Butrint passed through rule under the Slavs, Byzantines, and Angevins. Following a period of prosperity under Byzantine administration, then a brief occupation by the Venetians, the ancient city of Butrint was abandoned in the late Middle ages, when marshes covered the whole area. In 1386, the Venetian Republic purchased the area from the Angevin Kings and held control of Butrint and the island of Corfu just across the straits until the fall of the Venetian Empire in the late 17·00’s.