Sarandë: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox Albanian settlement

| name = Sarandë

| type = m

| flag =

| website = {{URL|https://bashkiasarande.gov.al//|Bashkia Sarande}}

}}

 

In antiquity the city was known as Onchesmus or Onchesmos and was a port-town of Chaonia in ancient Epirus. It owes its modern name to the nearby [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[Forty Saints Monastery| monastery of the Forty Saints]] (Agioi Saranda) by which it became known from the high middle ages. Sarandë today is known for its deep blue waters of the [[Mediterranean]]. Near Sarandë are the remains of the ancient city of [[Butrint]], a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Sites|World Heritage site]]. In recent years, Sarandë has seen a steady increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ship. Visitors are attracted by the natural environment of Sarandë and its archaeological sites. Sarandë is inhabited by a majority of ethnic Albanians, and also has a minority Greek community and as such it has been considered one of the two centers of the [[Greeks in Albania|Greek minority in Albania]].<ref name="da.mod.uk">[http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/document-listings/balkan/G97/view?searchterm=greek%20minority%20in%20Albania Pettifer, James. ''The Greek Minority in Albania – In the Aftermath of Communism.'' Conflict Studies Research Center, July 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090620111500/http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/document-listings/balkan/G97/view?searchterm=greek%20minority%20in%20Albania |date=20 June 2009 }} {{ISBN|1-903584-35-3}} – p. 11 "In 1991, Greek shops were attacked in the coastal town of Saranda, home to a large minority population, and inter-ethnic relations throughout Albania worsened" p. 12 "The concentration of ethnic Greeks in and around centres of Hellenism such as Saranda and Gjirokastra could guarantee their election there, but nowhere else in the country is success for an Omonia-based candidate possible."</ref><ref name= Kallivretakis/>