Vlorë

The coast of the bay saw Illyrian pre-urban settlement from the 11th–10th centuries BC, and Greek colonists are traditionally said to have founded Orikos, Thronion and Aulon on these shores. A large walled port town at Triport, north-west of the modern city and now partly under the sea, was inhabited from the 6th century BC to the 2nd century AD, and the city may later have moved to its present site. Aulon, from which Vlorë takes its name, is first recorded by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD; it was an important Roman port and from the 5th century a bishopric.

Byzantines and Normans fought over it in the 11th and 12th centuries, and from 1346 to 1417 it was the capital of the Principality of Valona. The Ottomans took it in 1417, and it became an international port trading between western Europe and the Ottoman state. From 1426 the Ottomans encouraged Jewish merchants to settle, and after 1492 exiles from Spain arrived; Ottoman records of the early 16th century count some 2,600 Jews in the city. Venice held it briefly in 1690–91, and an earthquake struck it in 1851.

On 28 November 1912 Ismail Qemali led the Albanian Declaration of Independence here, and the city became the first capital of independent Albania. Italy occupied it from 1914 until an Albanian revolt drove its forces out in 1920, and again from 1939 to 1943; Germany held it until 1944. After the war the base at Pashaliman was leased to the Soviet Union until the split of 1961, when Moscow threatened to occupy the city. In 1997 Vlorë was the centre of the unrest that followed the collapse of the pyramid schemes.

Vlorë belongs to Labëria, the region stretching from the coast into the mountains of the south-east that is known as the birthplace of Albanian iso-polyphony, recognised by UNESCO. Most Albanians in the city speak the Lab dialect of southern Tosk, slower than speech elsewhere in the country, and the habit of calling strangers sister and brother is part of local identity. Labs are known for their pride in their region and its food.

The city's public culture is built around 1912. Flag's Square and the Independence Monument, with Ismail Qemali at its centre, commemorate the declaration of 28 November, and the building where the declaration was signed is the Museum of Independence. The city also has an Ethnographic Museum in a 19th-century mansion and a History Museum of finds from the ancient sites around the bay.

Vlorë has long been religiously mixed. In the 19th and early 20th centuries Albanian-speaking Muslims were the majority, alongside Greek-speaking families, Albanian Orthodox, Jews and a few Catholics; the Muradie Mosque and the 19th-century Saint Aloysius Gonzaga and Mary Church still stand in the centre. Football is followed through KS Flamurtari Vlorë, the city's oldest and most popular top-flight club, whose stadium stands near Independence Square.

About 80,000 people lived in the city of Vlorë at the 2011 census, and about 105,000 in the municipality, which stretches from the mouth of the Vjosa past the Narta Lagoon to the Llogara Pass and takes in the Karaburun peninsula and Sazan island. The city grew between 1989 and 2011 while the wider municipality lost people.

Vlorë is a major seaport and commercial centre with fishing and industry, and it hosts important installations of the Albanian Navy. The surrounding region produces petroleum, natural gas, bitumen and salt, and olive and fruit orchards have spread widely. Tourism has become a major industry, filling the seafront with hotels and apartment towers. The University of Vlora, founded in 1994, is the second-largest university in Albania, with two private universities alongside.

Current issues include the new airport in the protected Vjosa–Narta landscape and repeated fires at the city landfill between 2020 and 2024; it had been due to close in 2021, when a new landfill was expected to open. The day follows the heat: early coffee, a quiet afternoon, and the evening xhiro along the Lungomare.

The bay's seafood is the city's pride: grilled fish, calamari and prawns, usually seasoned simply with olive oil, lemon and herbs, along with mussels and lobster. Vlorë has long been known for its olives and olive oil, and fish dishes in southern Albania are often flavoured with white vinegar and olive oil.

Lab cooking from the hills and the Karaburun peninsula is the other half of the table. Grilled meat is on every menu, and lamb roasted over an open fire, mish në hell, is a local speciality, and roast lamb is served at restaurants in Llogara National Park. Byrek in Vlorë is often filled with field greens or made as a milky pie, and harapash is a porridge of corn flour cooked with lamb's intestines, cheese and butter. Yoghurt is made in the traditional way, and dhallë, a yoghurt drink, is common.

Raki, made most often from grapes, plums or blackberries, is offered as a welcome drink, and in the south a version flavoured with oregano, raki rigoni, is popular. Boza, a slightly sweet fermented drink of corn or wheat, local wines and spring water from the mountains complete the list, and coffee in the seafront cafés fills the evenings.