The Durres Amphitheatre, a 2700-year-old monument, the biggest of its kind built by the Romans outside Rome, would be further gradually and cautiously unveiled as an open heart of the ancient and contemporary Durres, thanks to a project on revitalization of the site under a design by the renowned architect Stefano Boeri.

The renovation project with a direct impact on development of tourism and local economy is an outcome of the successful cooperation between the government and Durres municipality aimed at creating a fresh vision for Durres as a city boasting tremendous development potential.

The project was unveiled by the Italian architect Stefano Boeri this evening during an event at the Roman Amphitheatre, attended by the Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Minister of Culture Elva Margariti, Durres Mayor Emiriana Sako and local residents.

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Thank you very much! I would like to express my pleasure and the gratitude to the whole project team, because this is really an extremely challenging project, a very complex one, as well a long-term project, because not only for financial reasons, but also for the project’s slow progress as utmost caution should be exercised to preserve the site and all this historic and culture heritage asset that has yet to be explored  and very carefully discovered, as well as because of the need for the project to become to the benefit of the residents and the owners of the buildings and homes around the amphitheatre.

This is a project that, on the one hand, definitely guarantees us to go on with the work we have launched a few years ago with the discovery of a part of this colossal wealth, but it will also go on as a project of a generation and actually reflects a very great ambition, because the project’s progress will indeed be another driving force for the economy, tourism development, for art and culture, not just for the city of Durrës, but for the whole nation.

What makes Durres increasingly important on the map of the country’s overall development is the fact that Durres, due to its location, its potential and heritage bears a specific importance, which will keep growing, with a major impact at a national level. That’s why investments in Durres are not merely investment projects in a limited area of a certain municipality, but these investments have a much broader impact rather than the impact on Durres municipality alone.

Such an investment drive definitely makes Durres citizens and residents direct and main beneficiaries, yet it also brings a great benefit to everyone else.

Exponential growth of property value in Durres is another important aspect, with value of properties already significantly edging up compared to other cities, including Tirana, thanks to the tourist port project. However, this is just a very important element that will drive the real estate value up for all Durres residents, while the amphitheatre project is yet another element in a series of projects we are launching that will also help the property value to go up. The cultural and sport grounds projects will also play a major role in increasing the value of the properties, because the arteries of circulation of the city’s energies will expand further and will drive demand for real estate up here in Durres.

The third and last element I would like to highlight is the art and culture aspect of the project. We very much wished to do a lot more about sport, but we have done as much as we could, because, as I have already repeatedly stated and you also know, the barriers we have been encountering have been actually tremendous, surprising and we have been forced to observe mass deflections, not in terms of the attention, but also in terms of funds and it is only now that we have succeeded in creating the opportunity so that we can take an important step forward regarding the sports project. The same goes for the arts and culture.

Largest funding has been earmarked under this year’s state budget for the arts and culture calendar during the tourist season along Albania’s entire coastline, with Durres holding a primary place, a program that has been drafted and implemented thanks to the cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and the Ministry of Culture, with the National Tourism Agency being tasked with the program implementing role.

The project features yet another component, namely the urban redesign and requalification of the streets and alleys around this site, requalification of the historic buildings on the other side of the main thoroughfare and such a project can be certainly implemented under the care of Durres municipality in collaboration with the Albanian-American Development Fund, an extremely important and strategic partner of our government, our municipalities, which is set to implement a project in Durres for the very first time, after a series of very successful experiences in several other municipalities.

Thank you very much everyone and have a nice evening ahead!