Kaninë is a settlement in the
Vlorë County, southwestern
Albania
Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality
Vlorë
Vlorë ( ; ; sq-definite, Vlora) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, third most populous city of Albania and seat of Vlorë County and Vlorë Municipality. Located in southwestern Albania, Vlorë sprawls on the Bay of Vlorë and is surr ...
. It is home to the
Kaninë Castle.
Name
According to one theory, a fort which
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...
identifies as ''Kionin'' in Epirus Vetus may be a reference to Kanina.
The other view holds that the name of the fortified settlement of Kanina was attested for the first time at the beginning of the 11th century AD in
Byzantine Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the F ...
as (in plural form).
Bardhyl Demiraj argues that the toponym is significant for the history of the
Albanian language
Albanian (Endonym and exonym, endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid, Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan group. It ...
since ''Kanina'' represents a toponym that shows no sign of the dialect phenomenon of
rhotacism, which is explained by him with the fact that the settlement was recorded with the name ''Kanina'' in a period during which rhotacism in Albanian was no longer active for some time. On the other hand, the name of nearby ''
Vlorë
Vlorë ( ; ; sq-definite, Vlora) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, third most populous city of Albania and seat of Vlorë County and Vlorë Municipality. Located in southwestern Albania, Vlorë sprawls on the Bay of Vlorë and is surr ...
'', attested earlier, was subject to the Albanian rhotacism.
History
The settlement of Kaninë developed below a hilltop
Kaninë Castle which overlooks the village. The first phase of the fort dates to the late 4th/early 3rd century BCE and is linked to the development of fortified sites in the region by
Illyrian tribes. Kaninë provided the main route of the
Amantes to the sea. The site of Kaninë has been proposed as a possible location for the unidentified ancient site of
Thronium, alternatively the site of
Triport has been proposed as a possible location for Thronium. The
stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...
of the site strongly indicate that the remains of the walls of the first phase were used for its rebuilding in late antiquity. Archaeological data coincide with the rebuilding efforts by Justinian in the 6th century CE. One of the forts which
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...
identifies as ''Kionin'' in Epirus Vetus may be a reference to Kanina.
In the early Middle Ages, the site seems to have been abandoned and very little activity is archaeologically visible in its vicinity. Kanina and Vlora likely saw a revitalization by the 11th century. In this era, the rebuilt and expanded fortress of Kanina must have acquired an "increasingly defensive and administrative character" in the region. In the 11th–12th centuries, Kanina () along with Jericho (
Oricum) and
Aulon, it formed a
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
province. As the ''Provincia Jericho et Caninon'', it appears in the imperial
chrysobull granted to Venice in 1198 by
Alexios III Angelos. In the 13th century it was part of the
Despotate of Epirus
The Despotate of Epirus () was one of the Greek Rump state, successor states of the Byzantine Empire established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 by a branch of the Angelos dynasty. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ...
, until
Michael II Komnenos Doukas gave it as dowry to his daughter
Helena Angelina Doukaina when she married King
Manfred of Sicily
Manfred (; 123226 February 1266) was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Manfred became regent over the Kingdom of Sicily on b ...
in 1258. In the decade of 1280 Kanina was contested between the Byzantine Empire and the Angevins. The contemporary poet Manuel Philis in his works recalls the campaign of
protostrator Michael Glabas Tarchaneiotis. It remained part of the
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...
thereafter, along with Aulon, until at least the 1330s.
Notable people
*
Donika Kastrioti
*
Ismail Qemali
Ismail Qemali, or Ismail Kemal, (; 16 January 184426 January 1919), was an Albanian politician and statesman who is regarded as the founder of modern Independent Albania, Albania. He served as the first Prime Minister of Albania, prime minister o ...
,
diplomat, politician, statesman and Founding Father of
Albania
Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
*
Zihni Kanina
See also
*
Spinarica
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanine
Populated places in Vlorë
Villages in Vlorë County
Illyrian Albania
Cities in ancient Illyria
Populated places of the Byzantine Empire
Labëria