Forsaken Albania

Tirana, 1937. In 1928, when Zog was proclaimed the Sovreign of the Albanians, his father, Xhemal Pacha had long since passed away and the young Monarch was still living together with his mother, Sadija, a daughter of the Toptan Family, who remained at the side of her son until the moment of her demise at a very old age, in the year 1934, and who was buried in Tirana. In constructing a monumental tomb for his mother, this young monarch had two powerful motives, the first, sentimental and the second, institutional. Zog had been very close to his mother and apart from this, from the moment he was proclaimed King, one of his first acts was to give his mother the official title of Queen Mother. The location chosen for this monumental tomb was on the outskirts of the city, on the side of the Tirana-Elbasan Route, on a hill slope, which made it possible to see this monument from almost every point of the city. This monumental grave was designed in the shape of a modern tomb and was profoundly of the style of monumental rationalism, very fashionable in the thirties’ and forties’. It appeared in the shape of a square hall with a semi-spherical cupola. It faced Mecca and had an exit facing the East and its entrance facing West. In the first photograph, you can see the newly completed tomb, aound which the finishing touches are being put to the exterieur. The cylindric exit on the East face can also be clearly seen. The smaller photograph shows one of the quite rare images of the interior of the tomb, where you can also see the marble slabs of the grave. The second photograph shows a moment from the ceremony to inauguarate the tomb. A unit of soldies wearing helmets have been lined up beside the entrance, while in the foreground there is a Bekteshi priest. I am not sure whether Zog had planned that this tomb be used to house the remains of other members of the royal family or not. In 1937 the remains of Sadije Zogu were laid to rest in her new tomb, but this was only to endure for a few years. Immediately after liberation of Tirana, on the personal orders of Mehmet Shehu, the tomb was stripped of everything and the grave inside the tomb was blown up. The tomb remained standing like an empty shell until the seventies’ when it was finally completely annihilated. Today, as a final sacrilige, a restaurant has been built over this location. The memory of the Soverign of the Albanians should have dictated that the Albanian State re-built this monument, but also that, her son Leka, who lays claim to property and villas which sometimes do not belong to him, should have raised his voice for the return of this property, but sadly, this was not to be.