Father Dom Nikoll롋acorri to be honoured with statue in Durres

TIRANA, Feb. 7 – After honouring some of the country’s most prominent leaders such as independence leader Ismail Qemali, King Zog, patriot Hasan Prishtina and even former U.S President Woodrow Wilson with statues in public squares, the Albanian government has announced it will also place a statue of Father Dom Nikolle Kacorri, a prominent activist of the Albanian national renaissance movement. In an announcement, the Ministry of Culture invites artists from all over Albania to submit their projects as part of a pan-national competition to create a bronze statue of Kacorri which will be placed in the coastal city Durres.
Artists are invited to submit their projects with the Culture Ministry until April 29, 2013.
The remains of one of Albania’s most prominent figures, father Nikolle Kacorri, were brought back to Albania in February 2011, 94 years after his death to be buried in the St. Lucia Cathedral in the coastal city of Durres. A catholic priest, Dom Nikolle Kacorri is also remembered as a prominent activist of the Albanian national renaissance movement. He was one of the signatories of the Albanian independence declaration in 1912 and the deputy Prime Minister of the first Albanian government headed by Ismail Qemali. During the communist regime, which in the late 60s banned religion, Kacorri’s name was removed from the declaration of independence.
The return of his remains from Vienna, where he died in May 1917 at the age of 55 after suffering from an incurable disease, was made possible by the Albanian catholic mission in Austria.
His bones were found only recently after months of intensive search in Vienna cemeteries wrapped in an undamaged Albanian flag, says Pjeter Logoreci of the Albanian catholic mission in Vienna.
Born in 1862 in Lure, northeastern Albania, Kacorri became a Catholic priest in 1878. In 1902 he became the Archbishop of Durr쳬 where he served until the Albanian Declaration of Independence. He was also a participant in the Congress of Manastir in 1908, which decided on the current Albanian Latin alphabet.