Vandalized medieval church to be reconstructed

TIRANA, April 17 – Government has awarded 1 million lek (Euro 7,000) for the reconstruction of an Orthodox church in Elbasan, central Albania, where a medieval fresco was severely damaged in late December 2012. The fund approved by the National Restoration Council at the Ministry of Culture will make possible the reconstruction of church’s roof, walls and windows and doors.
“It is important that the safety of the church is guaranteed before continuing with the restoration of the fresco which is now at the Institute of Monuments of Culture ready to be assembled,” says Zhuljeta Harasani, an official of the Culture Ministry.
The medieval frescoes of St. Premte Chapel in central Albania could not survive one or more amateurish thieves who tried to chisel them out of the wall in the evenings of Dec. 30 and Jan. 4 2013.
Most of the frescoes at the small church in southeastern Elbasan County were the work of Onufri, a painter of the 1500s considered to be Albania’s Michelangelo for his work on Orthodox churches in central and southern Albania.
The attempt to steal the frescoes made irreparable damage to the historical site, authorities say.
St. Premte Chapel is located in a very rural mountainous area in the Shpat region of Elbasan County. Its walls are covered in Biblical depictions of the Virgin Mary and various saints, including that of St. Premte, an indigenous Albanian saint whose name is carried by several Catholic and Orthodox churches across Albania. The Onufri paintings were dated at 1554 and contained an inscription by the author, which is now gone.
On Dec. 30, the chapel was closed and unguarded, and it took some time for state and church authorities to be notified by the area’s local residents who first discovered the damage. But the local media reported the authorities were very slow to act, which allowed the thieves to return to the site on a different night and do more damage.
The thieves used an ax-like tool to go after the heads of the saints in the frescoes, leaving behind the bare walls. Many of these parts were taken — likely for illegal sale — and some were left destroyed because they had crumbled on the floor.
Gifted with a great wealth of cultural damage, post-communist Albania has seen a trend of destruction and theft at its cultural monuments in the past 20 years. Experts say investment, better infrastructure, tougher punishments and more education are needed to protect the country’s historical, cultural and art heritage.