Fieri
Fier
is the most important industrial city of Albania. It is built
by the Gjanica tributary of the Seman river, and is surrounded
by reclaimed marshland. With nearby Patos town , it is the centre
of the oil, bitumen and chemical industries in Albania. Fier is
a convenient place to stay to visit the major Classical sites
at nearby Byllis and Apollonia. The population is predominantly
Muslim. Main roads from the central squarelead south to Vlora
(35km) and east to the oil and chemical town of Patos (8
km).
The history
of Fier is bound up with that of the oil, gas and bitumen deposits
nearby. It was founded by the Vrioni family, beys of
Berat,
as a market town in the 18 th century. The presence of asphalt
and burning escapes of natural gas in the vicinity was recorded
as early as the 1st century AD. Dioscorides, in Materia Medica,
describes lumps of bitumen in the adjacent river Seman, and the
concentrated pitch on the banks of the Vjosa river, Strobo, writing
in about A.D 17 th states:
'
On
the territory of the people of Apollonia in Illlyria there is
what is called a nymphaeum. It is a rock which emits fire. Below
it are springs flowing with hot water and asphalt... the asphalt
is dug out of a neighbouring hill: the parts excavated are replaced
by fresh earth, which in time is converted to asphalt'.
Twelve
km away from Fier is situated Apollonia, one of the two most important
ancient Greek colonial settlements in Albania. It was founded
in 588 B.C on a hill near the sea, and near what was then the
course of Vjosa river by settlers from Corfu and Corinth. At the
time before the changes in land formation and the Adriatic coastline
caused by an earthquake in the 3 century A.D, the harbour af Apollonia
could accommodate as many as 100 ships. The site is thought to
be on the sothern boundary of a native Illyrian settlement, being
mentioned in Periplus, a sailor's account of the Adriatic written
in the midle of 4 century B.C, as a Greek city. It was near the
territory occupied by the Illyrian tribe of the Chaonians. The
colony was said to have been named Gylaceia after its Corinthian
founder, Gylax, an later changed its name to that of city of the
God Apollo. According to archaeological investigations for 100
years Greek and Illyrian have lived in separate communities.
The economic
prosperty of Apollonia grew on the basis of trade in slaves, and
the local rich pastoral agricultural. In the middle of the 5th
century B.C a workshop for minting coins was set up here. Through
trade and commercial transactions these coins spread throughout
Illyria and beyond its boundaries. In the years 214 B.C onwards
the city was involved in the war between the Illyrian Taulanti
and Cassander, the king of Macedonia, and in 229 B.C came under
Roman control. In 168 B.C, its loyalty to Rome was rewarded. For
200 years it was of central importance in the Roman effort to
colonise the east and may have been an original terminus of the
Egnatian Way. It was a vital stronghold for Caesar in the civil
war between Pompey and Julius Caesar. In 45 and 44 B.C, Octavian,
later to become the Emperor Augustus, studied for 6 months in
Apollonia, which had established a high reputacion as a centre
of Greek learning, especially the art of rhetoric. It was noted
by Cecero, in the Philippics, as 'magna
urbs et gravis' a great and important city.
Under
the Empire Apollonia remained a prosperous centre, but begun to
decline as the Vjosa silted up and the coastline changed after
the earthquake.
The
Excavations and the Monuments of Apollonia
The first
attempts to conduct excavations in Apollonia were made during
the first World War, by Austrian archaeologists who unearthed
and explored mainly the walls that encircled the city. Systematic
excavations began in 1924 by a French archaeological mission directed
by Leon Rey, who brought to light a complex of monuments at the
centre of the city. A lot of excavations have been made by Albanian
archaeologists during the last 20 years. Many objects are exhibited
in the museum which has been the monastery of St. Mary.
The
Monument of Agonothetes: This monument decorated the centre
of the city. The structure had the form of a semicircle and served
as an assembly place of the council of the city - the Bule. The
front part of the structure was decorated in a special manner:
there are 6 pillars crowned with capitals of the Corinthian style.
An inscription dating from the middle of the 2nd century A.D.
tells that the building was constructed by high ranking officers
of the city, a monument with the purpose of commemorating the
death of his soldier brother. On the day of the inauguration of
the monument, a show was staged in the city with the participation
of 25 couples of gladiators. On the western side, from the top
of the monumental structure, the tourists can see the ruins of
the small temple of Artemis (Diana). At the eastern side
there is a street which passes under a triumphal arch. On the
opposite side of the monument of the Agonothetes, there is a colonnade
decorated with marble statues.
The Library
and the Odeon : rise behind the colonnade. Opposite the monument
of Aganothetes stands an Odeon or 'small theatre' for 200 spectators.
The building had a stage, an orchestra and tiers. There they gave
musical shows, recitals, and held oratorical and philosophical
discussions.
The House
with Mosaics : A couple of metres away was cavated a rich
Apollonian dwelling house of the 3rd century A.D.: The mosaics
are of all types. There are mosaics where the main decorative
motives are simple geometric figures, others have ornamental mythological
figures like : hypocamposes (seahorses), accompanied by Nereids
and Erotes. One of the mosaics represents a scene where Archiles
holds the wounded Penthesilea, the beautiful queen of Amazones,
in his arms.
Fontana
: represents in itself a complex structure; it had a wall which
collected the waters that sprang from the earth, and four otheraquaducts.
The
Museum of Apollonia
: has 7 pavilions, a gallery and 2 porticos. Here are exhibited
different objects that testify to the history of Apollonia.
he
Church of St. Mary : is situated between the museum and the
refectory. The church is of Byzantine style. The interiors of
the church had once been painted, but today very few fragments
from the mural paintings have remained. The church was built in
the fourteenth century. The wall painting represents Emperor Andronicus
Paleologus as the builder of the church. The refectory of the
monastery was built at the same time as the church.
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