Buthrotum

Buthrotum 

(present-day Butrint or Butrinti), a city on Lake Butrint, in Epirus (Albania). Founded by settlers from Corinth and Corfu at the turn of the sixth century B.C.; destroyed by the Visigoths in about A.D. 551. The city completely ceased to exist after the Turkish conquest (15th century). The ruins were partially excavated in 1928-35 by the Italian L. Ugolini. The walls that surrounded the acropolis in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., as well as gates (including the Lion Gates, which have a lion worked in relief on their architrave), were excavated. In the lower city there is a temple of Aesculapius, where a statue of the god still stands, and a theater dating from the third century B.C. , with 19 rows of seats and with marble statues (including the “Goddess of Butrinti,” sculpted by a member of the school of Praxiteles). Remains of homes and public buildings, showing occasional traces of murals, have also been found. There is a baptistry with a mosaic floor dating from the seventh century, a Venetian fortress dating from the 14th century, and other structures. Part of the city is an open-air museum.

REFERENCES

Ugolini, L. M. Albania antica: L’acropolidiButrinto. Rome, 1937.
Adhami, S. Monumente të cultures né Shqipëri. Tirana, 1958.