Placed neatly on its own eponymous plain close to the tristate border between Greece, the FYROM and Albania, Korce is all culture and history. It was first settled by the ancient Illyrians, who traded pots and ceramics with the great city-states of Attica and the Peloponnese, one reason that the collections in the city’s National Archaeological Museum are so imbued with Hellenic masterworks! Later came the Ottomans, who brought a dash of the east along with the spiked minarets of the Ilias Mirahori Mosque, and cobbled roadways trodden by Ali Pasha. Today, the town displays its cultural past at the Medieval Art Museum, replete with weave work and stone objects from the Middle Ages, and the Andon Zako Çajupi Theatre, one of the more prolific modern performing arts stages in the country. Additionally, strolling by the city’s Old Bazaar and tight-knit lanes dotted with low-rise stone homes and Byzantine-style churches reveal a wonderful world of Albanian Orthodoxy and history. Korce tour guides also recommend downing a pint at the town’s legendary brewery, the predictably named Korca Brewery accompanied with a traditional meal at the village of Voskopoja nearby.