TIRANA, June 22 – Four remaining post-Byzantine churches in Voskopoja, a present-day village in southeastern Albania that used to be Albania’s most thriving 18th century town are being restored in a bid to turn it into a year-round tourist destination.
Situated outside Korà§a, Voskopoja is said to have had a population of 40,000 to 50,000 in the 18th century, greater than Athens, Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 26 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, the only Greek printing press in the Balkans (1720), which published at least 19 religious works and the so-called New Academy.
The Euro 2.8 million government funded project involves the upgrade of road infrastructure and lighting as well as restoring the four remaining churches.
“During the past four years, cultural heritage has been given a top priority not only with restoration and maintenance, but considering it as an important source of development for the local area,” says Culture Minister Mirela Kumbaro.
“Voskopoja is one of the important tourist destinations. The Voskopoja churches still bear the vandalism traces of until four years ago. This is no longer happening today and we are in the restoration stage and promoting tourism,” she added.
The remaining churches had only seen emergency conservation in a project led by the New York-based World Monuments Fund.
In addition to interest because of historical and cultural heritage, Voskopoja turns into popular destination during winter when visitors go skiing and enjoy the local traditional dishes, the most famous of which the lakror pie.
The village is located just outside Korà§a, nicknamed “The small Paris of Albania” and the “City of serenades.”
The southeastern city of Korà§a has in the past couple of years had its old bazaar and medieval art museum restored making it more attractive to tourists.
Korà§a, also features a prehistoric museum, a national education museum where the first Albanian language school opened in 1878 and the Vangjush Mio house museum.
Korà§a is also known for its mountain and culinary tourism in the Dardhe and Boboshtice villages.
The churches
Twenty-six churches were built between 1630 and 1780 at Voskopojà«, situated along the trade route from Venice to Constantinople in southeastern Albania. Voskopojà« became an important religious hub in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The town was a significant center of Aromanian (Macedonian-Romanian) Christianity during a time when the Ottomans ruled the Balkans. At its height, Voskopojà« was home to a university and the first printing press in the region. Now, after more than two centuries of damage caused by war, earthquakes, and erosion, only five of the churches remain.
The surviving churches are named for the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Saint Athanas, Saint Nicholas, the Prophet Elijah, and the Dormition of Notre Dame. Four of the five remaining Orthodox churches are domed basilicas designed in the post-Byzantine style typical of the Balkans. The ceiling and walls of all five are covered with frescoes depicting religious and biblical scenes in vibrant color, covering 43,000 square feet (4,000 square meters) of painted surfaces.
The domes of the five remaining churches and the intricate frescoes on their interiors attest to the past prominence of Voskopojà« as a cultural and religious center, says New York-based World Monuments Fund.
Voskopoja’s rise and fall
Now a village of few hundred residents some 24 km outside Korà§a, southeastern Albania, Voskopoja was founded by Vlach shepherds in the early 14th century.
By the 17th century, Voskopoja increased tremendously in size, becoming one of the largest cities in the Balkans and a flourishing center of trade and urban culture. At its zenith, before the city was pillaged for the first time in 1768, it is said to have had a population of 40,000 to 50,000, greater than Athens, Sofia or Belgrade at the time, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 buildings, including 26 churches, a hospital, an orphanage, a library, the only Greek printing press in the Balkans (1720), which published at least 19 religious works and the so-called New Academy, according to Robert Elsie, a Canadian Albanologist.
The New Academy was a center of learning founded in 1744, similar to academies known to have existed in Bucharest, Iasi, Constantinople, Metsovon, Janina, Mt. Athos and Patmos. Many Greek scholars of note came to teach at Voskopoja among the Vlachs, who made up the majority of the population, the Albanians and Greeks. The New Academy was not an exclusively theological institution. It enjoyed a good reputation for its teaching in ancient Greek, philosophy, mathematics and physics and produced many a writer and scholar of repute.
Between 1769 and 1789, Voskopoja was pillaged several times and came to lose its vitality and significance as a commercial center on the trading route between Constantinople and Venice. It was financially destroyed in 1916 during World War I and with the exception of four beautiful Orthodox churches, the historical buildings that did survive were razed during partisan warfare in World War II.
The four remaining ‘churches, all of exceptional cultural value, are St. Mary, constructed with three naves in 1712; St. Nicholas, built in 1721-1726 with room over 1,000 people and decorated with frescoes by Albanian fresco and icon painter David Selenica; St. Michael dating from 1722; and St. Athanasius, built in 1724.
