U.S Ambassador to Albania Alexander Arvizu stressed the importance of preserving Albania’s rich cultural heritage, and called on central and local governments as well as businesses to help pass on this heritage to future generations
TIRANA, Jan. 15 – Thousands of items dating back from pre-historic times to the Middle Ages, currently stored at the Archeological Museum of Tirana, will be preserved in better conditions under a USD 103,000 from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP). Some 18,000 items are currently preserved in the museum, 16,000 of which in a basement under moist and humid conditions. Speaking during the signing ceremony with the Albanian Centre for Albanology Studies this week, U.S Ambassador to Albania Alexander Arvizu stressed the importance of preserving Albania’s rich cultural heritage, and called on central and local governments as well as businesses to help pass on this heritage to future generations.
The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) supports the preservation of cultural sites, cultural objects, and forms of traditional cultural expression in more than 100 developing countries around the world. The Ambassador’s Fund is a way for the U.S. to show its respect for other cultures. There have been nine Ambassador’s Fund projects in Albania since the program started in 2000.
Last summer, U.S Ambassador to Albania Alexander Arvizu visited the southern UNESCO town of Gjirokastra to mark the completion of renovations undertaken with the support of the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation in the local castle.
The Gjirokaster Conservation and Development Organization (GCDO) was awarded a $47,500 grant from the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, and the money was used to renovate the # 3 gallery in the castle of Gjirokaster in order to turn it into a museum and art gallery. Since its creation by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has provided financial support to more than 700 cultural preservation projects in more than 100 countries. This accomplishment represents a contribution of nearly $33 million towards the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide.
Back in 2010, the Tirana’s Clock Tower, a symbol of the capital and one of its oldest buildings, was restored under a special USD 30,000 fund awarded by former U.S Ambassador to Albania, John Withers.
The 19-century Clock Tower had its clock mechanism and bell repaired. Built in 1822, the 35-metre Clock Tower has 90 spiral steps and was the tallest building in the capital until 1970. The Tower is located in the heart of the capital next to the Et’hem Beu Mosque. Its clock had been replaced several times most recently in 1970 with a Chinese one. The Clock Tower has been open to tourists since 1996.
Archaeological museum
The Archaeological Museum of Tirana is the first museum created after the World War II. It opened in 1948 as an Archeological Ethnographic Museum and continued as such until 1976, when the ethnographic pavilion was organized as a profiled archeological museum. This museum displays excavations and archeological finds from the Stone Age until the metal age (bronze and iron), when the Illyrian civilization rose, antiquity and late antiquity and Middle Age until the Ottoman invasion. The intensive archaeological finds in the field of prehistory, antiquity and Middle Age in the later period, made possible a series of reorganizations and reconstructions for this museum (1957, 1976, 1982, 1985, 1998) for the further improvement of the content and display.
The museum gives full information on the earliest ancient dwellings in Albania, especially on the periods when the process of Illyrian tribes’ formation takes place. It also provides summarized information on Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages when the transition from Illyrians to Arbers takes place.
