In ancient times, the city was known as Onchesmus or Onchesmos, and was a port-town ofChaonia inancient Epirus. It owes its modern name to the nearbyByzantine monastery of the Forty Saints by which it became known from theHigh Middle Ages. Sarandë today is known for its deep blueMediterranean waters. Near Sarandë are the remains of the ancient city ofButrint, aUNESCOWorld Heritage site. In recent years, Sarandë has seen a steady increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ships. 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 has been considered one of the two centers of theGreek minority in Albania.[2][3]
Due to the archaic features found in theAncient Greek name of the city: Onchesmos (Ancient Greek:Ὄγχεσμος) (latinized form: Onchesmus) and the toponyms of the surrounding region it appears that the site was part of aproto-Greek area in late 3rd-early 2nd millennium BC.[9] Bronze Age tools typical ofMycenaean Greece have been unearthed in Sarandë which date c. 1400-1100 BC.[10] In antiquity the city was known by the name ofOnchesmus orOnchesmos and was a port-town ofChaonia inancient Epirus, opposite the northwestern point ofCorcyra, and the next port upon the coast to the south ofPanormus.[11][12] It was inhabited by the ancient Greek tribe of theChaonians.[13][14]
Onchesmos flourished as the port of the Chaonian capitalPhoenice[15][16] (modern-dayFiniq). It seems to have been a place of importance in the time ofCicero, and one of the ordinary points of departure from Epirus to Italy, as Cicero calls the wind favourable for making that passage anOnchesmites.[17] According toDionysius of Halicarnassus the real name of the place was the Port of Anchises (Ἀγχίσου λιμήν), named afterAnchises, the father ofAeneas;[18] and it was probably owing to this tradition that the name Onchesmus assumed the form ofAnchiasmus orAnchiasmos (Greek:Ἀγχιασμός) under theByzantine Empire.[19][20]
Sarandë, then under the name of Onchesmos, is held to be the site of Albania's firstsynagogue, which was built in the 4th[21] or 5th century. It is thought that it was built by the descendants ofJewish captives who arrived on the southern shores of Albania around 70 CE,[22] during theFirst Jewish–Roman War. Onchesmos' synagogue was supplanted by a church in the 6th century.[21]
The city was probably raided by theOstrogoths in 551 CE,[23] while, during this period, it became also the target of piratic raids by Gothic ships.[24] In a medieval chronicle of 1191 the settlement appears to be abandoned, while its former name (Anchiasmos) isn't mentioned any more. From that year, the toponym borrows the name of the nearby Orthodoxbasilicachurch ofAgioi Saranta, erected in the 6th century, ca. 1 km (0.6 mi) southeast of the modern town.[23]
In the early 19th century during the rule ofAli Pasha, British diplomatWilliam Martin Leake reported that there existed a small settlement under the name Skala or Skaloma next to the harbor.[25] Following the Ottoman administrative reform of 1867, a müdürluk (independent unit) of Sarandë consisting of no other villages was created within thekaza (district) of Delvinë.[26] Sarandë in the late Ottoman period until theBalkan Wars (1912–1913) consisted of only a harbour being a simple commercial station without permanent residents or any institutional community organisation.[26] The creation of the Saranda müdürluk was related to the desires of Ottoman authorities to upgrade the port and reduce the economic dependence of the area onIoannina andPreveza.[26] In 1878, aGreek rebellion broke out, with revolutionaries taking control of Sarandë andDelvinë. This was suppressed by Ottoman troops, who burned twenty villages in the region.[27] One of the earliest photographs of Saranda dates from 3 March 1913 and shows Greek soldiers in the main street during the course of theSecond Balkan War.[28] Saranda was an important city in theAutonomous Republic of Northern Epirus.[28]
Italian occupied Sarandë in 1917
Greek troops occupied it during theBalkan Wars. Later, the town was included in the newly formedAlbanian state on 17 December 1913 under the terms of the Protocol of Florence.[29] The decision was rejected by the local Greek population, and as the Greek army withdrew to the new border, theAutonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was established. In May 1914, negotiations were started in Sarandë between representative of the provisional government of Northern Epirus and that ofAlbania which continued in nearbyCorfu and ended up with therecognition of the Northern Epirote autonomy inside the newly established Albanian state.[30]
During theGreco-Italian War, the city came under the control of the advancing Greek forces, on 6 December 1940. The capture of this strategic port further accelerated the Greek penetration to the north.[33] As a result of theGerman invasion in Greece in April 1941, the town returned to Italian control. On 9 October 1944 the town was captured by a group of British commandos under Brigadier Tom Churchill and local partisans ofLANÇ underIslam Radovicka. The actions of the British troops was viewed with suspicion by LANÇ as they suspected that the British would occupy the town to use as a base and provide aid to their allies in the Greek resistance in the area as British documents indicated thatEDES forces also joined the operation. However, the British troops soon withdrew from the region, leaving the region to the Albanian communist forces.[34]
As part of thePeople's Republic of Albania (1945-1991) policies a number of Muslim Albanians were settled from northern Albania in the area and local Christians are no longer the only community in Saranda.[35] During this period as a result of the atheistic campaign launched by the state the church of Saint Spyridon in the harbor of the city was demolished. After the restoration of democracy in Albania (1991) a small shrine was erected at the place of the church.[35]
In 1992, during the escalation of violence againstethnic Greek communities in southern Albania, incidents included the burning down of Greek shops in the city harbour and vandalization of theOmonoia organization offices (the latter being the political party of the Greeks in the country).[36]
During the1997 Albanian civil unrest, units comprised by the local Greek minority were able to achieve the first military success for the opposition through the capture of a government tank.[37]
Given its coastal access andMediterranean climate, Sarandë has become an important tourist attraction since the fall of communism in Albania. Saranda as well as the rest of theAlbanian Riviera, according toThe Guardian, "is set to become the newundiscovered gem of the overcrowded Med."[44]Tourism is thus the major economic resource, while other resources includeservices,fisheries andconstruction. The unemployment rate according to the population census of 2008 was 8.32%. It has been suggested that family tourism and seasonal work during the summer period help mitigate the real unemployment rate. Recently, the town has experienced an uncontrolled construction boom which may hamper the city's future tourism potential. Since 2012, the Port of Saranda is undergoing an expansion to accommodate cruise ships at its terminal.
Sarandë is viewed as the unofficial capital of theAlbanian Riviera, and can be used as a base for excursions along it.[45]
The region is prosperous with varied attractions and activities relating to nature and wildlife. Notable sights include the ancient archaeological site ofButrint and theBlue Eye Spring.Ksamil is notable for its beaches andislets.[46]
During the late Ottoman period until the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Sarandë consisted of only a harbour and was without permanent residents.[26] In 1912, right after theAlbanian Declaration of Independence, the settlement had only 110 inhabitants.[48] At the 1927 census, it had 810 inhabitants, but was not yet a town.[48] In the 1930s, it had a good demographic development, and it is in this period that the first public buildings and the main roads were constructed.[48] In 1957, the city had 8,700 inhabitants and was made the center of a district.[48] The population of Sarandë was exclusively Christian. A Muslim community was settled in the city as part of the resettlement policies during the People's Republic of Albania (1945–1991).[35] The total population is 20,227 (2011 census),[a][49] in a total area of 70.13 km2.[50] The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 17,233.[49] The population according to the civil offices, which record all citizens including those living abroad, is 41,173 (2013 estimate).[51]
Mosque of Sarandë
According to a survey by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, in 1990 Sarandë numbered 17,000 inhabitants, of whom 7,500 belonged to the Greek minority.[52] The members of the Greek minority of the city, prior to the collapse of the socialist regime (1991), were deprived from their minority rights, since Sarandë did not belong to the "minority areas".[53] In fieldwork undertaken by Greek scholar Leonidas Kallivretakis in the area during 1992 noted that Saranda's mixed ethno-linguistic composition (total population in 1992: 17,555) consisted of 8,055 Muslim Albanians, 6,500 Greeks and an Orthodox Albanian population of 3,000.[3] Statistics from the same study showed that, including the surround villages, Sarande commune had a population consisting of 43% Albanian Muslims, 14% Albanian Christians, 41% Greek Christians, and 2% Aromanian Christians.[54] In the early 1990s, the local Orthodox Albanian population mainly voted for political parties of the Greek minority based in the Saranda area.[3]
Sarandë is considered one of the two centers of theGreek minority in Albania,Gjirokastër being the other.[2][55] According to the representatives of the Greek minority 42% of the town's population belong to the local Greek community.[53] Since the 1990s the population of Sarandë has nearly doubled. According to official estimation in 2013, the population of the city is 41,173.[51] According to a survey conducted by the Albanian Committee of Helsinki, in 2001 the Albanian population numbered about 26,500, while Greeks formed the rest with about 3,400 alongside a small number ofVlachs andRoma.[52][56] The city, according to the Albanian Committee of Helsinki, has lost more than half of its ethnic Greeks from 1991 to 2001, because of heavy emigration to Greece.[52] According to official estimates of 2014 the number of the Greek community in the former municipality is 7,920, not to count those who live in the wider current municipality (including additionally 4,207 in Ksamil).[57] Two schools/classes in Greek attended by a total of 217 students existed in the Saranda municipality as of 2014.[58] Other minorities include Aromanians, Roma andAshkali.
^The municipality of Sarandë consists of the administrative units ofKsamil and Sarandë.[40] The population of the municipality results from the sum of the listed administrative units in the former as of the2011 Albanian census.
^abcKallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds).Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. p. 34. "Στα πλαίσια της επιτόπιας έρευνας που πραγματοποιήσαμε στην Αλβανία (Νοέμβριος-Δεκέμβριος 1992), μελετήσαμε το ζήτημα των εθνοπολιτισμικών ομάδων, όπως αυτές συνειδητοποιούνται σήμερα επί τόπου. [As part of the fieldwork we held in Albania (November–December 1992), we studied the issue of ethnocultural groups, as they are realized today on the spot.] "; pp. 42–43. "Οι πιθανοί συνδυασμοί αναδεικνύουν την κομβική θέση των Αλβανών Χριστίανών, γεγονός που έχει γίνει αντιληπτό από μερίδα της μειονοτικής ηγεσίας. [Οι πιθανοί συνδυασμοί αναδεικνύουν την κομβική θέση των Αλβανών Χριστίανών, γεγονός που έχει γίνει αντιληπτό από μερίδα της μειονοτικής ηγεσίας.]"; p. 43. ") Οι περιοχές όπου η ελληνική μειονότητα πλειοψηφεί δεν αποτελούν κατά κανόνα ένα συμπαγές και συνεχές σύνολο αλλά διακόπτονται από παρεμβαλλόμενες αλβανικές κοινότητες. Αυτό είναι κατ' εξοχήν σωστό στην περίπτωση της Χιμάρας, αλλά ισχύει ως ένα βαθμό και στην περίπτωση των Αγίων Σαράντα και του Δελβίνου. Το ίδιο ισχύει και στην περίπτωση των Αγίων Σαράντα, αν και ο Δήμος πέρασε στα χέρια της μειονότητας, χάρις στις ψήφους των Αλβανών Χριστιανών. [The areas where the Greek minority is in the majority are not usually solid and continuous but are interrupted by intervening Albanian communities... The same applies in the case of Saranda, though the municipality passed into the hands of the minority, thanks to the votes of Albanian Christians.]"; p. 51. "Ε Έλληνες, ΑΧ Αλβανοί Ορθόδοξοι Χριστιανοί, AM Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι, Μ Μικτός πληθυσμός.... SARANDE ΣΑΡΑΧΤΙ (ΑΓ. ΣΑΡΑΝΤΑ) 17555 Μ(8055 AM + 6500 Ε + 3000 ΑΧ)."
^E.g., Walker, J. & C. "Turkey II: Containing the Northern Part of Greece." Published 1 November 1829 by Baldwin & Cradock, 47 Paternoster Row, London. (London: Chapman & Hall, 1844). Accessed 24 August 2011.
^Hammond, N.G.L.Philip of Macedon. London, UK: Duckworth, 1994. "Epirus was a land of milk and animal products...The social unit was a small tribe, consisting of several nomadic or semi-nomadic groups, and these tribes, of which more than seventy names are known, coalesced into large tribal coalitions, three in number: Thesprotians, Molossians and Chaonians...We know from the discovery of inscriptions that these tribes were speaking the Greek language (in a West-Greek dialect)."
^Talbert, Richard J.A. and Bagnall, Roger S.Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, 2000, p. 815. "harbor, cape or town in Epirus between Onchesmos and Bouthroton."
^Eidinow, Esther.Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks. Oxford University Press, 2007.ISBN0-19-927778-8 "Onchesmos was the principal port of Phoinike, the capital of Chaonia,..."
^Bowden, William.Epirus Vetus: The Archaeology of a Late Antique Province. London: Duckworth, 2003,ISBN0-7156-3116-0, p. 14. "Anchiasmos (Onchesmos)"
^Hodges, Richard.Saranda – Ancient Onchesmos: A Short History and Guide. Butrint Foundation, 2007.ISBN99943-943-6-3
^abJames K. Aitken; James Carleton Paget (20 October 2014).The Jewish-Greek Tradition in Antiquity and the Byzantine Empire. Cambridge University Press. p. 22.ISBN978-1-107-00163-3.The remains of a late antique synagogue were discovered in Saranda (ancient Onchesmos)... The synagogue has been dated to the fourth-fifth century. It was supplanted by a Christian church in the sixth century
^Kondis, Basil (1976).Greece and Albania: 1908–1914 (Thesis). Thessaloniki: Institute for Balkan Studies, New York University.doi:10.12681/eadd/4724.hdl:10442/hedi/4724.Zographos and Karapanos met at Santi Quaranda with the Commission but upon the request of Zographos the final negotiations took place in the island of Corfu... Protocol of Corfu
^abcGiakoumis, Georgios K. (1996).Monuments of Orthodoxy in Albania. Doukas School. p. 148.ISBN9789607203090.The Beautiful harbour of Ayii Saranda... In this harbour stood the church of Saint Spyridon, which was demolished under Enver Hoxha. A temporary wooden hut-shrine was erected in its place in 1991. The locals have laid claim to the site in order to rebuild their church. This is not a straightforward matter, however, because the inhabitants of the town are no longer exclusively Christians. Under the settlement policy pursued by Hoxha, thousands of Muslims were transferred from the north of Albania in order to alter the ethnic composition of the region.
^Allcock, John B. (1992).Border and Territorial Disputes. Longman Group. p. 8.ISBN978-0-582-20931-2.In early 1992 such sentiments were strengthened by an escalation of violence against ethnic Greeks in southern Albanian and of cross-border incidents involving incursions by Albanian marauders. The violence in southern Albania included the burning fown of Greek shops in the port of Sarande and the vandalization of the offices of Omonia, the political party of ethnic Greeks.
^"Bashkia Sarandë" (in Albanian). Albanian Association of Municipalities (AAM).Archived from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved24 September 2021.
^ab"Climate: Sarandë". Climate-Data.Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved26 September 2021.
^abcCouncil of Europe."Report Submitted by Albania"(PDF). Retrieved28 July 2010.According to a survey held last year by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, until 1990, the city of Saranda had about 17 thousand inhabitants, with nearly 7,500 of them belonging to Greek national minority.
^Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "[permanent dead link] Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography[permanent dead link]." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds).Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. Pages: 51
^"Fourth Report submitted by Albania pursuant to Article 25, paragraph 2 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities". Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Albania. p. 75. Retrieved28 December 2018.In Saranda, there are three kindergartens (Saranda – 29 children, Dermish – 11 children, Aliko – 10 children), attended by 50 children in total. Data indicate that 280 pupils attend the basic education in seven schools of Saranda town: 1)"Adem Sheme" School - 182 pupils; 2)"Lefter Talo" School, Livadhja – 58 pupils; 3)Dermish school– 10 pupils; 4) Dhiver school – 4 pupils; Leshnica school – 3 pupils; Cuka school – 6 pupils; Aliko school – 17 pupils.
^"Binjakëzime".bashkiasarande.gov.al (in Albanian). Sarandë. Retrieved9 March 2021.
1 Includes localities with a substantial ethnic Greek population, or otherwise with any kind of cultural or other type of significance, historical or current, for the Greek minority in Albania. 2 Includes individuals not necessarily of Greek ethnicity but with important contributions to Greek civilization.
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