Aulona

Vlorë

Municipality

Seal

Vlorë

Coordinates: 40°27.9′N 19°29.1′E / 40.4650°N 19.4850°ECoordinates: 40°27.9′N 19°29.1′E / 40.4650°N 19.4850°E

Country

Albania

County

Vlorë

Government

• Mayor

Dritan Leli (SP)

Area

• Municipality

616.85 km² (238.17 sq mi)

Population (2015)

• Municipality

130,827

• Municipality density

210/km² (550/sq mi)

• Administrative Unit

194,147

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Postal Code

9401-9405

Area Code

(0)33

Vehicle registration

Website

Official Website

Vlorë is the third largest city and a municipality in Albania. It is also the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës. Geographically, it has a coastline on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic and Ionian Sea, which forms the Bay of Vlorë.

Vlorë was founded as an ancient Greek colony in the 6th century BC by the name of Aulon and continuously inhabited for about 26 centuries. It became a bishopric (twice) and remains a Latin Catholic titular see. In modern times, the city was briefly the capital of Albania. It is where the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on November 28 in 1912. It is also one of the most cultural and economically significant cities of southwestern Albania. Vlorës is home to Albania's second largest port, the Port of Vlorë.

The modern name for the city is the Albanian form Vlorë or Vlora, both pronounced [ˈvlɔɾə], while in the Gheg dialect it is known as Vlonë, Vlona. Vlorë was created in antiquity as a Greek colony in the territory of Illyria. Its first name was Aulón (Greek: Αυλών, also the name in modern Katharevousa), meaning "channel" or "glen" and possibly a translation of another indigenous name. The medieval and modern Greek name is Avlonas (Αυλώνας /av'lonas/, accusative Αυλώνα /av'lona/), and is the source of the Latin Aulona, Italian name Valona (also used in other languages) and of the obsolete English Avlona. During the Ottoman era the city of Vlorë was known in Turkish as Avlonya.

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Wikipedia