VIA EGNATIA AND CORRIDOR 8 HOW WAS USED AND ABUSED A ROAD. Prof. Assoc. Dr. Lida Fabian Miraj, 2012

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1 Prof. Assoc. Dr. Lida Fabian Miraj, 2012

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6 Corridor 8, one of the ten Trans-European Corridors, is intended to connect the two seas by starting at the Italian ports of Bari and Brindisi, passing through Durres and Tirana in Albania, the Macedonian and Bulgarian capitals and ending at the Black Sea ports of Burgas and Varna.

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15 The Mycenaean imports in central Albania as a keftiu cup, etc. are in some meaning the top of the iceberg, indicating contacts between those peoples and the use of Epidamnos as a principal gate of penetration into Balkans from very early periods such as the fifteen century BC.

16 Later on, during the period of Greek colonization, Epidamnos was the first Greek colony in the Adriatic Sea, mentioning older contacts and served for the penetration of Greek culture into Balkans.

17 The Temple of Apollo?, located 3 km in north of the city. It was decorated with painted Architectural Terracottas with both woman s and lion s heads BC

18 Corinthian Imports in Epidamnos Oinochoe painted with animals in the Orientalising Style VIIth century BC

19 Trebenishta is located on the road from Ohrid to Kichevo, is a village in the Debarca municipality of Macedonia. Archaeologically is documented that Romans followed the older traces of the road functioned since Classical period. In Trebeniste, near Ohrid are uncovered some Greek imports, dated in fifth century BC. See B. D. Filow & K. Schkorpil, Die archaische Nekropole von Trebenischte am Ochrida-See, (Berlin & Leipzig 1927).

20 Epidamnos, Dyrrachium or Durres was one of the most important entrances to the Balkans; from it ran the main road which connected the western provinces including Italy with Macedonia and the East, and based on its historical position Durres will be the hosting city.

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28 The Egnatia highway started in the Adriatic Eastern coast from Dyrrachium and Apollonia. These cities were both the Channel ports for Italy and the West; and the eastern end of the Via Egnatia was at the entry into Asia Minor. Gaius Octavius, known to history first as Octavian and then as Augustus Caesar Octavian, the first Roman Emperor, was a 18-year-old student at Apollonia when news comes in 44 BC that his uncle, Caesar, has been assassinated in Rome.

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32 The route from Dyrrachium aimed for Clodiana (Peqin) on the route from Apollonia. In fact the road from Apollonia to Dyrrachium was just such a coastal road. From Clodiana it crossed the mountains Candavii and arrived in Lychnidus (Ochrid), after that passed from Illyria and Macedonia to Pylon, touched Heraclea (Monastir), Edessa and Pella and arrived till Salonica. Polibio presented this city as terminal station of this highway, 267 miles long.

33 Warm springs and nymphaeum of Ad Quintum station of Via Egnatia, Bradashesh, Elbasan.

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36 Rrogozhina. Tomb 1 (4th-6th century AD) At the end of 1999 a new Rescue Archaeology Unit was set up at Rrogozhina, about 65 km south of Tirana. Two hypogeous tombs were found, damaged during the excavation by heavy machinery during gravel extraction for the construction of a new road called the 'Eighth Corridor. One of the tombs (the second one has been almost completely destroyed) is composed of a corridorshaped antechamber and a funerary chamber, divided by a single doorway in limestone with doorposts and threshold.

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38 Pier of the arched Roman bridge over Shkumbin at Qukes

39 The plan of Topcias bridge, Praschniker and Schober 1919

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41 Pile no. 4, with its foundation and platform

42 Via Egnatia: Skampae - Lychnidos with alternative road trough Vajtos

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45 Heraclea Lyncestis, the important stop of Via Egnatia, was strategically important town in Greek, Roman and Byzantine period.

46 The Via Egnatia?, Ancient Pella, the place where Philip II and Alexander the Great were born.

47 The 4th century AD Rotunda of Galerius, one of several Roman monuments in Salonica and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

48 The Golden Gate in Ottoman Thessaloniki (1867)

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50 Piri Re'is map of the coast of Vlora, 1512

51 Byzantine city wall with a gate Thessaloniki Dyrrachium

52 Column Durres Byzantine Round Forum Round Forum of Constantinople

53 The Charisius Gate in the Walls of Constantinople. The 5th-century city walls built by Emperor Theodosius II stretch for 6.5 km from Istanbul's Golden Horn to the Sea of Marmara.

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56 The map of Europe after the death of Robert Guiscard in 1085.

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64 I tried to present the general lines of the long history of Egnatia highway, not only to learn from the past, but to use it for the construction of the future of our past.

65 Via Egnatia is more than just a hiking trail: it aims to use the path for a broader purpose: to connect people. The road as a way to exchange people, goods and ideas. At the end of this presentation, I say that we have to see the road as a way of friendship and peace.

66 Thank You!