The exhibition highlighting Albania’s archaeological heritage will remain open until 6 January 2013 in Rome’s Vittoriano Museum Complex before traveling to Turin’s Palazzo Madama where it will be displayed until next April
TIRANA, Dec. 19 – Some of Albania’s most famous archaeological sites and findings featuring the mix of Roman and Greek civilization are being displayed in Rome at the Vittoriano Museum Complex. The exhibition which opened last November as part of Albania’s centennial celebrations features some of the most characteristic items obtained from the archeological museums of Tirana, Apollonia, Butrint and Durres, highlighting the European roots of Albania’s culture and its traditions but also the cultural ties with Italy, organizers say.
The exhibit includes earthenware, furnishings, objects for daily use, helms and shields, coins, devotional statues and icons, dating from prehistory through the 17th century. In terracotta and ceramic, bronze, copper and iron, marble and wood, the objects document not only the daily customs of a people but also its cultural and esthetic values, its traditions and its spiritual life.
Titled ‘Treasures of the Albanian Cultural Identity’, the show seeks to rediscover and promote the European component of Albanian culture. ”It is a way to let the Italian public know about Albanian art and culture as we celebrate the centennial of our independence,” Albanian ambassador to Italy, Llesh Kola, told reporters at the show’s press launch.
The exhibit is divided into three sections. ”The prehistoric age, from the Neolithic to the Archaic age; antiquity, which goes from the fifth century to the high Middle Ages, and the Byzantine era,” curator Apollon Bace explained.
The journey opens with a section dedicated to the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages and the Archaic period. Works on display include some fifth millennium BC items, such as vases, cups, necklaces.
Ancient times covering the fifth century BC until the High Middle Ages constitute a historical moment in which the geographical proximity between Italy and Illyria has played a key role in the development of intense commercial and cultural relations between the two shores of the Adriatic. Statues, portraits, coins, gold jewelry, shields, bronze figures of deities, pendants belt, wine jugs, Greek fibulae, spearheads, tombstones, urns that reveal the full Greek-Hellenic influences and Roman are also displayed
The section dedicated to the Byzantine art, testimony to the Christianization of the Illyrian territory, closes the exhibition. Icons created by renowned Albanian 16th century icon painter Onufri, considered one of the founders of the Albanian school of painting of the sixteenth century, are also featured.
In retracing the history of Albania, the exhibition highlights through the original shooting by Istituto Luce, also the discoveries made by the Italian archaeological team in this country and, in particular, the work of Luigi Maria Ugolini (1895 – 1936) who made important discoveries.
The exhibition in Rome will remain open until 6 January 2013 before travelling to Turin’s Palazzo Madama where it will be displayed from January 22 until April 7, 2013. This exhibition, the first in Italy to importance of the finds brought, was created through joint efforts by the Ministries of Culture Albanian and Italian, and with the decisive contribution of Ambassador Mario Bova and its association ‘Blue Eye – Anna Bova Greys’.
The show, which will be inaugurated Tuesday by the Albanian minister of tourism, culture, youth, and sport, Aldo Bumci, by Albanian Foreign Minister Edmond Panariti, and by Italian Minister of Culture Lorenzo Ornaghi, is on view in Rome through January 6. After that it travels to Turin’s Palazzo Madama, where it remains through April 7, 2013.
World Fair of Archaeological Heritage
Albania has made its second participation in the Fair of Archaeological Heritage in Italy where it was represented with its own stand. The Tourism Ministry says Albania participated in the fair held in Paetum of Salerno province, southern Italy from November 15 to 18 promoting the country’s top archeological and cultural sites.
Apart from advertising destinations, the trade fair also offered the opportunity of exchanging experience and launching joint tourist package projects which would prove of benefit to local communities through promoting employment.
The 15th edition of “Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico” was also confirmed in 2012 as a unique international event of its kind: the seat of the world’s largest trade fair exhibition of the archaeological heritage and the first international exhibition of interactive technologies and virtual, place of study and dissemination of issues devoted to tourism and cultural heritage, organizers said. The fair also served as meeting point for business professional, travelers and fans. Albania boasts a rich archeological heritage dating from ancient times.
