the area, by using the Latin bishops, including the archbishop of Durrës. The city had been the religious center of the Catholicism after the Anjou was installed in Durrës. In 1272, a Catholic archbishop was installed and until the mid-14th century a double line of Catholic and Orthodox archbishops of Durrës seems to exist.
Two Irish pilgrims, who visited Albania on their way to Jerusalem in 1322, report that Durres is “inhabited by Latins, Greeks, perfidious Jews and barbaric Albanians”.
When the Serbian King (Tsar) Dušan, died in 1355, the city passed into the hands of the Albanian family of Thopias. In 1376 the Navarrese Company Louis of Évreux, Duke of Durazzowho had gained the rights on the Kingdom of Albania from his second wife, attacked and conquered the city, but in 1383, Karl Topia took once again control of the city. There public of Venice regained control in 1392 and retained the city, known as Durazzo in those years, as part of the Albania Veneta. It fended off a siege by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1466 but fell to Ottoman forces in 1501.
Durrës became a Christian city quite early on; its bishopric was created around 58 and was raised to the status of an archbishopric in 449. It was also the seat of a Greek Orthodox metropolitan bishop. Under Turkish rule, many of its inhabitants converted to Islam and many mosques were erected. This city was renamed as Dıraç, the city did not prosper under the Ottomans and its importance declined greatly. By the mid-19th century, its population was said to have been only about 1,000 people living in some 200 households. Its decrepitude was noted by foreign observers in the early 20th century: "The walls are dilapidated; plane-trees grow on the gigantic ruins of its old Byzantine citadel; and its harbor, once equally commodious and safe, is gradually becoming silted up." It was a sanjak centre in İşkodra Vilayet before 1912.
20th
