Archaeological Museum of Durrës

Established in 1951, the Archaeological Museum of Durrës houses over 3,000 artifacts from ancient Durrës, spanning Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Medieval periods.

Planning your visit

Durres was Dyrrachium, and it was one of the most important cities on the Adriatic — the western terminus of the Via Egnatia, the Roman road running across the Balkans to Byzantium, which made it the gateway between Italy and the East for a thousand years.

The archaeological museum, the largest in Albania, holds over 3,000 objects from Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and medieval Durres: sculpture, ceramics, glass, coins, mosaics and funerary material, including a substantial collection of Hellenistic terracotta figurines from the local necropolis.

The Roman amphitheatre nearby is the largest in the Balkans, built in the second century for perhaps 20,000 spectators and only rediscovered in 1966 beneath the modern town, with a Byzantine chapel and its mosaics installed inside it.

The two are visited together.

Bookable options include combined museum and amphitheatre tours. Current availability is listed below.