Buthrotum
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Buthrotum
(byo͞othrō`təm), city of ancient EpirusEpirus, ancient country of Greece, on the Ionian Sea and W of Macedon and Thessaly, a region now occupied by NW Greece and S Albania. At the time of Homer, Epirus was known as the home of the oracle of Dodona.
..... Click the link for more information. , in S Albania, 8 mi (12.9 km) S of Sarandë, opposite N end of the island of KérkiraKérkira
or Corfu
, Lat. Corcyra, island (1991 pop. 104,781), 229 sq mi (593 sq km), NW Greece, in the Ionian Sea, the second largest of the Ionian Islands, separated by a narrow channel from the Albanian and Greek coasts.
..... Click the link for more information. (Corfu) on an inland lagoon off the Corfu Straits. Dating probably from the 8th cent. B.C. it was the site of a shrine of AsclepiusAsclepius
, Lat. Aesculapius , legendary Greek physician; son of Apollo and Coronis. His first teacher was the wise centaur Chiron. When he became so skillful in healing that he could revive the dead, Zeus killed him.
..... Click the link for more information. and a fortress covering approaches to Kérkira. The city became one of the leading centers of Epirus and was located, under Roman rule, on a main road. It declined in the late 6th cent. A.D., but revived beginning in the late 11th cent. as fortress town under the Byzantines, Crusaders, and Venetians, finally passing to Ottoman rule (1798–1912). On its site is the modern Albanian village of Butrint (bo͞o-trēnt`), where Italian excavations in the 1930s uncovered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian remains of the ancient city, including a theater (4th cent. B.C.), a baptistery (4th cent. A.D.), Roman baths, Byzantine churches, and Venetian castle (now a museum). The ancient ruins and surrounding area became a national park in 2000.
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.