when marshland encroached on its territory. By the early 19th century it was merely a small fishing village set around a Venetian fortress on the southern bank of the Vivari Channel. After that the Butrint area fell under Ottoman Rule until Albanian Independence was declared in 1912. During communist regime when Kruschev made a visit in 1960, a road was constructed from Saranda to the Butrint archaeological site. The Soviet leader proposed to build a submarine base in Lake Butrint with a deepened channel connected to the Straits of Corfu.
Butrint harbors some of the most extensive archaeological remains in the Balkans: Greek, Illyrian, Roman, Venetian and Ottoman ruins co-exist here on a tiny green peninsula between a lake and the Straits of Corfu