Manastiri i 40 Shenjtorëve

Above the city of Saranda, on Albania's Ionian coast, rise the side walls of a ruined Orthodox monastery. Manastiri i 40 Shenjtorëve was built in the sixth century, probably under the Byzantine emperor Justinian. In the Middle Ages its name passed to the town below, which grew into modern Saranda.

For at least a thousand years this was one of the great pilgrimage centres of the Ionian region. Pilgrims came for the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, early fourth-century soldiers executed in what is now Armenia. Tradition says they refused to sacrifice to pagan gods and stood naked on a frozen lake, most of them dying of cold. The martyrs' relics were believed to rest here, and the faithful reached the underground chamber through a passage on the north side. The basilica was the largest of its kind in the region, entered through three large doors. Beneath it stood forty small chapels, one dedicated to each martyr. The complex also held pilgrim hostels, holy water springs and a crypt, and the church once served as an episcopal seat.

Ottoman conquest damaged the complex after the fourteenth century, and by the early twentieth century the basilica stood roofless and abandoned. In 1944 the site was bombed because it was thought to shelter a German garrison. The communist era then levelled more of it and turned the grounds into a military base. Excavations between 2002 and 2013 uncovered sculpture, coins, glass, bone and ceramics. Yet the walls keep their decoration: two haloed figures holding open books survive in one of the six apsidal chambers. Four Greek inscriptions on the outer walls record donors and prayers for their protection. Declared a cultural monument in 1970, the place still draws visitors who leave flowers for the martyrs.