Porto Palermo Bay

Porto Palermo Bay and its setting on the Albanian Riviera

Porto Palermo Bay lies in southern Albania, a few kilometres south of Himarë along the Albanian Riviera, between the larger coastal towns of Vlorë to the north and Saranda to the south. The road connecting those two towns runs to the east of the bay. The area is associated with Llamani beach, and the Albanian Government has announced plans to grant the combined area the status of Protected Landscape.

The bay's shoreline has been used for defensive purposes from antiquity through to the Second World War, a consequence of its sheltered position on a coastline otherwise exposed to the Adriatic and Ionian seas.

Construction of Porto Palermo Castle by Ali Pasha

The castle standing in the bay today was built in the early nineteenth century by Ali Pasha of Tepelena. An inscription above the entrance records that it was constructed in 1804 by French engineers working for Ali Pasha. Researchers consider it unlikely that a Venetian or Ottoman fortification occupied the site before this structure was raised.

Ali Pasha's motivation was defensive: he was concerned about the exposed coastal flank of his pashalik, and Porto Palermo was one of several sea fortresses he ordered built along that stretch of coast. The castle is described as the most well-preserved garrison he erected in the region. Its construction was praised in verse by Ioannis Vilaras, a Greek poet who was a member of Ali Pasha's court.

In 1803, before the castle was complete or fully armed, Ali Pasha offered it and the port to the Royal Navy. At that time the fort held only four or five cannon, suggesting Ali Pasha himself did not regard the position as strategically critical to his own operations.

Site formation: from island to peninsula

The site on which the castle stands was originally a small island in the bay. It was subsequently connected to the Albanian mainland by landfill work, creating the low narrow isthmus that links it to the shore. The castle therefore stands on what is effectively a man-made peninsula.

The French traveller François Pouqueville, writing in 1806, described the position precisely: 'The tower or fort stands on the southern point of the entrance, connected with the continent by a low narrow isthmus.' His account also notes warehouses, a custom-house, and a Greek church in the immediate vicinity.

Architecture and layout of the castle

Porto Palermo Castle is a three-sided fortress with three large gun bastions positioned at its corners and an open terrace facing south. At its centre is a hexagonal chamber with a domed ceiling supported by six large pillars; this chamber provides access to all the rooms and terraces within the structure.

Soldiers were quartered in rectangular rooms. The southern terrace is reached by a staircase. The castle also incorporates observation posts protected by walls, and a number of guard houses with stone roofs. The combination of bastions, observation posts, and a central circulation chamber reflects the functional requirements of a coastal garrison of the early nineteenth century.

Contemporary accounts and the castle's military value

Two near-contemporary observers left records of the castle shortly after its construction. The British military surveyor William Martin Leake visited the fort and noted that its garrison consisted of only ten men equipped with two four-pound cannon—a very modest complement for a coastal fortification.

Pouqueville, writing in 1806, was direct in his assessment of the castle's military limitations: 'It consists of a square with bastions, having a few guns, of no service either to command the entrance or to protect the shipping at anchor.' His description aligns with Leake's, suggesting the fort served more as a symbolic or administrative presence than as a serious defensive work in the years immediately following its completion.

Protected status and position within Albanian heritage

Porto Palermo Castle is situated west of the Vlorë–Saranda road within the bay of Porto Palermo. The Albanian Government has indicated that the bay area, together with Llamani beach, will be proclaimed a Protected Landscape, though this status had not yet been formally granted at the time of the article.

The castle appears on the List of Castles in Albania and is referenced in the context of the Albanian Riviera and the broader geography and tourism framework of southern Albania. Its relatively intact condition, compared to other fortifications associated with Ali Pasha's rule, makes it a documented reference point for the early nineteenth-century Ottoman coastal defence network in the region.