The Ruins of the Monastery of 40 Saints

The ruins of the Monastery of 40 Saints, named after the city of Saranda, lie to its east, in the most dominant part Hill, and are considered one of the most unique monuments of architecture. Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini, who studied it in the mid-1920s, says the church was probably one of the best, if not the most beautiful, it had seen in Albania.
The Basilica was built in late antiquity as a pilgrimage center dedicated to the cult of 40 Saints for Christian believers from various Balkan and Adriatic coasts. It served as a monastery and there were other auxiliary facilities for the reception of pilgrims, which began to be abandoned over time, but the church itself continued to be used until the middle of the century. XIX from a small community of monks.
After this time it was abandoned and gradually began to collapse, but its walls were standing until the 1940s, when they were toppled by World War Il bombing. The church is a large Heptakonka (Seven Conchs), about 43 m long and 23 m wide, which ends on the east side with a semicircular apse.