Travel Guide Vuno

Vuno/Vunoi (pronounced "vouno"/"vounoï") has a population of around 400 and is part of the municipality of Himara. The village lies 7.5 km west of Dhërmi and 63 km northwest of Saranda. Minibus connections to Vlora, Saranda and the "Albanian Riviera".Vuno means "mountain" in Greek, and this village lives up to its name. Built into the mountainside above the sea, this beautiful village of stone, alleyways and arched passageways is so narrow that two cars here have difficulty passing each other. As a result, Vuno has the only traffic light on the entire south coast. Mostly populated by Orthodox Albanians, this village played an active role in the region's 20th-century crises. Its inhabitants joined the Greeks against the Ottomans and Albanians in 1912, then allied with the Albanians against the Italians in 1920. During the Greco-Italian war of 1940-1941, Vuno found itself on the front line, firmly held by Mussolini's soldiers. In 1944, some villagers joined Enver Hoxha's partisans. A monument pays tribute to them in the village square. Almost deserted after the fall of communism (60% of the houses are abandoned or inhabited only in summer), Vuno retains a strong Orthodox identity with no fewer than twenty-five churches and chapels. A little further down the road, on the outskirts of Vuno, lies the little church of Saint-Spiridon (Kisha Shën Spiridhonit). Restored in 2015, it features 17th-century frescoes.