History & culture
Ali Pasha's triangular fortress, and a Cold War submarine base.
Porto Palermo is the most strategically situated bay on the Albanian Riviera — sheltered, deep, and visible only from inside. That is why it has been militarily important since at least the 18th century, and why both Ali Pasha and Enver Hoxha put bases here. The triangular fortress on the peninsula is the visible relic of the first; the abandoned naval tunnels under the cliffs, the second.
The fortress
Ali Pasha of Yanina built (or substantially rebuilt) the triangular fortress on the Porto Palermo peninsula around 1804, on what was probably a Venetian-era site. The three-bastion design is unusual — most Ottoman coastal forts are square or round — and the position was chosen to control the narrow entrance to the inner bay. Ali Pasha's son Veli was nominally the governor; the fortress was both a military outpost and a private summer residence. Lord Byron visited the inner bay during his 1809 tour and wrote about it admiringly in 'Childe Harold.'
The submarine base
Between 1960 and 1990, the inner bay at Porto Palermo housed a Soviet-then-Albanian submarine base. The cliffs on the inland side of the bay are honeycombed with tunnels — submarine pens, fuel storage, crew quarters — built into the limestone. The Soviets used it briefly in the early 1960s before the Albanian-Soviet split; after 1961 Hoxha ran it independently with Chinese support. The base was abandoned in 1997 and the tunnels are now empty, partly flooded, and unsignposted. They can be visited cautiously.
Why it matters today
Porto Palermo is a 30-minute drive from Himarë. The fortress is a small euro to enter and worth half an hour for the views and the masonry. The bay below is one of the calmest swimming spots on the coast. The submarine tunnels are an unauthorised hike along the inner shore — wear shoes, bring a torch, do not go in deep without local guidance.
Most Riviera bays have one military layer. Porto Palermo has two, two centuries apart, on the same square mile.
