Ballsh

Ballsh stands near the ruins of Byllis, once the chief city of the Illyrian Bylliones. Its great walls enclosed a hill above the Vjosa valley, and in Hellenistic times a theater, stadium and marketplace rose within them. Byllis declined after the Slavic incursions of the sixth and seventh centuries; stone from the old city was reused to build nearby Ballsh, whose name developed from that of Byllis. Under the Ottomans, Ballsh became the center of the Mallakastër district within the sanjak of Berat.