Arapaj is a village in the former municipality of

Rrashbull Rrashbull is a village and a former municipality in the Durrës County, western Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous ...

Durrës County Durrës County ( sq, Qarku i Durrësit), officially the County of Durrës ( sq, Qarku i Durrësit, italic=unset), is a county in the Northern Region of the Republic of Albania. It is the smallest by area and the second most populous of the twe ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality

Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of ...

. It is a southern suburb of

, located near the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

coast, approximately 6 kilometres south of this city. Arapaj is a noted archaeological site, containing the substantial

Basilica of Saint Michael The Basilica of Saint Michael ( sq, Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit) is a former basilica dedicated to Saint Michael, located in Arapaj, Durrës. Its ruins have been declared a Cultural Monument of Albania, Cultural Monument of Albania. The Basilica of ...

dedicated to

Saint Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

, an early Palaeo-Christian church which is believed to back to the fifth or sixth century. It has been declared a

Cultural Monument A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...

because of its architectural significance. A mosaic unearthed in the Basilica also demonstrates how engrained its culture was later on with the early

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

References

External links

Maplandia World Gazetteer
{{Authority control Populated places in Durrës Archaeological sites in Albania Villages in Durrës County