Amphitheater of Durrës

This old arena is in Durrës, a city by the sea in Albania.

Long ago, thousands of people sat on its seats to watch public events.

The Amphitheater of Durrës stands in the center of the coastal city of Durrës, just a few meters from the Adriatic Sea. Albania's National Tourism Agency calls it one of the most important and largest monuments of ancient times in Albania and the Balkan region.

Its seats could hold 15,000 to 20,000 spectators. In Roman times the city was known as Epidamnos or Dyrrachium.

Albania's 1996 submission to UNESCO's Tentative List calls it the largest and most important amphitheater of the Balkans and the only one of its kind discovered in Albania. Europa Nostra, a European heritage organization, calls it one of the most remarkable heritage sites in Albania and the whole Balkan region.

The seating held 15,000 to 20,000 spectators, which the tourism agency calls a significant part of the ancient city's population. The city was then known as Epidamnos or Dyrrachium.

Long after the amphitheater stopped being used, people built a chapel inside one of its passages.

Its walls were decorated with mosaics, pictures made of small pieces.

Long after the amphitheater stopped being used, a chapel was built inside one of its galleries, the long covered passages of the building. Albania's submission to UNESCO dates it to the 10th century and says its walls were decorated with mosaic.

The tourism agency says chapels were built there in later periods, and remains of their mosaics and frescoes are still kept.

The Tentative List text records a Byzantine chapel built in the 10th century in one of the galleries, its walls decorated with mosaic. The National Tourism Agency speaks of early Christian chapels built on the site in later periods, which preserve remains of mosaics and frescoes, and calls this a sign of how religious and public uses mixed at the site over time.

Albania's Institute of Cultural Monuments submitted the amphitheater to the Tentative List in 1996 under criterion (iv).

In this photo, rows of old stone seats climb up a slope.

Houses stand at the top, and an archway leads into the old building.

This photo was taken on 4 September 2009. It shows the worn stone seating climbing a slope, with two arched openings, a modern roof over part of the ruins, flat grassy ground and houses along the top.

Because it was found so late, the city had grown over it. In 2015 Albania's Ministry of Culture began a project to restore it, and by February 2016 three houses inside the site had been removed. More houses were to be removed next, so the whole arena could be uncovered.

The photograph (Marcin Konsek, own work, 4 September 2009) looks across the worn tiers of the seating bowl to two brick-lined archways, a modern protective roof, flat grassy ground and the houses that line the top of the slope.

Europa Nostra says the late discovery left the monument exposed to chaotic urban planning that affected its structure. It named the site one of Europe's 7 Most Endangered in 2013. The Ministry of Culture launched a rehabilitation project in May 2015; its first phase, finished in February 2016, removed three houses inside the site, and a second phase was planned to remove ten houses on the east side and uncover the whole arena. The tourism agency calls it one of Albania's most visited archaeological attractions.