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Published: September 28th 2022
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Tuesday morning - the group started in Tirana in the morning. Not an early start as the first place was the National History Museum which didn't open until 9am.
Alfred had booked us a museum guide, the best one he reckoned. And very good he was too.
The museum is arranged over 3 floors and clearly arranged chronologically. It contains some impressive artefacts from Albania's history, from prehistoric times to the relatively present day.
But the services of the guide were really needed as there was very little in the way of English captions.
Some of the artefacts seen are in the photos. The guide described one of these - an embroidered funeral shroud - as being rated one of the best medieval objects in existence. When it was displayed at the Louvre a while back they offered to buy it from Albania at an, almost "name your own price'.
This Epitaph of Gllavenica was made in 1373 - actually it took 3 years to make - by a monk. Made of silk, linen and gold it was made to represent the shroud of Christ and it is stunning. And, for a cloth that dates from
the 14C, the condition is outstanding.
As expected there was a large display dedicated to the national hero Skanderbeg, real name Gjergj Kastrioti.
He was an Albanian feudal tribal leader, 1405-1468, and is credited with defending Europe from the Ottoman hoards, and uniting various Balkan regions to become Albania. There are pages about him on that font of knowledge that is Wikipedia, and they say that 1000 books have been written about him. Suffice it to say that he is revered in the country.
But answer us this - if he is so revered, if he is regarded as "the saviour of Europe", how come Albania was Ottoman territory for 400 years after his death??
Just an aside - a common fuel company here is called Kastrati. Despite its name this is not a "your money or your manhood" company. Rather, the name derives from the Skanderbeg family name
Other items on display:
A display about Albania's establishment in 1912 when a "committee" decided the country's boundaries. The map has
Red line - what austro hungarian wanted
Red dotted - russia
Green line - balkans
Black line - actual final border - as Alfred said,
leaving Albania with no head, arms, legs.
A lot of what was Albania is now Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece.
The Albanian written alphabet was not formulated til 1908, and schools started at that time too.
Also in a display case was the gun which was used to kill Mussolinni - gifted to Albania by the Italy communist party
And a fairly gruesome display about communist oppression, torture items etc
On to Elbasan for some more ruins - we are used to seeing a LOT of ruins on a typical Explore trip.
Elbasan is a large town but it was just a brief, passing visit. The fortress dates to 15th C, but built on Roman and Byzantine foundations.
Inside the fortress walls the ground is several feet lower than without, showing the extent to which the ground levels have changed over the centuries.
Also inside is the King Mosque. A modest building, built by Sultan Bayazit II around 1482/85, it is one of the oldest active mosques in Albania.
Elbasan is also called "the City of Teachers" as the country's first school, and first training of teachers occured here.
On to the
picturesque fishermen's village of Lin, on the shore of Lake Ohrid. A simple Greek salad for lunch before a small walk around the narrow village streets dripping with laden vines.
Lake Ohrid is at 750m above sea level and straddles the border between North Macedonia and Eastern Albania. One of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes with more than 200 endemic species, including a fish variety that is only found in 1 other location - Lake Baikal, Russia. The lake itself is a World Heritage site.
During our drive on Tuesday we had railway running alongside. This used to operate from N to S and from E to W in the country. Built at the turn of the last century, and developed further during communist times.
However, after communism it was allowed to become decrepid and no longer runs anywhere in the country - rails/tracks but no trains. It would need massive investment to bring back into operations, requiring foreign funds. A complication is that the rail size is not compatible with Europe.
We finished the day in Pogradec, further down the lake side, where regrettably the rain set in in earnest, but, as always, there are
Tirana History Museum
Roman glass funeral urn places to eat and we got out for a bite and a walk during the evening.
Wednesday the journey continued southwards.
The hotel restaurant balcony had a lovely view over the lake, and once we had asked/told the staff to switch off the booming music - twice, because someone switched it back on again - a leisurely breakfast was a good start to the day.
Wednesday had something of a religious theme to it - did we mention Explore and ruins? The same goes for Explore and churches.
We drove through the place we are staying in that evening and on to the village of Voskopoja, in the southern/eastern mountains at 1200m.
On the way up Alfred was telling us that Albania had a scheme of "100 Touristic villages". These are places which are being tidied up, improved etc with the aid of 80% World Bank funding.
Apparently, also on the way up, we passed Albania's only, small, ski lift.
The village of Voskopoja used to be a very busy trading hub founded in the 16th C. Although few written records exist, at its peak in the mid 18th C there were around
35000 inhabitants, the 2nd largest place in the Balkans after Istanbul. (really? What about Athens?) We saw a display plaque with a depiction of the town taken from a contemporary Ottoman stamp.
There are now only around 700 people living there.
The village had the first printing press in the Balkans outside of Istanbul. It also became a leading centre of Greek culture, being close to the border. Its decline was mainly due to raids by Muslim Albanian bandits and the relocation of the once important trade routes in central and eastern Europe.
Because of that previous large population and its relative wealth there were 22 churches in the village, many of them highly decorated with detailed frescoes, though only 5 remain. We visited three of these, all orthodox.
St Athanasius - dating from 1724.
Completely covered inside by frescoes done by 2 brothers. Three levels of decoration
The lowest level, half way up the wall, showed the general population, etc. The second level showed many scenes of sinners being tortured - spit roasted, on the wheel, crucified etc. The top level showed saints and the heavens. During communist times it was used as a potato
store!
The Church of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin, St Mary's for short.
Dating from 1699, with frescoes from 1712
Church of St Nicholas
Dating to 1731 / 32, this is the most complete, including the attached annex where the priest lives. It is also the only one which is fully used as a working church with a weekly mass.
After a far too lengthy lunch break we then drove back down to our stop for Wednesday night, Korca.
Before hotel check-in thete was a visit to the National Museum of Medieval Art. This world class collection contains over 8000 items, mostly painted-on-wood icons dating from the 1300s to the 1800s. Of these around 700 are on display, in an award winning, modern museum building.
After checking in, the group were given a short walking tour of Korca to see the quite new Orthodox Cathedral, the Old Mosque and the transformed Old Bazaar (which is actually an open space surrounded on all sides by many restaurants and bars).
The Korca Mosque dates from 1495 and, except for some recent restoration, is the most complete, ancient mosque in Albania in its original form.
Tirana History Museum
Medieval funeral shroud Most of us took the opportunity to eat there in advance of tomorrow's, Thursday, long travel day.
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