BUTRINTO, a small Albanian town which can be reached from Argyrocastro but less easily from Janina, from which it is separated by a range of hills. The town occupies the site of an ancient fortress on a headland facing the northern end of Corfu. It is on the shores of a fine bay a mile in length with an anchorage of 14 to 16 fathoms. The harbour is too far to the south to be worth developing and it is badly served by communications inland. It is only a few miles from the present Greco-Albanian frontier and so is subject to rapid occupation in the event of war. It lies on a rough coast-road that leads northwards to Valona. Its prox imity to Corfu would prevent free access to it by sea if Corfu were occupied by hostile forces. Extensive fisheries are carried on at Butrinto and the markets of Corfu are largely supplied from this source. The lakes and marshes near the town abound in waterfowl of many kinds. The town is scantily populated and in no sense modernized. The entrance to the harbour is largely silted up.
Butrinto is usually identified with the ancient Buthrotum, a city said to have been founded in the time of the Trojan war. It seems to have been an Illyrian or Epirote town of no great importance and not a Greek city state. It became, however, a Roman colony by the time of Strabo. In the middle ages it was made a Venetian fortress with fortifications that still survive. It remained in Vene tian hands until 1 797 when Ali Pasha of Tepelen occupied it.