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Apollonia is located 12 kilometers away from the city of Fier. Apollonia as a city was founded in the early seventh century BC in the territories of the Illyrian Taulantians by Greek colonizers coming from Corinth. The first records of their presence are documented around 620 BC. The city was named after the god Apollo. Among the 24 cities throughout the Mediterranean that bore this name in Antiquity, Apollonia of Illyria was the most important and played a major role as a trade intermediary between the Hellenes and the Illyrians. Apollonia was at that time a large and important city near the river Aoos (Vjosa). It is estimated that the city had about 60,000 inhabitants, a record figure for Antiquity!

Apollonia retained its grandeur even in the Roman period. The Apollonian School of Fine Arts was famous throughout the ancient world. At the time when Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome during a plot in the Senate, his nephew Octavian Augustus was studying oratory in Apollo. Roman chronicles show how, upon hearing the news of Caesar's murder, he set sail from Apollonia, and when, after some time, Octavian himself became Emperor, he retained gratitude for the city where he had studied,  by freeing Apollonia from all taxes.

 After an earthquake in the III e.s century, the river Aoos changed his stream by separating the city from the sea. The blow proved fatal in an era where all commercial activity took place in relation to the sea. The city gradually lost its economic importance by becoming a simple religious center. But the gradual and non-violent extinction of civic life as well as the transformation of the surrounding area into a swamp, reclaimed only after 1945, made the archaeological site quite well preserved. Archaeologists call Apollonia Pompei of Albania, as only 10% of the territory of the former city has been discovered to date.

The city is surrounded by a fortification wall, with numerous entrances protected by round and square towers. Urban system organized in the quadratic network created by the intersection of main and secondary roads. The city is divided into public and private areas where public monuments are often integrated.