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Roots Earth in Durrës: audio stories about 23 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 23 places in Durrës, Albania, in Europe. The Durrës stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Durrës, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 23 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates and their local names. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: durres.md

The 23 places in Durrës with audio stories

In the order the app shows them, with the local name after the English one where the catalogue carries one.

  1. The Amphitheatre of Durrës (Amfiteatri i Durrësit)
  2. Durrës Castle (Kalaja e Durrësit)
  3. Venetian Tower (Kulla Venedikase)
  4. Byzantine Forum (Forumi Bizantin)
  5. Roman Baths (Termat Romake)
  6. Durrës Archaeological Museum (Muzeu Arkeologjik i Durrësit)
  7. Fatih Mosque (Xhamia Fatih)
  8. Great Mosque of Durrës (Xhamia e Madhe e Durrësit)
  9. Saint Lucia Co-Cathedral (Bashkëkatedralja Shën Lucia)
  10. Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Paul and Saint Astius (Katedralja Ortodokse Shën Pal e Shën Asti)
  11. Aleksandër Moisiu House-Museum (Shtëpia-Muze Aleksandër Moisiu)
  12. Liria Square (Sheshi Liria)
  13. Royal Villa (Vila Mbretërore)
  14. Vollga Promenade (Shëtitorja Vollga)
  15. Port of Durrës (Porti i Durrësit)
  16. Durrës Bazaar (Pazari i Durrësit)
  17. Durrës Beach (Plazhi i Durrësit)
  18. Basilica of Saint Michael (Arapaj); locally Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit (Arapaj)
  19. Roman Villa with Mosaics (Durrës); locally Vila Romake me Mozaikë (Durrës)
  20. Chapel of Saint Astius (Amphitheatre); locally Kapela e Shën Astit (Amfiteatri)
  21. Gate Walls (ancient port); locally Muret e Portës (porti antik)
  22. Early Christian Basilica of Gjuricaj (Bazilika Paleokristiane e Gjuricajt)
  23. Hadrian's Aqueduct (Durrës); locally Akuedukti i Hadrianit (Durrës)

Is there an audio guide for The Amphitheatre of Durrës?

Yes. The Amphitheatre of Durrës has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 23 Durrës places in the app, at 41.312222, 19.445. Every one of the other 22 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Durrës

Open Roots Earth and choose Durrës. The city has its own map of places with all 23 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 23 places in Durrës, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 23 places in Durrës, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. The Amphitheatre of Durrës

Local name
Amfiteatri i Durrësit
Coordinates
41.312222, 19.445
In one line
The largest Roman amphitheater in the Balkans, built in the 2nd century in the ancient city of Dyrrachium, buried for centuries beneath a residential quarter, where a small Christian chapel with frescoes and mosaics was later carved into the pagan arena.

2. Durrës Castle

Local name
Kalaja e Durrësit
Coordinates
41.3103, 19.446214
In one line
The city walls, Byzantine in origin, strengthened under the emperors Anastasius and Justinian and later rebuilt by the Venetians and Ottomans, bear witness to phase upon phase of military masonry along the same defensive line, today fragments emerging among cafes and gateways blocked with stone.

3. Venetian Tower

Local name
Kulla Venedikase
Coordinates
41.309682, 19.446855
In one line
A round stone tower that guarded the port of Durrës, raised by the Venetians in the 15th century over an older Byzantine tower, where masonry from different ages is layered over the same foundation.

4. Byzantine Forum

Local name
Forumi Bizantin
Coordinates
41.315162, 19.446172
In one line
A circular square about 40 meters across, surrounded by Corinthian columns and sunk several meters below the level of today's street, once read as a Roman market and now more often understood as the civic forum of Byzantine Dyrrachium, although the sequence of construction remains a matter of debate.

5. Roman Baths

Local name
Termat Romake
Coordinates
41.314719, 19.446453
In one line
The Roman Baths of Durrës are the remains of a public bath from the imperial period, discovered by chance below today's street level during work on the Palace of Culture, where the pillars of the underground heating system are still preserved.

6. Durrës Archaeological Museum

Local name
Muzeu Arkeologjik i Durrësit
Coordinates
41.311546, 19.440241
In one line
Albania's largest archaeological museum, set beside the sea in a modern building, where sculptures, inscriptions, mosaics, amphorae, and grave goods gather under one roof the Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine layers of Epidamnos-Dyrrachium.

7. Fatih Mosque

Local name
Xhamia Fatih
Coordinates
41.311111, 19.445833
In one line
Raised shortly after the Ottoman conquest and named for Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, this small mosque stands over the traces of an earlier Christian basilica, with reused Byzantine stones still visible in its walls.

8. Great Mosque of Durrës

Local name
Xhamia e Madhe e Durrësit
Coordinates
41.3132, 19.4455
In one line
Raised under King Ahmet Zog over the traces of an older Ottoman mosque in 1931, the Great Mosque of Durrës was once the largest in Albania, a witness to the ban on religion, the earthquake, and its reopening.

9. Saint Lucia Co-Cathedral

Local name
Bashkëkatedralja Shën Lucia
Coordinates
41.312127, 19.447292
In one line
The Catholic seat of Durrës, built in the 20th century over earlier structures and declared a co-cathedral when the center of the archdiocese moved to Tirana, in a city where the mosque, the Orthodox church, and the Catholic church share the same streets.

10. Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Paul and Saint Astius

Local name
Katedralja Ortodokse Shën Pal e Shën Asti
Coordinates
41.310663, 19.448798
In one line
The contemporary Orthodox Cathedral of Durrës, consecrated in 2009, bears the names of the apostle Paul and of Saint Astius, the ancient martyr of Dyrrachium, and was raised where the communist regime had demolished earlier places of worship.

11. Aleksandër Moisiu House-Museum

Local name
Shtëpia-Muze Aleksandër Moisiu
Coordinates
41.314431, 19.446371
In one line
A 19th-century, two-story urban house, the home where the actor Aleksander Moisiu spent his childhood, later turned into an ethnographic museum with costumes, textiles, and copper vessels, badly damaged by the 2019 earthquake and now under restoration.

12. Liria Square

Local name
Sheshi Liria
Coordinates
41.31334, 19.44606
In one line
The central square of Durrës, a modern Albanian agora of the 20th century with palms, the City Hall, and the "Aleksander Moisiu" Theater, playing for today's city the same gathering role once held by the forum of ancient Dyrrachium.

13. Royal Villa

Local name
Vila Mbretërore
Coordinates
41.3147, 19.4387
In one line
The summer residence of King Zog I, completed in 1937 on the hill overlooking the Bay of Durrës, a calm neoclassical facade that survived the monarchy, exile, and half a century of state uses.

14. Vollga Promenade

Local name
Shëtitorja Vollga
Coordinates
41.309781, 19.443574
In one line
The seaside promenade of Durrës, about 1. 5 kilometers of palms, squares, and cafes, where the ancient port city, once Epidamnos and later Dyrrachium, today turns its face toward the sea and toward the evening ritual.

15. Port of Durrës

Local name
Porti i Durrësit
Coordinates
41.309873, 19.449997
In one line
Albania's main port, where fishing boats, ferries to Italy, and container ships share the same bay from which ancient Dyrrachium was linked with the Adriatic, and where the Via Egnatia begins toward the east.

16. Durrës Bazaar

Local name
Pazari i Durrësit
Coordinates
41.3128, 19.449
In one line
The lively bazaar of Durrës, with its covered produce pavilion and alleys where stalls spill onto the sidewalk, continues in the old city a trading tradition that flows from the Roman macellum of Dyrrachium and from the medieval bazaars that followed it.

17. Durrës Beach

Local name
Plazhi i Durrësit
Coordinates
41.306551, 19.488321
In one line
The line of sand stretching below the city, where from the same shore the eye reads in a single glance the castle hill, the minarets, the churches, and the modern towers, about 2,500 years of history gathered into one landscape.

18. Basilica of Saint Michael (Arapaj)

Local name
Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit (Arapaj)
Coordinates
41.2722, 19.4858
In one line
The remains of an early Christian basilica of the 5th and 6th centuries in Arapaj, a few kilometers south of Durrës, where the floors carry monograms from the time of Emperor Anastasius and a large rural mosaic lies covered again today, hidden beneath the earth that protects it.

19. Roman Villa with Mosaics (Durrës)

Local name
Vila Romake me Mozaikë (Durrës)
Coordinates
41.3097, 19.4469
In one line
On the hill of Saint George, near the amphitheater in the heart of Durrës, sleeps a wealthy Roman villa, mosaic floors, frescoes, baths, and an indoor pool, emerging layer by layer under an excavation that is still unfinished.

20. Chapel of Saint Astius (Amphitheatre)

Local name
Kapela e Shën Astit (Amfiteatri)
Coordinates
41.3083, 19.4458
In one line
Inside a gallery of the Roman Amphitheater of Durrës, a small early Christian chapel preserves one of the most important wall mosaics of late antiquity in Albania, figures of saints with halos on a gold background, set where the noise of the arena was once heard.

21. Gate Walls (ancient port)

Local name
Muret e Portës (porti antik)
Coordinates
41.3125, 19.444
In one line
Near the shore of the ancient port, where the Via Egnatia began, a stretch of Roman and Byzantine defensive wall with a tower survives, about 62 meters of stone on a western line, fragile testimony to a city that time is still wearing away.

22. Early Christian Basilica of Gjuricaj

Local name
Bazilika Paleokristiane e Gjuricajt
Coordinates
41.526, 19.617
In one line
An early Christian basilica of the 5th to 6th century, nearly 47 meters long, discovered in the village of Gjuricaj a few kilometers from Durrës, where wall traces and floor remains testify to an early Byzantine church forgotten among the fields.

23. Hadrian's Aqueduct (Durrës)

Local name
Akuedukti i Hadrianit (Durrës)
Coordinates
41.318, 19.455
In one line
Fragments of arches and stone channels surviving near modern Durrës, the remains of an aqueduct about 15 kilometers long, raised under Emperor Hadrian to bring water to ancient Dyrrachium, today partly submerged in the city's construction.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app.