The Ruins of the Monastery of 40 Saints

 The ruins of the Monastery of 40 Saints are located to the east of the city of Saranda, on the hill of the “Qafë Gjashtës” opposite the castle of Lëkurës. 

The monastery had a rectangular structure with a length of about 43 m and a width of 23 m. The interior of it was organized in seven conches equal. The Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini, who studied the monastery in the mid-1920s, says that: the church was one of the best and the most beautiful, he had seen in Albania.The basilica was built in late antiquity as a pilgrimage center dedicated to the cult of the 40 Saints for Christian believers from various countries of the Balkans and the shores of the Ionian and Adriatic. In the 1940s it was demolished by World War II bombings. 

Archaeological excavations in recent years have revealed new data about the baptistery, which is a made-up complex of different environments, with nine individual or collective baptismal tubs and two pools.  The inscriptions with wall tiles on the church wall facade are interesting.  

 It used to be a monastery and a pilgrimage center, but today it is a tourist destination. This time-damaged building that lies on the hill, in a plan where the columns stand out, the symmetrical rows of windows, the arches above them, the halls and vestibules built of stone always remains such an attractive destination for all visitors.  These ruins hold on the hill, a unique work of human heritage and cult.