Butrint: The ancient site helping Albania reclaim its identity

After a period of turmoil, places often talk about looking towards the future. However, 40 years after the death of communist dictator Enver Hoxha, Albania is, in many ways, looking to its distant past. A period of extreme isolationism from the 1940s to 1991 led the Balkan nation to close its religious institutions, neglect many of its historical sites and to become known as "the North Korea of Europe". But today, Albania is working hard to reclaim its cultural heritage by preserving its natural landscape and embracing its ancient roots.

The more-than-2,500-year-old ruins of the city of Butrint is one such example. Dating back to roughly 800BC, the site has long stood in the centre of the Western world, surviving conflicts, absorbing different cultures and leaving multiple layers of history to explore. It was likely a Greek city-state before the Romans expanded it into a bustling town complete with a bathhouse. Later, the Byzantines and Ottomans both left their respective marks on it. Butrint's history tells the story of the Mediterranean's shifting politics and its many cultures and religions – all of which have shaped modern-day Albania.

"In 1992, [Butrint] was the first place in Albania declared a Unesco World Heritage site," explained BBC Travel Show host Qasa Alom in a recent episode. "[It preserves] some of the rich cultural history that lies beyond the shadow cast by the events of the last century."

Today, the city's sprawling ruins are part of the larger Butrint National Park, which includes 93-sq-km of forested coastal landscape. In addition to the historic site, the park is also home to 1,200 different plant and animal species. Visitors can explore the ruins of a Hellenistic-era theatre, admire early Christian monuments and then hike the wooded hills or cruise the nearby Lake Butrint.

The preservation of both the ruins and the surrounding parkland are the result of a concerted effort from organisations like the Butrint Foundation and the World Monuments Fund. Donations from both groups have helped restore Butrint and protect the surrounding landscape, while also providing training in historic preservation that created much needed jobs to the local community.

"It has been a struggle the last 30 years to protect the beauty and the history of Butrint, originally [because of] the neglect after the fall of communism… but also with the developers trying to build around the site," Ani Tare, Director of the Butrint National Park told the BBC.

Butrint isn't the only part of Albania that has experienced a restoration. In the nation's capital, Tirana, located 278km (173 miles) to the north, many Hoxha-era monuments have been torn down to make way for new community spaces. Skanderbeg Square, for example, once home to several monuments dedicated to communism and Hoxha's power, is now the largest pedestrian square in the Balkans. Similarly the towering Pyramid of Tirana has been transformed from a museum dedicated to Hoxha into a park and sculpture garden with sweeping views of the city.

Art has also helped Albanians shake off the past and reimagine a new national identity in other ways. At Butrint, for example, programming like their annual drama festival, put on inside of the site's ancient stone theatre, has helped bring back a sense of pride and history among the local community.

"In the beginning [visitors to the festival were] noisy, they didn't understand what was going on and they used to steal the cushions," Tare explained. "In five years, the local people here would come beautifully dressed, nobody makes noise, everyone respected the theatre, nobody stole cushions. Why? Because the culture [of this place] made them aware and gave them a sense of pride."

-BBC