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Roots Earth in Saranda: audio stories about 33 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 33 places in Saranda, Albania, in Europe. The Saranda stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Saranda, 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 33 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: saranda.md

The 33 places in Saranda with audio stories

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

  1. Saranda Promenade (Shëtitorja e Sarandës)
  2. Lëkurësi Castle (Kalaja e Lëkurësit)
  3. Onchesmos, The Ancient City (Onhezmi, Qyteti Antik)
  4. Saranda Old Town (Qyteti i Vjetër i Sarandës)
  5. Saranda Port (Porti i Sarandës)
  6. Museum of Tradition (Muzeu i Traditës)
  7. Saranda Archaeological Museum (Muzeu Arkeologjik i Sarandës)
  8. Church of Saint Charalambos (Kisha e Shën Harallambit)
  9. Saranda Synagogue-Basilica (Sinagoga-Bazilika e Sarandës)
  10. Saranda Mosque (Xhamia e Sarandës)
  11. Monastery of the Forty Saints (Manastiri i Dyzet Shenjtorëve)
  12. Saranda Beach (Plazhi i Sarandës)
  13. Greco-Roman Theater (Butrint); locally Teatri grek-romak (Butrint)
  14. Sanctuary of Asclepius (Butrint); locally Shenjtërorja e Asklepit (Butrint)
  15. Lion Gate (Butrint); locally Porta e Luanit (Butrint)
  16. Lake Gate (Butrint); locally Porta e Liqenit (Butrint)
  17. Roman Forum and Nymphaeum (Butrint); locally Forumi & Nimfeu Romak (Butrint)
  18. Roman Baths (Butrint); locally Termat romake (Butrint)
  19. Well of Junia Rufina (Butrint); locally Pusi i Junia Rufinës (Butrint)
  20. Triconch Palace (Butrint); locally Pallati Trikonç (Butrint)
  21. Baptistery with Mosaics (Butrint); locally Pagëzimorja me Mozaikë (Butrint)
  22. Great Basilica (Butrint); locally Bazilika e Madhe (Butrint)
  23. Acropolis, Venetian Castle, and Museum (Butrint); locally Akropoli, Kalaja Veneciane dhe Muzeu (Butrint)
  24. Ali Pasha's Castle (Butrint); locally Kalaja e Ali Pashës (Butrint)
  25. Triangular Venetian Castle (Butrint); locally Kalaja Trekëndore Veneciane (Butrint)
  26. Ancient Theater (Finiq); locally Teatri Antik (Finiq)
  27. Agora and Acropolis (Finiq); locally Agora-Akropoli (Finiq)
  28. Walls and Bastion (Finiq); locally Muret & Bastioni (Finiq)
  29. Early Christian Basilicas (Finiq); locally Bazilikat paleokristiane (Finiq)
  30. Medieval Church (Finiq); locally Kisha mesjetare (Finiq)
  31. Fortifications and Terraces (Çuka e Ajtoit); locally Fortifikimet & Terracat (Çuka e Ajtoit)
  32. The "Palace" Complex (Çuka e Ajtoit); locally Kompleksi i "Pallatit" (Çuka e Ajtoit)
  33. Byzantine Church (Çuka e Ajtoit); locally Kisha bizantine (Çuka e Ajtoit)

Is there an audio guide for Saranda Promenade?

Yes. Saranda Promenade 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 33 Saranda places in the app, at 39.873702, 20.007301. Every one of the other 32 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 Saranda

Open Roots Earth and choose Saranda. The city has its own map of places with all 33 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 33 places in Saranda, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 33 places in Saranda, 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. Saranda Promenade

Local name
Shëtitorja e Sarandës
Coordinates
39.873702, 20.007301
In one line
Saranda's seaside boulevard follows the curve of the bay that was once the ancient port of Onchesmus, where fragments of late antique walls survive beside the water, below today's cafés and the evening promenade that fills the shore.

2. Lëkurësi Castle

Local name
Kalaja e Lëkurësit
Coordinates
39.8659, 20.02567
In one line
An Ottoman fortress built in the 16th century on the hill overlooking Saranda, with 2 round towers and thick walls pierced by cannon embrasures, later attacked by Ali Pasha of Tepelena and today a silent watcher over the bay toward Corfu.

3. Onchesmos, The Ancient City

Local name
Onhezmi, Qyteti Antik
Coordinates
39.872958, 20.005282
In one line
The remains of ancient Onchesmus, the port of the Chaonians and later of the Romans, lie scattered beneath today's Saranda, where pieces of walls, a gate near the beach, and stones in the foundations of modern buildings testify to the fortification circuit that touched the sea.

4. Saranda Old Town

Local name
Qyteti i Vjetër i Sarandës
Coordinates
39.874599, 20.00065
In one line
Saranda's old core lies over the ancient port of Onchesmus, where today's market streets and cafés cover ancient stones and enclosing walls, without a preserved Ottoman quarter like that of Gjirokastër.

5. Saranda Port

Local name
Porti i Sarandës
Coordinates
39.871291, 20.003063
In one line
Today's port of Saranda, with its daily ferries to Corfu and modern tourism infrastructure, stands on the same bay where the ancient port of Onchesmus once operated, a sea corridor that has never closed.

6. Museum of Tradition

Local name
Muzeu i Traditës
Coordinates
39.874024, 20.00903
In one line
A small ethnographic museum near the promenade, housed in a stone building, where old photographs, traditional clothing, and household objects preserve the memory of Saranda before it became a seaside holiday city.

7. Saranda Archaeological Museum

Local name
Muzeu Arkeologjik i Sarandës
Coordinates
39.874227, 20.009076
In one line
Built around a 6th-century mosaic floor discovered in 1968, this museum preserves the early Christian layer of ancient Onchesmus inside the building that was once the city's post office.

8. Church of Saint Charalambos

Local name
Kisha e Shën Harallambit
Coordinates
39.873983, 20.010753
In one line
Saranda's largest Orthodox church, built on the seaside boulevard after the fall of state atheism, linking the living faith of a mainly Orthodox city with the destroyed monastery from which the city took its name.

9. Saranda Synagogue-Basilica

Local name
Sinagoga-Bazilika e Sarandës
Coordinates
39.874749, 20.00665
In one line
The archaeological site near Friendship Park, where over the mosaic floors of the ancient port of Onchesmus 2 phases of one faith over another alternate: the earliest known synagogue in Albania and the basilica that covered it.

10. Saranda Mosque

Local name
Xhamia e Sarandës
Coordinates
39.874558, 20.00573
In one line
Saranda's central mosque, rebuilt after the fall of state atheism, raises its minaret among Orthodox domes and the concrete of a communist bunker, 2 faiths and 1 denial layered on the same street.

11. Monastery of the Forty Saints

Local name
Manastiri i Dyzet Shenjtorëve
Coordinates
39.872222, 20.021667
In one line
On the hill east of Saranda rise the ruins of a 6th-century basilical monastery dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, the holy place that gave the city its name and holds beneath itself 40 underground chapels.

12. Saranda Beach

Local name
Plazhi i Sarandës
Coordinates
39.87268, 20.012191
In one line
The city shore where the arc of the bay still follows the line of the ancient port of Onchesmus, with late antique wall fragments near the water and the stones of an old gate by the public beach, while above them stretches a modern promenade facing Corfu.

13. Greco-Roman Theater (Butrint)

Local name
Teatri grek-romak (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7452, 20.0207
In one line
Butrint's main theater, first built in the Hellenistic period beside the sanctuary and later remodeled by the Romans, still preserves the stone rows of the cavea, the orchestra, and the stage, where spectacle and civic assembly shared the same half-circle beneath the hill.

14. Sanctuary of Asclepius (Butrint)

Local name
Shenjtërorja e Asklepit (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.745, 20.0205
In one line
The podium of a Hellenistic healing temple near the theater of Butrint, connected with a portico and stage, dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine, although which deity the site truly belonged to remains a question that scholarship has rewritten more than once.

15. Lion Gate (Butrint)

Local name
Porta e Luanit (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7461, 20.0213
In one line
A narrow stone gate in Butrint's circuit of walls, built in the Hellenistic period and rebuilt in the Middle Ages, bearing overhead a lion tearing apart a bull, a carving taken from a much earlier monument.

16. Lake Gate (Butrint)

Local name
Porta e Liqenit (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7466, 20.0201
In one line
The Lake Gate, a narrow passage in Butrint's Hellenistic wall, with large stones held without mortar and steps descending toward the water, the doorway through which the ancient city reached the lakeshore and its port.

17. Roman Forum and Nymphaeum (Butrint)

Local name
Forumi & Nimfeu Romak (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7448, 20.0203
In one line
The Roman civic center of Butrint, where the forum square with porticoes was opened after Rome demolished parts of the Hellenistic walls, and beside it the monumental nymphaeum dedicated to the nymphs today preserves only its broken basin and ruined masonry over the layers of the older city.

18. Roman Baths (Butrint)

Local name
Termat romake (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7446, 20.0206
In one line
The foundations of Butrint's Roman public baths, part of the civic quarter with the nymphaeum and forum, preserve the heated rooms, traces of the hypocaust, and the lines of the walls, modest in appearance but readable, where the imperial bath sleeps beneath the city that once kept it alive.

19. Well of Junia Rufina (Butrint)

Local name
Pusi i Junia Rufinës (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7455, 20.0198
In one line
A sacred well in Butrint, a cave-like stone pit reached by a few steps, with a Greek inscription of Junia Rufina from the 2nd century CE linking the water with the cult of the nymphs, later repainted with Christian images.

20. Triconch Palace (Butrint)

Local name
Pallati Trikonç (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7443, 20.021
In one line
An elite residence of late antiquity in Butrint, a large house with a colonnaded courtyard whose eastern side was turned into a reception hall with 3 apses, later reused for small workshops, layer upon layer.

21. Baptistery with Mosaics (Butrint)

Local name
Pagëzimorja me Mozaikë (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7449, 20.0212
In one line
One of the most elaborate early Christian baptisteries in the Balkans, raised over Roman baths, with a font at the center and a wide mosaic floor of geometric and vegetal motifs, which today is often hidden beneath sand for protection.

22. Great Basilica (Butrint)

Local name
Bazilika e Madhe (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7463, 20.0218
In one line
Butrint's Great Basilica, the main church of late antiquity, from the 6th century CE, lies near the Tower Gate like a stone ground plan, where the nave, side aisles, and apse are still drawn on the earth you walk on.

23. Acropolis, Venetian Castle, and Museum (Butrint)

Local name
Akropoli, Kalaja Veneciane dhe Muzeu (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7458, 20.0222
In one line
On the hill overlooking the city and the Vivari Channel rises the ancient Greek acropolis, over which the Venetians built a castle, today a museum with over 1,300 objects, from prehistory to the Venetian period.

24. Ali Pasha's Castle (Butrint)

Local name
Kalaja e Ali Pashës (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7416, 19.99246
In one line
A rectangular stone fortress on a small island at the mouth of the Vivari Channel, built by the Venetians and later linked with Ali Pasha of Tepelena, which guarded the entrance to the lagoon and the exploitation of fishing and land.

25. Triangular Venetian Castle (Butrint)

Local name
Kalaja Trekëndore Veneciane (Butrint)
Coordinates
39.7441, 20.0235
In one line
A triangular castle with 4 towers, 2 round ones facing the sea and 2 rectangular ones facing land, which the Venetians raised at the edge of the channel to guard the entrance to the lagoon and which the Ottomans later adapted, leaving inside it even the traces of a hammam.

26. Ancient Theater (Finiq)

Local name
Teatri Antik (Finiq)
Coordinates
39.91373, 20.05652
In one line
The Hellenistic theater of Finiq, capital of the Chaonians, cut directly into the slope with a capacity of around 4,000 seats, with the cavea, orchestra, and remains of the stage still readable on the ground, and with Rome writing over Greek stone.

27. Agora and Acropolis (Finiq)

Local name
Agora-Akropoli (Finiq)
Coordinates
39.91326, 20.05785
In one line
On the highest summit of the hill of Finiq lies the civic heart of the ancient city, an open square with public buildings, today terraces, stone foundations, and a bare plateau from which the whole horizon around can be seen.

28. Walls and Bastion (Finiq)

Local name
Muret & Bastioni (Finiq)
Coordinates
39.91238, 20.06005
In one line
The Hellenistic fortifications of Finiq, curtain walls and a large bastion that protected the Chaonian capital, stretch along the ridge of the hill, stones raised in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, in the city where the Peace of Finiq was signed.

29. Early Christian Basilicas (Finiq)

Local name
Bazilikat paleokristiane (Finiq)
Coordinates
39.91317, 20.0586
In one line
Around the acropolis of Finiq and in the area of Palea Avli lie the foundations of several early Christian basilicas, churches of the 5th and 6th centuries CE, where mosaics left in place testify to the faith of the first Christian communities.

30. Medieval Church (Finiq)

Local name
Kisha mesjetare (Finiq)
Coordinates
39.91165, 20.06074
In one line
On a hill with traces of antiquity stands a medieval or post-Byzantine church, raised long after the old site had faded, evidence that the hill was reinhabited by people who wrote a new layer over the old ruins.

31. Fortifications and Terraces (Çuka e Ajtoit)

Local name
Fortifikimet & Terracat (Çuka e Ajtoit)
Coordinates
39.680806, 20.122481
In one line
On the conical summit of Çuka e Ajtoit rise polygonal walls and defensive terraces built in the mid-3rd century BCE, with earlier archaic traces and Byzantine reuse, commanding the plain from Butrint to the Kalamas valley.

32. The "Palace" Complex (Çuka e Ajtoit)

Local name
Kompleksi i "Pallatit" (Çuka e Ajtoit)
Coordinates
39.680506, 20.121981
In one line
A large multi-room building on the western slopes of Çuka e Ajtoit, with terraces of the 3rd century BCE and traces of domestic cults, which scholars call a "palace", although the name remains interpretation rather than evidence.

33. Byzantine Church (Çuka e Ajtoit)

Local name
Kisha bizantine (Çuka e Ajtoit)
Coordinates
39.681206, 20.122981
In one line
The remains of a small Byzantine church at the foot of the hill of Çuka e Ajtoit, evidence of a medieval Christian presence on the same place where the castle once rose, where the ancient fortification returned to life with another faith.

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.

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