TIRANA, March 27 – A 13th century Byzantine church in the southernmost Albanian district of Saranda is in danger of collapsing, Italian experts have warned. Since five years, the church remains closed on safety grounds, after restoration intervention by an Albanian company damaged the church’s holding structures. A report by Luigia Binda, Paola Condoleo and Gianclaudio Macchiarella, professors at the Italian Universities of Milan and Venice warns the church risks collapsing because of inappropriate intervention by the restoration firm and seismic activity in the area.
The monastery of Mesopotam is currently awaiting the third stage of restoration, suspended since 2009 because of the damage to its holding structure.
Mesopotam
Approximately 10 km outside Saranda, towards Gjirokastra, is the monastery at Mesopotam – one of the unrivalled jewels of this region of Albania. Dedicated to Saint Nicholas (Sh쮠Kolli), the monastery is situated on a low hill within the floodplain of the Bistrice River.
The monastery is first recorded in 1081 when Basil of Mesopotam commanded local Byzantine forces against the invading Normans at Butrint led by Robert Guiscard. However, it flourished in the 13th century under the Epirote Despotate, a sub-Byzantine state established after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders in 1204.
The 10 m high wall marking the entrance is the remainder of one of the seven towers of the fortified enclosure of the site. This tower (now used as a bell-tower) was the largest and originally used for accommodation, the other towers were probably mainly defensive.
The present church is thought to date largely to the 13th century, although some 18th and 19th century reconstruction is recorded. Traces of the foundations of two large original apses of the church can still be seen, together with the apse of a later, subsidiary chapel to the south, and the foundations of the portico that surrounded the original building on three sides.
In the 6th century, the area around the temple was occupied by a three-ailed basilica with transepts, and with an associated baptismal font erected in the ‘treasury’. The building seems to have remained in use – if of much reduced size – into the early Middle Ages.
The original northern doorway is now blocked and the church is entered via a small door in the eastern wall. The interior is suggestive, lit only by a dim illumination from the partly blocked in windows. However, traces of wall paintings can be made out beneath a blue wash added in the Ottoman period when the church was converted into a mosque. Fragments of the original pavement bordered by opus sectile bands can also be seen.
The existing iconostasis is a product of the later 18th century, as are the paintings in the sanctuary. The screen itself is formed by a series of reused Roman granite columns with elaborately carved 13th-century capitals and bases. In its 13th-century heyday, this great monastic church with its four domes resembled the majestic church of Paregoritssa at Arta, the capital of the Despots.
