# Roots Earth in Durrës: audio stories about 23 places Canonical: https://rootsearth.com/cities/durres Published: 16 September 2026 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. ## 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](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app). ## More from Roots Earth - [Europe in the Roots Earth catalogue](https://rootsearth.com/cities#europe): every city in Europe with its number of places and its languages. - [What Roots Earth is](https://rootsearth.com/app): the app in one page, how it works and what is in it. - [Questions travellers ask](https://rootsearth.com/faq): the cities, the languages, the account, listening without a connection. - [The 7 languages](https://rootsearth.com/languages): the seven languages with their codes and how many cities each one covers. - [Tirana](https://rootsearth.com/cities/tirana): 39 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Berat](https://rootsearth.com/cities/berat): 15 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Gjirokastra](https://rootsearth.com/cities/gjirokastra): 15 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Kruja](https://rootsearth.com/cities/kruja): 10 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Shkodra](https://rootsearth.com/cities/shkodra): 12 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Korça](https://rootsearth.com/cities/korca): 15 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Pogradec](https://rootsearth.com/cities/pogradec): 15 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Saranda](https://rootsearth.com/cities/saranda): 33 places in Albania with audio stories. - [Vlora](https://rootsearth.com/cities/vlora): 34 places in Albania with audio stories. 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