Butrint National Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Butrint National Park, in Albania, was created in March, 2000. It protects 29 square kilometers of historical landscape, archaeology and environment.

The Butrint National Park is a Unesco World Heritage Site in southern Albania. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in the country with an archaeological sequence that runs from the Bronze Age to the 19th century. A number of major monuments are still extant, the city walls, late-antique baptistery, Great basilica, theatre and Venetian castles. In addition to the archaeological remains the site is robed in natural woodland with a complex ecosystem that depends on the nearby presence of the feshwater Lake Butrint and Vivari Channel which drains the Lake into the Ionian Sea. It is this combination of historic monuments and natural environment that makes Butrint such a unique place, a 'landscape with monuments' as beloved of the Grand Tourists of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Park was created as a collaboration between the Albanian Ministry of Culture under the direction of Edi Rama the Albanian Minister of Culture between 2002 and 2004 and UNESCO, ICROM and ICOMOS. The underlying intention was to create a sustainable cultural heritage resource involving local communities and national institutions to serve as a model for other parks around Albania. Under the leadership of Auron Tare the First Director and one of the Founders of the Park it has become a major centre of training with schools in archaeological techniques being run in a number of collaborative programmes. There is an active programme of events in the theatre, concerts and performances, and outreach programmes for local schools and colleges. Some 55 000 tourists visited in 2005.