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Vuno

Vuno is a village in the Albanian Riviera. It is located in the municipality of Himarë, in the District of Vlorë, Albania, along the road between Himarë and Dhërmi.
The village is known for its many World War II heroes.

It is said that because of the village's situation on the hills, which ascend to about 300 metres (980 ft), the village's name derives from the Greek word Vouno, meaning "mountain".

History

The village has many churches, but they are not operational as currently there are no priests in the village. A church that can be found in the Jali beach dates back to the 14th century and has a Venetian architecture. Two other churches, dedicated respectively to St. Spyridon's Church, Vuno (1778) and to Saint Mary (1783) are still relatively well preserved.

Local legend holds that the inhabitants of the village hail from the city of Shkodër and moved to Vuno, where they built the church of Saint Mary. The church is still well preserved at a salient point of the village, called Scutara. This church used to be a catholic one but subsequently it was converted into an Eastern Orthodox one.

The village gave many partisans to the National Liberation Army, during World War II. Four of them were posthumously awarded with the People's Hero of Albania decoration. The most well known of them is Zaho Koka.

Attractions

The beaches of Vuno together with the ones in Himarë represent the main tourist attraction of the municipality during the summer months. Jaliskari beach, between Vuno and Dhërmi, has became a well-known summer resort attracting tourists all over the world.

Language

The inhabitants of Vuno use both Albanian and Greek, as in many villages of the region, although in the day-to-day language, mainly Albanian is used The Albanian local dialect is a southern Tosk one, more precisely a Labërisht sub-dialect. Labërisht itself is composed of non-unical language groups.