# Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit

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Content updated: 2026-06-22

Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit is a former early Christian basilica dedicated to Saint Michael, on Arapaj’s southern edge near Durrës. Its ruins are a Cultural Monument of Albania.

The church dates from the fifth or sixth century and remained in use until the eleventh century. Its eastward orientation remains visible in the surviving foundations. A three-lobed plan gave the nave and both aisles semicircular apses at their eastern ends. The plan marks a basilica built for a saint.

A southern burial chamber contained the remains of a man and a woman beneath a richly coloured polychrome mosaic. The mosaic remains covered by gravel for conservation. Its scenes show a seated woman and man with dogs, horses, goats and sheep, beside a two-handled crater pouring wine. A stag and a cow approach the streams.

Excavations also found carved stone columns and fragments of stone and bronze statues within the former church. The ruins resurfaced through late twentieth-century archaeological work. The site preserves evidence of Christian and Byzantine culture in the Durrës region. Its foundations, burial chamber and distinctive plan give the former basilica a clear architectural identity.

- City: [Durrës](https://mytuur.com/en/city/bashkia-durres-2/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_BazilikaeShnMhillit_683dbe0d717a3e13ab6fc140_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Basilica_of_Saint_Michael,_Arapaj.JPG)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_BazilikaeShnMhillit_683dbe0d717a3e13ab6fc140_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Basilica_of_Saint_Michael.JPG)

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