Ardenica and Apollonia Day Trip from Durres

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Highlights

Explore Apollonia, founded in 588 BC and taken by Aristotle as a model in his analysis of oligarchy

Visit the Shen Meri Monastery and Church, and the Ardenica Abbey

Berat, Durres

religious, cultural, historical

Private Tour

1 Day

Easy

English

Description

In the morning, we depart for the ancient city of Apollonia, one of the most important ancient centres in Roman times, on the famous Via Egnatia. The Roman Emperor Augustus Octavian himself studied there, a testimony to the development of this city in general and its cultural importance. We can visit the ruins, including the library and a nearby Monastery of the 14th century turned into an archaeological museum where objects from the excavations are displayed. After the visits to Apollonia, we will visit the Monastery of Ardenica. Ardenica Abbey (church) was in the Middle age argued, with a stone in the entrance dating back to 1417. The first building belonged at the beginning of the XVIII century. Today inside the church, you can admire pictures of 1743-1745 years by Albanian artists such as Konstandin and Athanos Zografi and Konstandin Shpataraku. It is also said that our national Hero Gjergj Kastrioti Scanderbeu married at the chapel of this monastery.

Itinerary

Ardenica and Apollonia Day Trip

Apollonia Archaeological Park, Pojan Albania:
A Greek colony with a robust Illyrian component, Apollonia is a magical place. Its special atmosphere is created by a combination of unique monuments, archaeology and landscape, difficult to find anywhere in the Mediterranean. The ancient city of Apollonia is one of the country's best-known and most influential classical cities. The site is an important destination for cultural tourism, a gastronomic and landscape attraction, and should be considered a potential resource to enhance the local economy.
Ardenica Monastery, Ardenice, Albania:
This rarely visited yet magnificent little monastery is remotely located on a hilltop between the towns of Lushjë and Fier. With your transport, the fantastic interiors – particularly the iconostasis of saints and sinners, dragons and angels – of the 18th-century Church of St Mary is worth seeing. Equally impressive is the golden pulpit, which positively heaves with adornments, not to mention the frescoes of the Zografi brothers that can be seen on display upstairs.

What's Included

Entrance ticket to Apollonia/Ardenica

Pick up inside the city of Durres

What's Excluded

Personal expenses

Food/drinks

Know Before You Go

Because of its distinct and separate Illyrian and Greek communities, it was a vital stronghold in Caesar's civil war with Pompey and important in early Christian history, with its bishop attending the councils of Ephesus and Chlalkis in 431 and 451 AD.