"Angjel's Vlore Page" a Vlore Travel Page by Angjel

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VLORA
Vlora (pop. 72,000) is located in southwestern Albania, on the coast of the Adriatic, the second major sea port after Durr‘s. In ancient times, Vlora was known as Aulon. The oldest traces of civilization in the area of Vlora date back to the 6th century B.C. In the 4th century B.C., a stone wall is built which surrounds the town. In ancient times, Vlora was known for its wine, olives, and salt, and became the main port of Illyria after the fall of Apolonia and Oricum. During the Medieval age, the town's fate was linked with the Castle of Kanina. In the year 1081 it was captured by the Normans, in 1205 by Venice, later it was handed over to the German Hohenschtaufs, and in 1272 it was incorporated in the Kingdom of Arb‘ria. In the 14th century, Vlora was under the rule of the Balshaj Albanian feudal family. During this period the town was known for its metal craftsmen, sword makers, silk, and extraction of salt. The town fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1417, it was the first Adriatic port captured by them. In the following centuries it was the center of the sanjak. In 1531, Sultan Suleyman used the stones of Aulon to build a fortress near the town (near the stadium in present Vlora) in a pentagon shape, with walls adapted for artillery fire. Within the fortress were high stone buildings and houses. This structure and the Mosque of Muradia (Xhamia e Muradi‘s ) is believed to be designed by Sinan, an Ottoman architect of Albanian origin. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Vlora once again became a prosperous trade, importing, and exporting center. Vlora was incorporated in Ali Pash‘ Tepelena's kingdom in 1812.
Albanian delegates headed by Ismajl Qemali declare the independence
of Albania in Vlora, November 28th, 1912
Vlora was the first capital of independent Albania. On November 28th, 1912, the National Assembly of Albania declared the independence of Albania in Vlora, to end a five century Ottoman rule, and formed a provisional government headed by Ismajl Qemali. However, the town was captured by the Italians in 1914. In 1920, the National Defense Committee was formed in Vlora, which organized the forces that fought in the War of Vlora, which was fought between the Albanians and Italians over the control of the town, after the Italians refused to coincide to the ultimatum of the government of Tirana to hand over the city. The 7500 well armed Italian soldiers were forced to withdraw in September, 1920, after the town was surrounded by the Albanians.
Vlora remained a center of democratic movements, in April, 1924, a committee was formed here, which led an uprising against King Zog's rule, which eventually led to the June Revolution, and the establishment of the first democratic government of Albania. The Italians entered the town after their invasion of Albania in 1939. The natives resisted the Italian occupation and the town was liberated in October, 1944.
Before World War II, Vlora had an oil production factory, a flour factory, a power plant and several artisan workshops. The town developed and expanded in the years after World War II. Today it is an industrial city, and an education center. Industries in Vlora include food, building materials, chemicals, and glass. High educational institutions in Vlora include the University of Vlora, the Naval Officers School, and the School of Aviation. The city has a professional theater, a cultural center, library, Museum of History, Museum of Ethnography, History of the Independence Movement Museum, etc.
The city has mostly expanded towards the shore, wider streets were built and tall several story high buildings. The city's main street has been widened, it connects Sheshi i Flamurit (Flag Square) with the center of the city in the Pavar‘sia (Independence) quarter. The street which enters the city from the north leads to the old bazaar. The Monument of Independence and the Monument of the Unknown Soldier are some of the monuments in Vlora.Vlora is also a touristic center, many hotels and recreational centers are found along the beaches of Vlora.

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Situation

It is located in southwestern Albania, in the District of Vlorė and County of Vlorė at 40°28′N 19°29′E.
Vlorė shoeline (Photo by Marc Morell)
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Vlorė shoeline (Photo by Marc Morell)

Aviona occupies an eminence near the Gulf of Avlona, an inlet of the facing the Adriatic Sea, almost surrounded by mounains. The port is the best on the Albanian coast, and the nearest to Italy. It is protected by the island of Saseno, the ancient ;aso, and by Cape Glossa, the northernmost headland of the Croceraunian mountains.

The town is about 11/2 m. from the sea, and has rather a pleasant appearance cith its minarets and its palace, surrounded with gardens and olive-groves. Valonia, a material largely used by tanners, is the pericarp of an acorn obtained in the neighboring oakvoods, and derives its name from Valona.

Vlorė is one of the oldest cities of Albania. It was founded in the 6th century BC as a Greek colony named Aulōn, one of three such colonies on the coast of Illyria, mentioned for the first time by Ptolemy (Geographia, III, xii, 2). Other geographical documents, such as Peutinger's "Tabula" and the "Synecdemus" of Hierocles, also mention it. The city was an important port of the Roman Empire, when it was part of Epirus Nova.

It became an episcopal see in the 5th century. Among the known bishops are Nazarius, in 458, and Soter, in 553 (Farlati, "Illyricum sacrum", VII, 397-401). The diocese at that time belonged to the Patriarchate of Rome. In 733 it was annexed, with all eastern Illyricum, to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and yet it is not mentioned in any "Notitiae episcopatuum" of that Church. The bishopric had probably been suppressed, for, though the Bulgarians had been in possession of this country for some time, Aulon is not mentioned in the "Notitiae episcopatuum" of the Patriarchate of Achrida.

Valona played a central role in the conflicts between the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Byzantine Empire during the 11th and 12th centuries. During the Latin domination a Latin see was established, and Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, I, 124) mentions several of its bishops. Several of the Latin bishops mentioned by Le Quien (Oriens christianus, III, 855-8), and whom Eubel (op. cit., I, 541) mentions under the See of Valanea in Syria, belong either to Aulon in Greece (now Salona) or to Aulon in Albania (Valona).

Serbia captured Valona, or Vlora, as it was also called, in 1345 and it passed to the Ottoman Empire in 1464; and after being in Venetian possession in 1690, was restored to the Turks in 1691. , becoming a caza of the sandjak of Berat in the vilayet (province) of Janina. The city, which has a port on the Adriatic, has about 10,000 inhabitants; there was a Catholic parish, which belongs to the Archdiocese of Durazzo; it persisted nominally as a Titular see, suffragan of Dyrrachium, also in Epirus Nova.

In 1851 it suffered severely from an earthquake.

Ismail Qemali declared Albania's independence in Vlorė on November 28th, 1912, during the First Balkan War. The city became Albania's first capital but was invaded by Italy in 1914 and occupied until 1920. Italy again invaded Vlorė in 1939, following which Nazi Germany occupied the city until 1944.

During World War II, the island of Sazan in Vlorė Bay became the site of a German and Italian submarine base and naval installations; these were heavily bombed by the Allies. After the war, the Soviet Union made use of the rebuilt installations to provide a Soviet naval base on the Adriatic, from which it withdrew following a breakdown of relations between the two countries in 1961.

Under communism the port was leased to the Soviet Union as a submarine base, and played an Important part in the conflict between Enver Hoxha and Khrushchev in 1960-1961, as the Soviet Union had made considerable investments in the naval facilities here and objected strongly to the loss of them as a consequence of Albania denouncing the USSR as 'revisionist' and taking the Chinese side in the split in the world communist movement. The Soviet Union threatened to occupy Vlora with Soviet troops in April 1961, and cut off all Soviet economic, military and technical aid to Albania. The threat was not carried out, as a result of the simultaneous development of the Cuban missiles crisis, but Hoxha realized how vulnerable Albania was, and, after the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he built the tens of thousands of ubiquitous concrete bunkers that still litter the entire Albanian landscape. Under Hoxha Vlora was an important recruiting centre for the Sigurimi, the secret police.

In 1997, Vlorė was the center of popular riots after the collapse of several fraudulent investment schemes that led to the downfall of the Sali Berisha administration, and almost precipitated the country into a civil war.