Porto Palermo

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View from the fortress over the bay

Porto Palermo ( Albanian  also  Gjiri i Panormës and Gjiri i Palermos , in German: Bay of Panorma / Palermo ) is a protected tectonic bay about six kilometers south of Himara on the coast of the Ionian Sea in southern Albania in the Qark Vlora . It is located on the winding SH 8 coastal road between Himara and Borsh , about 40 kilometers north of the island of Corfu . The bay is located on the so-called Albanian Riviera , the stretch of coast north of Saranda toAdriatic Sea , which is separated from the hinterland by the soaring Ceraunian Mountains .

The history of the place goes back to ancient times. Archaeological finds prove its importance in maritime trade, and it may be identical to the ancient port of Panormos .

Porto Palermo fortress

On the roof of the fortress

In the middle of the bay is a small peninsula whose connection to the mainland serves as a parking space for camping cars and as a beach.

On the peninsula is a well-preserved old fortress , the Kalaja e Porto Palermos ( German  Castle of Porto Palermo ). The complex with a triangular floor plan and three round corner bastions is similar to the triangular fortress in Butrint . It was once in a restricted military area and was still used by the Albanian military during the communist era . Today the fortress is accessible for a small fee and can be explored. The dark vaults lead to the roof, from where you have a good view of the bay.

The history of its origins and construction is not entirely clear. Mostly it is stated that the fortress was built at the beginning of the 19th century by Ali Pascha Tepelena , when he was striving for the independence of his Paschalik from Janina from the Ottoman Empire and had fortresses built and renovated throughout the south of what is now Albania. The triangular Venetian fortress on the Vivar Canal in Butrint, built around 1500, is said to have served as a model for Porto Palermo. Fortifications already existed before.

Perhaps there was already a Venetian fortification built around the same time as the one in Butrint before the bastionary system of fortifications. It is said that in 1662 the Turks modernized an existing fortress in Porto Palermo or built a new one in Porto Palermo. The facility was primarily used to control the local population in the greater Himara area, who had repeatedly revolted against the Turks.

Like the Suliots , the inhabitants of Himara fought against Ali Pasha Tepelena around 1800, who sometimes oppressed them in a very bloody way. Construction work on the fortress of Porto Palermo also took place during this period. As a result, it became quiet in the region. In 1803 Ali Pasha offered the port and fortress, which at that time only had four or five guns, to the British Royal Navy .

Submarine base and bunker

Entrance to the submarine bunker
Military base and bay from the north

At the north end of the bay of Porto Palermo, a former is submarine - base of the Albanian Navy clearly visible with a blown-up into the mountain, from the castle and the coastal road submarine pen . The complex cannot be seen from the sea. The base is practically unused today, but is still owned by the Navy, which has two small patrol boats stationed there, and is therefore a restricted military area.

Porto Palermo was an important base of the Albanian navy during the reign of Enver Hoxha . After the founding of the Warsaw Pact in 1955, of which Albania was a founding member, the Soviet Union stationed twelve whiskey-class submarines at the Pashaliman naval base at the southwest end of the Bay of Vlora . When the Soviet Union ended its military presence in Albania at the request of Hoxha in 1960/61, Hoxha appropriated four of the boats ( S-241 , S-242 , S-358 , S-360 ) that had sailed with Albanian crews. Albania then leaned against China , and with Chinese help, construction of the submarine tunnel in Porto Palermo began in the late 1960s. However, China soon withdrew from the joint venture, so that Albania completed the construction on its own at enormous costs. The tunnel is more than 650 meters long and 12 meters high and provided space for four 75-meter-long whiskey-class submarines . Inside were all the necessary supply systems.

The associated barracks are now largely empty and in a rather neglected condition. Even the fence is hardly in place. Nothing is known about the condition inside the submarine bunker.

Web links

Commons : Porto Palermo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L'Archeologo Subacqueo. Vol. XIV, No. 2–3, March-December 2008, pp. 2–8.
  2. ^ Porto Palermo Fortress. In: AlbanischeRiviera-derReisefuehrer.de. Retrieved October 31, 2011 .
  3. ↑ See e.g. B. Renate Ndarurinze: Discovering Albania: In the footsteps of Skanderbeg. Trescher, Berlin, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89794-125-0 , p. 243.
  4. ↑ Jano Koçi: Himara (Arkeologji - Histori - Kulturë - Himara sot) . Gent-Grafik, Tirana 2006, ISBN 99927-810-5-X .
  5. ^ Designation of the complex as Venetian in George P. Scriven: Some Highways of Albania and a forgotten Riviera . In: American Geographical Society (Ed.): Geographical Review . tape 11 , no. 2 , 1921, p. 198–206 (here p. 205) , JSTOR : 207325 .
  6. ^ Richard Hodges: Eternal Butrint: A UNESCO world heritage site in Albania . General Penne UK Ltd., London 2006, ISBN 1-905680-01-5 , pp. 191 .
  7. ↑ a b c d Peter Bartl: On the topography and history of the Himara landscape in southern Albania . In: Martin Camaj (Ed.): Münchner Zeitschrift für Balkankunde . tape 7-8 . Munich 1991, p. 311-354 .
  8. ↑ JW Baggally: Ali Pasha and Great Britain . Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1938, p. 86 .
  9. ↑ in.reuters.com
  10. ↑ inbsite.com ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / inbsite.com
  11. ^ Lorenz M. Lüthi: The Sino-Soviet split: Cold War in the communist world. Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-13590-8 , p. 203.
  12. ↑ Cold War era Albanian bunkers ( Memento from February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ A report prepared in 2007 for the Albanian government and the World Bank speaks of a length of 800 meters: Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Telecommunication, Albania: Southern Coastal Development Plan - Strategic Environmental Assessment; Final report. (PDF; 530 kB) COWI, Copenhagen, December 2007, p. 17.

Coordinates: 40 ° 3 ′ 36 ″  N , 19 ° 47 ′ 6 ″  E