Durres, Albania. Notes on urban history and future perspectives

Albania, Durres, Adriatic City? While it is geographically and historically inconfutable that Durres belongs to the Adriatic, this very condition is contradicted by urban events that occurred in the city during the final decades of the twentieth century. It was during this period that the autarchic choices made by the dying communist regime condemned the country, and its cities, to almost total isolation. Durres, as a coastal and harbour city, since its origins devoted to commerce and trade, has thus only recently been conquered. In reality, the city began to open up toward foreign relations less than twenty years ago, and only in recent years has it has been witness to an important acceleration in the process of integration within an international world, a process that still appears to be in its early stages. If this twenty year period of transition is perhaps the key focus of analysis and reflection, to the degree they are interested in the destinies and futures of the city, it appears opportune to examine the transformations that occurred at the dawn of the modern era, at the very least with the intention of framing the origins of the processes and problems that often recur in the present. A number of factors work against attempts to reconstruct the urban history of this important Mediterranean city. It would appear that the time has come to channel the efforts of anyone interested in considering its present condition and participating in the development of any responsible project for its future. This text, by returning to the contents of previous articles, attempts to offer an initial, partial contribution to this theme through reflections on the scenarios to be faced by the Adriatic city in the coming years; scenarios that appear no less dense with problems than those of the recent past.