Durrës

Durrës is Albania’s second-largest city and the administrative center of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. One of the country’s oldest continuously inhabited places, it has about 2,500 years of recorded history. The city sits on a flat coastal plain on the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast, between the mouths of the Erzen and Ishëm rivers, at the southeastern corner of the Adriatic Sea. Its climate is shaped by a seasonal Mediterranean pattern.

Antiquity

Founded around the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra, working with the local Illyrian Taulantii tribe, the city was originally called Epidamnos. It was also known as Dyrrachium. Durrës grew in importance as part of the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire. The Via Egnatia, a major Roman road, began here and ran east across the Balkan Peninsula to Constantinople.

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, control of Durrës was fought over by Bulgarians, Venetians, local Albanian noble families, and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans won out, ruling the city for over 400 years, from 1501 until 1912. After Albania declared independence, Durrës briefly served as the capital of the Principality of Albania. Later, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy between the world wars and occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Under the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, the city saw major growth in population and economic activity. Today, Durrës’s leading economic role in Albania comes from its transport links, concentration of economic institutions, and industrial tradition. The Port of Durrës, one of the largest on the Adriatic, connects the city to neighboring countries. Its most famous attraction is the Amphitheatre of Durrës, which once held 20,000 people and is the largest amphitheater in the Balkan Peninsula.

Name

It is on Albania’s tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status. In ancient times, the city was called Epidamnos (Greek) and Epidamnus (Latin), as well as Dyrrhachion (Greek) and Dyrrhachium (Latin). Epidamnos is the older name, likely of Illyrian origin—linguist Hans Krahe first proposed this, and it appears in works by Thucydides, Aristotle, and Polybius. Eqrem Çabej suggested it might be related to the Proto-Albanian word dami (meaning cub or young bull), which became dem in modern Albanian.

Although Greek authors often used Epidamnos/Epidamnus, the city’s coins only used abbreviations for Dyrrhachion/Dyrrhachium. After the Roman Republic took control following the Illyrian Wars in 229 BC, Dyrrachium became the city’s sole name. The Latin spelling kept the Doric Greek form Dyrrhachion, pronounced as Durrakhion. This name change is noted in classical literature: Livy wrote that during the Illyrian Wars, the city was called Epidamnus, not Dyrrachium.

Pomponius Mela later said the Romans changed the name because Epidamnos reminded them of the Latin word for evil and bad luck; Pliny the Elder repeated this. However, the Romans may have simply adopted a name already more common among the city’s residents. The name Dyrrhachion is usually explained as a Greek compound from dys (bad) and rhachia (rocky shore, flood, roaring waves)—an idea hinted at by Cassius Dio, who said it referred to the difficult rocky coastline, while other Roman writers linked it to a hero named Dyrrachius. Appian recorded a myth that a local barbarian king, Epidamnus, named the city, and his grandson Dyrrachius built a port nearby called Dyrrachium.

Stephanus of Byzantium repeated this story. It is unclear whether the two names originally referred to different areas or the same territory, but classical sources suggest they likely referred to neighboring areas. Over time, Epidamnus fell out of use, and Dyrrachium became the only name. Archaeological work shows that two separate settlements existed at the time of the city’s founding: a hill site with no sea access (possibly the original Epidamnos) and a port area to its south where the colony was founded (matching the description of Dyrrhachion).

This division persisted into the 19th century, when Durrës proper was the port district and the hill north of it was a separate settlement called Stani (Kodra e Stanit). The modern Albanian name Durrës and the Italian Durazzo come from Dyrrachium/Dyrrachion. An intermediate form, Dyrratio, appears in early centuries AD, with a palatalized -tio ending likely reflecting a local pronunciation change. The preservation of the old Doric u sound indicates the modern name comes from populations who used that pronunciation.