Map of the Ancient City of Apollonia (19)

The monumental center was excavated by the French archaeologist Leon Rey in the 1930s; restoration work carried out during the years 1970-1980 by the Institute of Monuments in Tirana gave it its present appearance. Its structuring axis is made of a crossing of two streets and a plaza. The southern street was aligned with shops (No. 1). The monuments are spread around the circulation system and those used to serve for political, social, cultural and commercial functions. This is a beautiful set of Roman architecture (II and III Centuries AD). The Roman monumental center appears to be the continuation of an open space, surrounded by a portico, whose back wall was punctuated by semicircular niches, characteristic during the IV-III centuries B.C., which are still visible today. Probably at the beginning of our era, the spatial sacelluni (No. 7) became the symbol of might of imperial power. The Ionic temple and its annexes (No. 8) could be either contemporary or built a few decades later. In the course of the II century A.D. the city experienced a period of unprecedented development which also brought its final configuration with the construction of Bouleuterion (No. 2) and Odeon (No. 6). It was quickly followed by the installation of the Library (No. 4) and ends with Arch of Triumph (No. 3).

The Archaeological Museum of Apolonia was established in 1958. The museum contains artifacts unearthed nearby from the archaeological site of Apollonia. The first attempts to conduct excavations in Apollonia were made during World War I by Austrian archaeologists who mainly unearthed and explored 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 center of the city. During the late 1920s and 1930s, Rey pressed for an archaeological museum to house the artifacts his team uncovered but lack of finance prolonged it. Finally on October 8, 1936 the collection of archaeological finds at Apollonia were exhibited in the government building in Vlorë, which suffered bombardment and looting during World War II. After the war, further archeological finds saw another campaign for a public museum, but in the Apollonia area. The archaeologists S. Anamali and H. Ceka successfully raised the finances needed to open a museum and the 1000 square meter museum opened in the village of Pojan, within the ancient site, in 1958. During the communist period the museum was viewed as a considerable success. A lot of excavations made by Albanian archaeologists during a 40-year period were exhibited in the museum. However, in 1991 it was looted and subsequently closed. The Archaeological Museum of Apollonia National Park reopened in 2011 after being closed for 20 years. The museum's collection of over 688 important objects and their large number of ancient coins make it among the richest museums in the country. The project to restore the archaeological museum was launched in 2008 with a funding of $140,000 from UNESCO. The museum's collection had been stored in the Institute of Cultural Monuments in Tirana, Albania's capital, prior to reopening.

Portico on the east side of the Archaeological Museum of Apollonia containing an impressive collection of statues.

This set of five rooms next to the bouleuterion is part of the annexes of an Ionic temple. Examination of the remains of this sector also reveals the presence of a symmetrical wing to the west. There are also some traces of the base of a portico connecting these two wings and surrounding the temple on three sides. The closure of the temenos (sacred enclosure) on the street is not known. We distinguish in the Temple remains only the podium (base) and some elements of architecture, through podium divisions, the cella (part of the temple reserved for priests and houses the statue of the deity), the narthex (vestibule), and three bases for the cult statue and probably two altars. Excavations in 1960 brought to light eleven sculptures from the II and III Century AD. They stand for the most senior judges, which leads to believe that the building would have served as a prytanee. The five rooms of the east wing could house the administration and housing for priests attached to this little sanctuary.

The monastery and the church of Saint Mary date back to the 13th century. The monastic complex is Byzantine style and is built with recycled bricks and blocks from the ancient buildings of Apollonia. The church is one of the first of this type in Albania in the shape of the cross in the plan with a central dome. The capitals of the porch are typical Romanesque style influenced from south Italy. In the front of the church is the refectory where are still preserved some wall paintings of the 14th century. Under the level of the floor opens some excavations of earlier remains where there is the mosaic floor with zoomorphic motifs of an early Christian Church dating to 4-5 century in the back side of the church is the statuary porch and in the second floor of the monastery the archeological museum of Apollonia.

In front of the church there is the Refectory, which was built before the church and has most of the mural fresco of the XIV century, in this complex, which were damaged during the First and Second World Wars. Inside the Refectory you can recognize the ruins of a 4th century early Christian basilica which retains part of its polychrome mosaic floor. Today, the entire monastic complex has been transformed into an archaeological museum center dedicated to the site of Apollonia, with the portico of statues and the rooms on the first floor of the monastery.

Discovered in 1995, these three premises are of almost square shape (3.45 x 3.40 meters), surrounded by very thick walls, open to the west with a threshold of 1.82 meters wide where you can still see the furrows left by the closing door which proves the existence of a solid double door. The floor was of pressed dirt. These premises because of the thick walls that could protect them from moisture and maintain a fairly constant temperature were interpreted as premises used for storage of goods. The set is believed to belong to the second half of II century A.D. The construction of these stores has damaged on the northern end a large tank with brick walls out of which exist only two basins communicating through an opening arced wedge. The retaining pillar on the northern wall has cracks caused by seismic shaking. The hydraulic coating that sealed the basins is still visible to the naked eye. This tank which was supplied from the damaged end was in service in IV-II Centuries B.C.

The temple, out of which only the foundation blocks are visible, stands on a podium which on the north is supported on the retaining wall of the Sacred Road. On the east it looks toward the agora, and its west facade, badly damaged, dominates the northern end of the Portico with 17 niches. The latter has undergone a change in its design to support the massive temple foundations. Dimensions: 16x11.50 m. Date: second half of II Century B.C., with possible renewal in II Century A.D. This temple is a sine peripteros postico (no colonnade on the rear cover) of the Corinthian order. It is preceded by a monumental staircase which has two phases. The staircase itself is preceded by a line of brick which ensures the flow of water from the hill, it leads to an open-air plaza and was expected to be the altar. To the rear is the open colonnade of the pronaos which gives access to the cella divided into three naves. The lack of inscriptions makes it difficult to know what deity the temple was dedicated to. Its position at the entrance to the agora and the division of the cella into three naves might suggest a Capitol (temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva). 

Located on the western edge of the terrace overlooking the theater, this building was discovered in 1996. Dimensions: 19.84x19.14m. It consists of four parts: a portico 14x5.80 m which exits directly on to the Sacred Road, the main room with a centerpiece mosaic of white monochrome (12x11.20 m), four side corridors 2.90m wide, paved with brick cubics 5x5 cm, and back to the west, a panoramic esplanade looking on the sea with the same pavement tiles. The lack of drainage system in the main room makes us believe this was a covered building that served as a gathering place for the believers before they go in procession on the Sacred Road. The building is bordered on the east side by a large gully discovered by the French archaeologist Leo Rey. At the rear of each side of the plaza, a staircase allowed direct access to the lower terrace of the theater. The building in its present form dates from II Century A.D. but it had two previous periods, the first, smaller plan dates back to the late VI Century B.C. At the end of the II Century A.D. The rear esplanade is partly occupied by the upper floor of a Roman house.

Discovered by the French archaeologist Leon Rey in 1925, the portico was built around the third century B.C. for a dual function: it retains the slopes of the hill 104 and provides communication between the southern monumental center and north agora. It measures 78.20 x 9.20 meters. The back wall is punctuated by 17 niches, all perfectly preserved, which were decorated with marble statues. In addition to its aesthetic value, this architectural solution also helps to resist the slope pressure and landslide. The portal is divided into two aisles by an axial colonnade featuring octagonal Doric columns (27 bases are conserved but the building is believed to have counted 35) with an intercolumniation distance of 2.20 meters. The front wall facing the sea presented the same structure. The portico was a stage with a single nave that had disappeared, where only fragments of the ionic colonnade and parapet elements still exist. From this floor you could go directly to the plaza of the agora. This monument has withstood frequent seismic tremors in the region and is one of the best preserved in the site. This building of original apolloniate architecture has no exact parallel in the ancient world.