Albanian Parliament holds hearing after ancient ruins found in square reconstruction

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – The discovery of segments of the ancient city of Dyrrachium in the Albanian port city of Durrës which came to the surface after a major reconstruction project of the Town Hall have prompted the Albanian Parliament to investigate on the legality of the construction project.

After the €6 million ‘Veliera Square’ project to rehabilitate a public area close to the main Port Terminal resulted in the ancient city appearing to the surface and following credible doubts were thrown on the legality of the project being implemented on a cultural heritage area, the Albanian Parliament has called the Minister of Culture Mirela Kumbaro and Mayor of Durrës Vangjush Dako to give explanations about the project.

Kumbaro and Dako appeared today in front of the Education and Public Information Committee at the Albanian Parliament.

Culture Minister Kumbaro said that the responsibility lies with the Agency of Archeological Sevice of Albania which was officially asked in September 2016 to monitor the whole reconstruction project.

Durrës Mayor Vangjush Dako said that the work was ‘open and deliberately left open while we are open for anyone to visit the site and if told that the escavation is damaging the city, we could preserve the objcts and take them to the museum’.

Committee chair and prominent opposition MP Genc Pollo noted conflicting information between the minister and mayor and said that the ‘civil society as well as archaeologists have reacted and informedthe Parliament continuously’ while Mayor Dako dismissed the claims and insisted that the work started after an Environmental Impact Assessment was properly conducted.

Civil society and archaeology activists have protested against plans to build a new square in a highly valuable historical and archaeological area of Durrës where ancient medieval and ancient ruins have appeared after the digging started.

​Civil society representatives at the Committe Hearing said that the ‘Mayor has started work withour proper environmental permissions while 3 articles of the Penal Code have been violated’ asking for the project to be halted immediately.

The construction site is situated a few yards from the ancient Roman wall and the Venetian Tower while representatives of several interest groups and civil society organizations have accused Durres Mayor Vangjush Dako of destroying the archaeological treasures in the ancient city.

The new ‘Veliera’ Square will be 12,000 square meters large while the reconstruction projects costs €6 million euros.

Durres has suffered decades of improper cultural and archaeological attention from state authorities while chronic corruption and the nonexistence of institutional responsibility have resulted in several cases of abuse with numerous building permissions which have in large stubbornly ignored cultural heritage legislation in power.

 

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