SAZAN ISLAND

This island (Ishulli I Sazanit) closing the bay of Vlora is the largest of the Albanian coastline. With an area of 5.7 km2, it extends over 4.8 km in length from north to south and 2.7 km from east to west. Military zone during the communist period, it is part of the National Marine Park of Karaburun-Sazan (125.70 km2) created in 2002. If it is open to the public since 2015, it has no reception structure. Its environment is interesting with vegetation distinct from the rest of the Albanian coastline, seven species of amphibians and thirteen species of lizards (but no vipers), three hills, one of which rises to 342 m above sea level, a river, sandy beaches (to the east) and a beautiful cove (to the west). One can also discover shipwrecks in the harbor, equipment rusting here and there along the runways, bunkers and underground shelters, ruined barracks and soil contaminated by chemical substances. For centuries, the island was the focus of rivalries between the powers seeking to control the Straits of Otranto. Ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Greece in 1864, it was briefly inhabited by Italian settlers in the 1940s, before being attached to Albania in 1947. From then on, Sazan became one of the most secret and best kept places of the communist dictatorship. Even today, the Italian and Albanian navies operate there from the bay of San Nicolò (northeast) to control the smuggling boats passing drugs and cigarettes to Brindisi.