A large fire engulfed the Archeological Park of Finic during Thursday afternoon. According to the announcements of the Albanian authorities, in the area where the fire first started, there are olive groves planted by the residents of the area, as well as the residents' homes. Then the fire spread to the hill of the Archeological Park of Finiq, in the west-east direction.
The authorities have announced that then, due to the wind in that area, the direction of the fire went in the northeast direction, including the entire hill of the Archaeological Park, in the northern direction. They announced that the fire also spread in the north-south direction, burning the vegetation surrounding the hill of the Archeological Park of Finiq, as well as the two sides of the road leading to the Park, from the water tank to the ticket office.
But, according to the Ministry of Culture, it turns out that none of the monuments of the Archeological Park of Finiq, which can be visited by visitors, were affected by the fire. This, according to this Ministry, is because all the monuments had a security perimeter, cleared of vegetation.
"Also, the ticket office of the Archeological Park of Finiq was not affected by the fires, as the ticket office also has a security perimeter, cleared of vegetation, but also, the ticket office is also equipped with the relevant means of protection against fire", announced this ministry.
According to this institution, another factor that has influenced the non-penetration of fires in the monuments of the Archaeological Park are also the itineraries within the Park, where there is no vegetation present in any of them, which would help in the penetration of the fire.
"Currently, there is no source of fire in the Archeological Park of Finiq, in the visitable monuments of this park, as it became possible to extinguish it through intervention from the air by helicopter, from the ground with fire extinguishers, where the employees of the Sector were also helpful in Saranda (under DRTK Vlorë) and the Archeological Park of Finiq", the announcement reads.
On Thursday evening, it was announced that the only active hearth is at the northernmost end of the Archaeological Park, under the hill, near the villages of Blerimas and Buronjë, where there is no known monument presence in this area until today, as well as where it is being interfered with from the air with a helicopter and from the ground with a fire extinguisher, to extinguish it.
According to the data of the Finic Municipality, archaeological research in Finic revealed that this city, both in antiquity and later, developed a vigorous cult activity both in the idols that are embodied in the found objects and in the Christian orthodoxies that followed.
"A few meters away from the Basilica there are remains of a Christian church, while in the place called 'Palea Avli' there are ruins of Paleo-Christian temples with diverse mosaics. The episcopal temple of Finic in honor of the name of the Virgin 'Zoodochos Pigi' seems from the beginning to have been built on top of an older basilica and later rebuilt a new one with the same name in the center of the town located on the slopes of the mountain. it is written on the website of the Municipality.
Clarifications are given there that archaeologists' excavations in Finiq revealed the characteristic dwelling with two peristyles of the 700rd century BC. The dwelling had an almost quadrangular cross-section and covers an area of XNUMX square meters and consists of a large quadrangular courtyard with a peristyle, around which several small rooms line up.
The coin inscriptions testify to Phoenician trade exchanges with flourishing cities during the 4th-1st centuries BC.
