Butrint

Butrint

In the 1st century BC, Virgil set one of the most heartbreaking scenes in Latin literature at this lagoon: Andromache, widow of Hector, pouring offerings into an empty tomb she built for her dead husband — because Troy was ash and his ashes were unreachable. He called it 'parva Troia,' little Troy. The peninsula Virgil described is this one. The theater where 600 slaves were formally freed over one century has their names carved into the limestone walls, still visible. The baptistery floor mosaics beneath the park are so fragile they're only uncovered for six weeks each summer. UNESCO arrived in 1992. Virgil arrived first.