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Durrësi, second largest and port city of Albania

Durrësi, (or Durrës when in a sentence with a preposition as in "to", "in" or "from Durrësi") on the Adriatic Sea, is the second largest city of Albania and main harbour with a population of around 115,000. It used to be known by its Italian name of Durazzo but its Albanian name of Durrësi or Durrës is now used internationally.

Durrësi is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It was founded as Epidamnos in 627 BC by Greek colonists and conquered by the Illyrians under their King Glaukias around 300 years later. In 229 BC however, it was absorbed by the Roman Empire, was remaned Dyrrachium and became a major military base. It became the capital of the Roman province of Epirus Nova in the 4th Century CE. Major Roman ruins are still visible, like an amphitheatre, a basilica and massive defensive walls. Its subsequent history is one of repeated sieges and occupations by Ostrogoths, Bulgarians, Byzantines and Venetians and in 1501 fell to the Ottoman Empire. It was in serious decline and in the mid 19th century had only about 1000 inhabitants.

Durrësi was an active city in "Rilindja", the Albanian national liberation movement in the periods 1878-1881 and 1910-1912. Ismail Qemali raised the Albanian flag on November 26, 1912 but the city was captured by the Serbs three days later during the First Balkan War. On 7 March 1913 it became the capital under the brief rule of Prince William of Wied and again between 1918 and March 1920. It became a major seaport under the rule of King Zog, when a modern harbour being constructed in 1927. He also built a palace here. Durrësi was renamed Durazzo again when it and the rest of Albania were annexed by Italy in 1939: the Italians landed here on 7 April 1939. The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during the war and the retreating Germans blew up the port installations in 1944. Under the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha the city was rebuilt and heavy industry was established here.

When Communist rule collapsed in 1990, Durrësi became the focus of mass emigrations from Albania with ships hijacked and sailed at gunpoint to Italy. The Italians then intervened militarily and put the port area under its control. In 1997, when Albania slid into anarchy following the collapse of a massive pyramid scheme which devastated the national economy, an Italian-led peacekeeping force was deployed to Durrësi and other Albanian cities to restore order, and during the Kosovo War in 1999 the city hosted some 110,000 refugees fleeing fighting in Kosovo and became a base of operations for much of the refugee response by aid agencies in Albania. Durrësi now has daily ferries to Bari, Italy, it has important cultural buildings, a railway line to Tirana, Roman ruins and numerous concrete bunkers from the time the paranoid Communist regime feared foreign attack from either the West or the Warsaw Pact which never came.

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