Scarce map of the port of Vlore, which appeared in Francois de Belleforest's Cosmographie Universelle De Tout le Monde.
The map depiicts the city during its Turkish period.
The Serbian Empire captured Vlorë, or Valona, as it was also called, in 1345, and formed the seat of an independent principality until it was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1417. Under Ottoman rule, it became a sanjak centre in Rumeli Eyaleti as "Avlonya"; and after coming under Venetian possession in 1690, the city was restored to the Turks in 1691, becoming a kaza of the sanjak of Berat in the vilayet (province) of Janina. The city had about 10,000 inhabitants; there was a Catholic parish, which belonged to the Archdiocese of Durrës. In the 16th century, it was an important center for Sephardic Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal.