Albania's Liberty City — independence was declared here on November 28, 1912, the Albanian Riviera begins at the bay below, and the WWII submarine pens in the Bay of Vlorë are the most dramatic Cold War relic in the Adriatic
Vlorë (also Vlora) is the second city of Albania — a port city of 100,000 on a sweeping bay at the mouth of the Adriatic Sea, where Albania declared independence on November 28, 1912, making it the country's symbolic 'Liberty City.' The Albanian Riviera — one of Europe's most dramatic and least-developed coastal stretches, with limestone cliffs dropping to turquoise water — begins just south of Vlorë at Radhimë and extends through Dhërmi, Himara, and Sarandë toward Greece. The Bay of Vlorë contains the ruins of the Albanian Naval Base (used by the Soviet Navy from 1955–1961, one of the most s…
The area around Vlorë was ancient Aulon — a Greek colony founded in the 7th century BCE and later an important port of the Roman province of Macedonia. The Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti (Skanderbeg) held the region against the Ottoman advance in the 15th century. Vlorë was under Ottoman rule from 1417 until November 28, 1912, when Ismail Qemali raised the Albanian double-headed eagle flag at the Vlorë Independence Assembly — establishing the first Albanian state in the modern era. During the Cold War, Albania under Enver Hoxha allowed Soviet nuclear submarines to use the Vlorë base…