Tourism without heritage: Durrës opens the season with museums closed

The large-sized table at the entrance to the Archaeological Museum of Durrës has remained the same as it was three years ago, when its restoration works began with 348 million lek funding from the European Union's EU4Culture program.

Only the estimated completion date for the reconstruction has changed three times. Initially, the deadline for completion of the works was in November 2023. It was later postponed to February 2024 and April 2025, and has now been postponed again to the end of July.

But this is not the only museum that will keep its doors closed to tourists during this year's summer season.

Several years of delays in the restoration of Durrës museums have kept the cultural heritage sites in the ancient city away from the prying eyes of the public.

The Archaeological Museum, first inaugurated in 2003, is being restored for the second time in the last 15 years, and delays in the works are repeated.

“Although the interest of foreign tourists has been growing, we find ourselves in difficulty when informing them that the country’s largest Archaeological Museum is closed,” Bjordi Xhafa, a tourist guide from the coastal city, told BIRN.

"The cultural tour time in Durrës now does not exceed two hours, much less, as in addition to the Archaeological Museum, the Ethnographic Museum also continues to undergo reconstruction," Bjordi added.

According to the new guide, the Roman Baths also cannot be visited due to restoration works at the "Aleksandër Moisiu" Theater.

The 2nd century AD monument and the city's modern theater have coexisted since 1965, when the Baths were discovered by archaeologists in the foundations of the theater building.  

Tourist groups interested in the cultural heritage of our country continue their journey to two other countries in the Western Balkans - Montenegro and North Macedonia.

However, the number of visitors to ancient Durrës has increased year by year. 

“Since the beginning of this year, the Ancient Amphitheater and the Venetian Tower have been visited by a total of 13,500 local and foreign tourists,” the director of the Museum Center, Alban Ramohito, told BIRN.

"In both facilities that are visited for a ticket, in these five months there are about 2,300 more visitors than in the same period last year," he added.

According to the same source, the restoration of the Archaeological Museum will be completed when the antiquity pavilion on the first floor of the building is recreated, and the Middle Ages pavilion, very little known in the history of the coastal city, is created for the first time.

The upper floor of the building will serve for didactic meetings, while the courtyard will be turned into a small archaeological park, all as foreseen in the restoration contract.

"All of this will take time," said Director Ramohito.

Durrës is also expected to see the return of the "Cultural Monument" building, known as the Ethnographic Museum and the "House of Alexander Moses".

“We are satisfied with the quality of the restoration works, which have reached the stage of installing the lighting fixtures,” Alketa Tragaj, director of the “Aleksandër Moisiu” Cultural Center, told BIRN.

"We are preparing the return of the fund of works of art, ethnographic objects and stands dedicated to Moses," Tragaj added, recalling that when the November 2019 earthquake severely damaged the building, everything was sheltered in the theater's premises.

However, the future of the apartment, which has been returned to its rightful owners, has not yet been decided. 

Cultural leaders in Durrës are seeking an optimal solution for the 19th-century building located next to the medieval fortification walls.

The lack of the city's two largest museums is expected to be somewhat filled by the exhibitions opened in recent years by several specialists passionate about the city's new history.

Brunilda Liçaj, a lecturer at the "Aleksandër Moisiu" University, told BIRN that despite lacking financial support, the "Eavesdropped Tourists" exhibition, which has been operating in the city center since last year, has aroused a lot of interest among foreign tourist groups.

The materials and interviews have been compiled into a documentary, which could give another boost to visits to the exhibition with objects of visits to Albania by tourists who were wiretapped by the State Security.

Likewise, the private MuzehLab exhibition, which opened a few years ago, is a great idea. Although these exhibitions are commendable, tour operators emphasize that they cannot replace museums.  

"But the repeated absence of the two most important museums for the history of the ancient city cannot be easily replaced," said Bjordi Xhafa. Reporter.al