Butrint
In the Aeneid, when Aeneas lands on the coast of Epirus fleeing Troy, he finds a small kingdom ruled by Helenus, a Trojan seer, an...
Updated 9 July 2026
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Butrint now
The story
The story of Butrint
From Illyrian origins to the Greek city
The site was inhabited from the Bronze Age by the Chaonians, a branch of the Illyrians settled on the Epirote coast. Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the settlement came into contact with Greek colonists from Corcyra, present-day Corfu, who introduced cults, the alphabet and Hellenic urban forms, though without ever making it a true Greek colony in the strict sense. The name Bouthroton, according to an ancient popular etymology, would allude to the sacrifice of an ox during the foundation, but an Illyrian root adapted to Greek remains more likely. Between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC the city acquired the mighty polygonal walls that still encircle the hill today, the theatre, and the sanctuary dedicated to Asclepius, god of medicine, which made it a destination for pilgrimage and healing for centuries.
Buthrotum, Roman colony
In the 1st century BC Rome looked at Butrint with strategic interest, lying right opposite Corfu and along the routes to Greece. Julius Caesar planned to settle veterans there as a colony, a plan opposed by his friend Atticus, a landowner in the area, who feared his own properties would be devalued; it was later Augustus, after the victory at Actium, who founded the Colonia Iulia Buthrotum, populating it with veterans of his legions. The Roman city was enriched with a forum, baths, an aqueduct and a nymphaeum, while the old sanctuary of Asclepius continued to function alongside the new imperial architecture. The inscriptions found on site, particularly those recording the manumission of slaves linked to the cult of the god, give a vivid picture of the city's society in the Roman age.
Byzantium, the sackings and the slow decline
With the division of the empire, Butrint entered the Byzantine orbit and experienced a new flourishing between the 5th and 6th centuries, when the city was equipped with a large Christian basilica and the famous baptistery with its floor mosaics. The fortifications were renewed under Justinian, but the end of the 6th century brought instability, earthquakes and a progressive waterlogging of the lagoon area that would mark the site's fate for the following centuries. In 1081 the city was sacked by the Normans during Robert Guiscard's campaign against Byzantium, and in the following decades it changed hands several times between the Despotate of Epirus, Byzantium and Angevin powers, while the settlement progressively shrank toward the fortified acropolis.
Venetian rule and abandonment
From 1386, and more steadily from the 15th century, Butrint came under the control of the Republic of Venice, which turned it into a minor but still garrisoned defensive outpost compared to Corfu: this period saw the strengthening of the castle on the acropolis and the construction, on the opposite bank of the channel, of the triangular fortress controlling traffic toward the sea. Amid alternating Ottoman occupations and Venetian returns, the city progressively lost population, aided also by the malaria that spread as the surrounding marshes expanded. By the end of the 18th century, with the fall of the Serenissima, the area was by then almost uninhabited, reduced to a handful of ruins swallowed by vegetation and water, so much so that for over a century the site survived only in historiographical memory.
The archaeological rediscovery and UNESCO
The ruins came back to light starting in 1928, when the Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini launched a systematic excavation mission on behalf of the Italian government, bringing to light within a few years the theatre, the baptistery with its mosaics and the monumental gates in the walls, including the one that took its name from the famous Lion relief. After the Second World War, excavations continued under the guidance of Albanian archaeologists, in work that has continued for decades and has progressively expanded the investigated area as far as the channel and the triangular fortress. In 1992 UNESCO inscribed Butrint on the World Heritage List, recognising its unique stratification; since the 1990s the British Butrint Foundation has worked alongside Albanian institutions on conservation, culminating in 2000 with the establishment of Butrint National Park.
The archaeological site and the ancient theatre
The visitor route winds along a loop that passes through almost all the eras of the city in succession, with the Greco-Roman theatre as the first major fixed point: carved into the hillside next to the sanctuary of Asclepius in the 3rd century BC and enlarged in the Roman period, it could hold a few thousand spectators and was used both for performances and for ceremonies linked to the healing cult. The stone tiers, still clearly legible, look out over what was the religious and civic heart of the ancient city, with the remains of the temple and the sanctuary's porticoes just a few steps away. The inscriptions carved on the theatre's blocks, which record acts of manumission of slaves in honour of Asclepius, are among the most valuable sources for reconstructing the daily life of Hellenistic Bouthroton.
The early Christian baptistery and its mosaics
A short distance beyond the theatre stands the baptistery, a circular 6th-century building that is probably the most astonishing testimony of the site: at its centre it preserves a mosaic floor among the best preserved in the Balkans, with concentric circles populated by peacocks, ducks, baskets of fruit, dolphins and geometric motifs made with finely worked polychrome tesserae. To protect them from sun exposure and humidity, the mosaics are generally kept covered by a layer of sand and are only uncovered on special occasions or on request to the park staff, but even so the circular architecture, marked by two rings of columns, clearly conveys the wealth achieved by Butrint's Christian community in an age of transition between the ancient and early medieval worlds.
The Venetian fortress and the acropolis museum
Climbing toward the top of the hill you reach the acropolis, occupied since antiquity and fortified several times until it became, in the Venetian and later Ottoman period, a small castle controlling the channel below. The building, restored in the 20th century, today houses the Butrint Museum, which gathers the most significant finds from the excavations: statues, inscriptions, ceramics and materials tracing the city's Illyrian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine phases. From its terraces the view sweeps across the entire Vivari Channel as far as the triangular fortress on the opposite bank and, on the clearest days, the outline of Corfu on the horizon: a vantage point that helps read the site's defensive geography better than any map.
The Lion of Butrint and the cyclopean walls
The fortifications of the lower town, built with large polygonal blocks starting in the 4th century BC and repeatedly reworked in the Roman and Byzantine periods, are among the best preserved in the western Greek world and can be followed almost in their entirety by walking along the perimeter of the site. Along the route opens the Lion Gate, which owes its name to a Hellenistic relief depicting a lion in the act of sinking its teeth into the head of a bull, built into the wall as an apotropaic image of power. Found during Ugolini's excavations, the relief has become a sort of emblem of the site, today displayed in the museum route while a copy remains on the gate to mark the original spot.
The Vivari Channel, the lake and the park's nature
The ruins of Butrint stand on a strip of land wedged between the lake of the same name, a brackish water basin fed by karst springs, and the Vivari Channel, which connects it to the Corfu strait after a couple of kilometres of nearly flat course. The whole area, today a National Park, is a wetland of international importance: reed beds, riparian woods and stretches of Mediterranean scrub host a rich fauna, from coots to herons, from cormorants to otters, while the channel's waters have historically remained a corridor for fishing and river traffic. Walking along its banks, outside the archaeological enclosure proper, remains one of the most direct ways to understand why the ancients chose this very spot to found a city.
The mussels of Butrint
The calm, nutrient-rich waters of the Vivari Channel have for generations been a natural mussel farm, cultivated on long rows of ropes and poles visible while sailing or walking along the shore. Mussel farming at Butrint is a traditional activity of the Sarande area, supplying restaurants along the coast and also exported to Italy thanks to the geographical proximity of Puglia. Tasting the mussels grilled, in a stew, or simply steamed at one of the eateries overlooking the channel, perhaps right after visiting the archaeological site, has become one of the most characteristic experiences associated with Butrint, just as much as the ruins themselves.
How to visit the site: tickets, time needed and combinations
The archaeological park is open every day, with longer hours in the summer season; admission is paid with a single ticket that covers the whole route, from the theatre to the acropolis museum, plus a separate guarded car park near the ticket office. For a full, unhurried visit you need at least two and a half hours, which become three if you also want to spend time on the nature trail along the channel. Butrint naturally combines with a day trip from Sarande, about 18 kilometres away along the SH81, or with a stay in Ksamil, even closer: many visitors also arrive on a day trip from the Greek side, with the passenger ferry from Corfu landing in Sarande in under an hour.
When to go
Spring, between April and June, and early autumn, between September and early October, are the best times to visit Butrint: temperatures stay pleasant for walking at length among the ruins and the park's vegetation is at its greenest, with migratory birds easier to observe along the lake. In high summer the humid heat of the lagoon area can make visiting more tiring during the middle of the day, and it is better to move around in the early morning or late afternoon, also avoiding the crowds of organised groups arriving on day trips from the Corfu ferries. Winter, rainier, reduces opening hours but rewards visitors seeking quiet with an almost deserted site.
- Walk the entire perimeter of the polygonal walls, from the Lion Gate to the Scea Gate
- Sit on the tiers of the Greco-Roman theatre next to the sanctuary of Asclepius
- Observe the mosaic floor of the early Christian baptistery, when it is visible
- Climb to the acropolis for the museum and the view over the Vivari Channel and Corfu
- Cross by boat or walk along the channel to the triangular Venetian fortress
- Stop at a restaurant on the water to taste the mussels farmed in the channel
- Continue on to Ksamil for the sea, just a few minutes' drive from the park
FAQ
Come si arriva a Butrinto?
Quanto tempo serve per la visita?
Dove si parcheggia?
Si può visitare con bambini?
Conviene abbinare Butrinto a Ksamil o Saranda?
I mosaici del battistero si vedono sempre?
Getting there
- Aeroporto Internazionale di Tirana "Madre Teresa" (TIA), circa 280 km e 4-5 ore d'auto a nord
- Aeroporto di Corfù "Ioannis Kapodistrias" (Grecia), raggiungibile con il traghetto passeggeri Corfù-Saranda (circa 30-75 minuti di navigazione) e poi circa 25 minuti d'auto fino a Butrinto
- Da Saranda si segue la SH81 verso sud in direzione Ksamil per circa 18 km fino all'ingresso ben segnalato del parco archeologico; la strada è asfaltata e scorrevole, con parcheggio custodito vicino alla biglietteria.
- Arrivate poco dopo l'apertura o nel tardo pomeriggio per evitare la calura di mezzogiorno e i gruppi che sbarcano dai traghetti di Corfù, particolarmente numerosi a metà giornata.
Perfect for
Duemilacinquecento anni di stratificazioni in un unico perimetro: teatro greco, foro romano, basilica bizantina e fortezza veneziana si susseguono in poche centinaia di metri.
Il parco nazionale che circonda le rovine è zona umida di rilevanza internazionale, con canneti, boschi ripariali e una fauna acquatica ricca, dalle folaghe alle lontre.
La cucina locale ruota attorno ai mitili allevati nel canale di Vivari, cucinati alla griglia o in guazzetto nei ristoranti affacciati sull'acqua.
A pochi minuti d'auto, le isole di Ksamil regalano acque turchesi e spiagge di sabbia fine, il contrappunto balneare naturale dopo la visita al sito.
Il canale di Corfù, visibile dal parco, ricorda come Butrinto sia stata per secoli soglia tra mondo greco e mondo albanese, la stessa acqua che oggi collegano un traghetto di poco più di mezz'ora.
To see
