek settlement in Vlora (perhaps 8000 people in 1994) and in adjoining areas along the coast, ancestral Greek towns such as Himara, and ethnic Greeks living elsewhere throughout the country. Mixed villages outside this designated zone, even those with a clear majority of ethnic Greeks, were not considered minority areas and therefore were denied any Greek-language cultural or educational provisions. In addition, many Greeks were forcibly removed from the minority zones to other parts of the country as a product of communist population policy, an important and constant element of which was to pre-empt ethnic sources of political dissent. Greek place-names were changed to Albanian names, while use of the Greek language, prohibited everywhere outside the minority zones, was prohibited for many official purposes within them as well."
  14. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,onset in 1967 of the campaign by Albania’s communist party,the Albanian Party of Labor (PLA), to eradicate organized religion, a prime target of which was the Orthodox Church.Many churches were damaged or destroyed during this period, and many Greek-language books were banned because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, as with other communist states, particularly in the Balkans, where measures putatively geared towards the consolidation of political control intersected with the pursuit of national integration, it is often impossible to distinguish sharply between ideological and ethno-cultural bases of repression. This is all the more true in the case of Albania’s anti-religion campaign because it was merely one element in the broader “Ideological and Cultural Revolution” begun by Hoxha in 1966 but whose main features he outlined at the PLA’s Fourth Congress in 1961.
  15. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97," under communism, pupils were taught only Albanian history and culture, even in Greek-language classes at the primary level." ,
  16. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"Under King Zogu, the Greek villages suffered considerable repression, including the forcible closure of Greek-language schools in 1933-1934 and the ordering of Greek Orthodox monasteries to accept emotionally disturbed individuals as inmates. "

See also


External links

Albania Cities and towns in Albania
Cities and towns in Albania share the status of a geographic unit which makes up a municipality.
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