Vlore

Vlore is a city in Albania. It is also the third largest city in Albania.

History
Due to its strategic position on the Adriatic Sea, especially to the Bay of Vlorë, which forms a natural harbor, Vlorë was a significant place in classical antiquity for the trade by many peoples. Vlorë is considered as one of the oldest cities in Albania and the region. The city was founded by the ancient Greeks in the 6th century BC and named Aulōn. It is also one of several colonies on the Illyriancoast,[a] mentioned for the first time by Ptolemy (Geographia III xii, 2). Other geographical documents, such as the Tabula Peutingeriana and Hierocles' Synecdemus, also mention it. The city was an important port of the Roman Empire, when it was part of Epirus Nova.[6][7]

Aulon (Avlona) became an episcopal see in the 5th century. Among the known bishops are Nazarius in 458 and Soter in 553 (Daniele Farlati, Illyricum sacrum, VII, 397–401). The diocese at that time belonged to the papal Pentarchy. In 733, it was annexed with the eastern Illyricum, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and yet it is not mentioned in any Notitiae Episcopatuum of that Church. The bishopric had probably been suppressed for though the Bulgarians had been in possession of this country for some time, Avlona is not mentioned in the "Notitiae episcopatuum" of the Bulgarian Patriarchate of Achrida.

During the Roman period, a Latin see was established and Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, I, 124) mentions several of its bishops.[6] Several of the Latin bishops mentioned by Michel Le Quien (Oriens christianus, III, 855-8), and whom Konrad Eubel mentions under the See of Valanea in Syria, belong either to Aulon in Greece (on Euboea; now Salona) or to this Aulon in Albania (Vlorë),[6]

Aulon, no longer being a residential bishopric, is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, a suffragan bishop of Durrës, being distinguished from a Greek titular see called Aulon by the use for it of the adjective Aulonitanus, while the adjective regarding the Aulon in Euboea (Ionian Greece) is Aulonensis.[8] The diocese was nominally restored as Latin titular bishopric Aulon, or Valona in Curiate Italian; from 1925 it was (als) named Aulona in Latin and/or Italian, since 1933 it's only Aulon in Latin, Aulona in Italian. It was a bishopric from the fifth century until the Bulgarian rule.

The city played a significant role in the conflicts during the 11th and 12th centuries between the Latin Norman Kingdom of Sicily, which established a Latin bishopric, and the Byzantine Empire.

After it was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1417, it became a sanjak centre in Rumelia Eyalet as Avlonya; and after coming under Venetian possession in 1690, the city was restored to the Turks in 1691, becoming a kaza of the Sanjak of Avlona in the vilayet (province) of Janina. The city had about 10,000 inhabitants; there was a Catholic parish, which belonged to the Archdiocese of Durrës. In the 16th century, it was an important center for Sephardi Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal. During the early period of Ottoman rule, Vlorë became an international port centered on a high volume of trade between western Europe and the Ottoman state.[9] In 1851 it suffered severely from an earthquake.[citation needed]

In November 28, 1912, Ismail Qemali declared the Albanian National Awakening in Vlorë, during the First Balkan War. The city became Albania's first capital following its independence, but was invaded by Italy in 1914, during the World War I. The city remained occupied by Italian forces until 1920, in which an Albanian rebellion forced the Italians out of Albania. Italy again invaded Vlorë in 1939. The city was under Italian occupation until Italy surrendered to the allies in 1943, following which Nazi Germany occupied the city until 1944. The city was liberated in 1944 by communist forces under Enver Hoxha.

During the World War II, Sazan Island became the site of a German and Italian submarine base and naval installations; these were heavily bombed by the Allies.

After World War II and the beginning the communist regime, the port was leased to the Soviet Union as a submarine base, and played an important part in the conflict between Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha and Nikita Khrushchev in 1960 to 1961, as the Soviet Union had made considerable investments in the naval facilities at nearby Pasha Liman Base and objected strongly to the loss of them as a consequence of Albania denouncing the USSR as 'revisionist' and taking the Chinese side in the split in the world communist movement. The Soviet Union threatened to occupy Vlora with Soviet troops in April 1961, and cut off all Soviet economic, military and technical aid to Albania. The threat was not carried out, as a result of the simultaneous development of the Cuban missiles crisis, but Hoxha realized how vulnerable Albania was, and, after the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he built the hundreds of thousands of concrete bunkers that still litter the entire Albanian landscape. Under Hoxha, Vlorë was an important recruiting centre for the Sigurimi, the secret police.

In 1997, Vlorë was the center of the Albanian civil war of 1997 after the collapse of several fraudulent investment schemes that led to the downfall of the Sali Berisha administration.

Topography
Vlorë is located in southern Albania and the administrative center of the homonymous municipality seat of Vlorë County. It is situated on the Bay of Vlorë, an inlet on the Adriatic Sea, almost surrounded by the Ceraunian Mountains. The Port of Vlorë is closer in proximity than any other to the port of Bari, Apulia in southeastern Italy, and is just 70 nautical miles (130 km) from Salento's coasts. Sazan Island is nearby, strategically located at the entrance to the Bay of Vlorë.

The town is surrounded by gardens and olive groves. Valonia oak (Quercus macrolepis), the mass name for acorn cups obtained in the neighboring oak forests and (because of its chemical derivatives) used by tanners, derives its name from Valona, the ancient name of Vlorë.

A new motorway is being constructed linking the city with Fier and Albania as a whole. One of the most panoramic routes of the Albanian Riviera starts to the south of town stretching up to Sarandë in southernmost Albania.

Climate
Vlorë has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) with cool wet winters and hot, dry summers with temperatures exceeding 30 °C (86 °F) in July and August.