Five Fallen Stars Rise Again – Dema Monument

Posted on 06/11/2012 by Michael

Monument at Dema to Five Fallen Communists

Five Fallen Stars Rise Again – Dema Monument

The monument at Dema (Manastir), just outside of Saranda in southern Albania, to those who died in the war of liberation against Fascism returns to something close to its original condition.

One of the goals in my travels around Albania is to identify as many of the Communist monuments as I can and to record them photographically, fearing that they might disappear in the not too distant future. On previous visits I came across a number that had definitely been very badly treated, some with such violence if you didn’t know what you were looking at then you wouldn’t know it was a monument at all. I will return to this issue later, when I will look at the fate of these statues and monuments in the context of the whole country.

However, in the Saranda area I have noticed a dramatic change in the fate of one of these monuments, one that stands at a coll between Lake Butrint and the Ionian Sea. This can be seen along the road that leads from Saranda to the archaeological site of Butrint, just before passing through the town of Ksamil. I had seen, and photographed, this monument earlier in the year, in April. When I passed it a few days ago I noticed that it had been painted in the ensuing months and returned to photograph the newer version.

From the road it didn’t look like vandalism and that was indeed the case, what had happened was just the opposite and that someone had painted the five stars red. They were just white, like the rest of the pillar a few months ago. Now whether this was returning the monument to its original colour scheme I don’t know for certain, but that would make sense.

What has made the capitalists see red in Albania, is, in fact, the red. They have a problem with this. The flag of Albania, adopted in the country’s struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire (which celebrates its centenary on the 27^th November coming) was the black double-headed eagle on a crimson background. Under Socialism the only change was to add a gold star, just above the heads of the bird.

This star has been the object of attack in a number of cases I have already seen, two of the most notable, and in many senses most public, being the erasure of the red star (which used to be behind the head of the central woman) from the huge mosaic on the façade of the National Historic Museum in Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, and the wall relief of a female Communist inside the Palace of Congress, also in Tirana.

Last April the flag was red, although not as deep a crimson as would have been the case in the past – I believe – but red nonetheless and it must had been touched up over the years. The subsequent painting of the five stars makes the monument much more distinctive, and also helps in telling the story of why the structure was constructed in the first place. Although I had studied the carvings before I had not made the connections which I now do.

So why 5 stars? They represent 5 of the Communists who died in the war against Nazi Occupation. They are Miltiadh Marjani, Selim Myftar, Astrit Toto, Sadik Rusto and Niko Stefani and with my struggling with the Albanian language I believe they died at the hands of the fascist invaders on 2^nd October 1943. As I took the pictures at the beginning of November it could well be that the stars were repainted in time for that anniversary (although there were no signs of any flowers, wreaths, etc., in the vicinity of the memorial.)

The text on the monument reads: Dëshmorëve që ranë këtu në përpjekje me forcat naziste më 2.10.1943. Astrit Toto, Sadik Rusto, Niko Stefani, Miltiadh Marjani, Selim Myftari. Which translates as: The martyrs who fell here against Nazi forces 10/02/1943. Astrit Toto, Sadik Ruston, Niko Stefani, Miltiadh Marjani, Selim Myftari.

So now their sacrifice is a little more obvious on their memorial and as once something is out on the internet it is there forever, this posting helps to keep the memory of the anti-fascists alive, especially at a time when the remains of the feudal warlord, despot, dictator, coward and thief, Ahmet Muhtar Bej Zogolli (the self-proclaimed King Zog I, Skanderbeg III) were brought back from France, where he died in exile in 1961, and deposited in a new tomb on 17th November 2012.

GPS:

N39.81197904

E20.01217

DMS:

39° 48′ 43.1245” N

20° 0′ 43.8120” E

Altitude: 35.7m

Albanian town planning – drastic measures taken

Posted on 04/11/2012 by Michael

Town planning decision in Ksamili, Saranda, Albania

Don’t annoy Albanian town planners!

Albanian town planning – drastic measures taken

Some building developers rub someone in authority up the wrong way and they find their building plans didn’t go quite as they expected.

It’s the late summer, early autumn, in Ksamil, southern Albania. Things are getting quiet now as the bulk of the tourists have left and the bars on the beach are deciding that it’s not worth opening, at least not until next April. It still gets light early and some people, the ones after the worm, are already up. They notice a strange, an unusual sound. Heavy machinery, but not the sort that is normally used in construction.

Amazed they look on as it comes around the corner and heads towards a half completed building. The machine looks angry, aggressive, menacing. At the building it stops, stabilizers are deployed, a long hydraulic arm reaches out towards the defenceless building, approaching one of the reinforced concrete pillars. Huge, powerful jaws open, clutch the pillar and a button is pushed inside the machine and the jaws close with immense force. The concrete and metal are no more than a dry twig to this monster. The concrete crumbles, the bars snap, the building totters.

The machine is unimpressed at the resistance of this shell of a building and moves slowly on to another pillar to repeat the process. Still the building stands proud but looking decidedly shaky. When the third is destroyed the building gives up and the tons of concrete and metal that had taken weeks to construct has become worse than useless. Before any other construction can begin someone has to pay to get rid of all this debris. What started out as a project to make money has become a liability.

This was what happened in the autumn of last year in the erstwhile collective farm of the Socialist era (specialising in olives and citrus fruit) now a nondescript, blot on the landscape, urban sprawl that caters for tourists, both national and foreign, who flock here in the short summer season. These buildings had been started (some almost complete and partially lived in) without the requisite permission and the executioner had arrived to carry out the sentence.

Passing through this town, from Saranda, on the way to Butrint (the Greek/Roman archaeological site a few minutes down the road) and a few minutes after passing the Dema Monument on your right, it was as if you were going through a town that had been hit by an earthquake, buildings leaning at strange and unnatural angles.

A year ago there were many more but in the intervening months some have been completely demolished and, perhaps, construction has been resumed, but this time with the necessary permission. At least in this town those few hours of work in 2011 had taught any prospective developer a lesson.

Why Ksamil? I don’t know. There seemed to be the same treatment meted out to one or two structures on the outskirts of Saranda, the nearest town of any real size, but nothing in the town itself. I can’t imagine that if there was a culture of building where and when you wanted existed in Ksamil it didn’t also exist in Saranda. There it seems that half the buildings are in the process of construction. Perhaps fines were paid or there was a transfer of heavy brown envelopes to the appropriate authorities.

I haven’t come across anything similar in any other part of Albania (where construction seems to as random and uncontrolled as in Ksamil) but someone must have been upset as these machines had supposedly come all the way from Tirana, not an insignificant journey for such heavy plant.

I don’t get the impression that town planners, as such, exist in Albania but if such officials are around and have these power I’m sure they would be the envy of their counterparts throughout the world.

2019 Update

This information is now of historic interest alone as on a recent visit to the town I was unable to see any of the toppled buildings. Being a popular tourist resort there would have been pressures to dispose of these ‘modern sculptures’ as quickly as possible. However, the issue itself – i.e. of illegal constructions – is one that is ongoing in different parts of the country. There seems to be an effort by the present government to redress the total anarchy that existed towards the late 1990s and even quite long established buildings are being demolished. Apart from clearing waway a number of scars on the landscape some public land is being reclaimed as pavements and roads disappeared under bricks and mortar.

Butrint – a Greek and Roman story in southern Albania

Posted on 01/11/2012 by Michael

Butrint, Saranda

Butrint – a Greek and Roman story in southern Albania

An archaeological site that goes back almost 2500 years, Butrint has the imprint of both the Greek and Roman civilisations. Important for its location to both those cultures it was also pivotal under Venetian rule, its decline only really beginning after it fell to Napoleon’s armies at the end of the 18th century.

One of the main visitor attractions in the vicinity of Saranda is the archaeological site of Butrint, about 14km to the south (after passing by the Dema Monument and through the town of Ksamil), easily reached by a regular public bus from the town centre.

One reason that makes it special is the fact that it was occupied by some of Europe’s principal civilizations starting with the Greeks, who first developed the site in the 4^th century BC, followed by the Romans from the 2^ndto the 6^th centuries AD, and then reaching a final period of importance and influence under the Venetians from 16^th century until succumbing to the French armies of Napoleon at the end of the 18^th century. It was subsequently occupied by a local despot but by that time it had lost its historic importance.

Especially interesting to me was the way the Roman’s just took over the Greek city and adapted, and extended, it to their own particular philosophy and way of doing things. For example, they expanded the theatre, built bath houses and other public buildings and altered the whole atmosphere of the place by constructing a huge Forum, Roman life revolving around that part of any city. culture.

This foundation was then later, literally, built upon by succeeding civilizations, with a development of the fortifications and a strengthening of the perimeter walls as the technology of warfare became more lethal and adept at breaking down a population’s resistance. Yes, the Romans built walls but their primary defence was the threat of total, complete and absolute destruction if anyone dared to attack a Roman settlement, something that was valid until the collapse of the Empire in the 5^th century AD.

It’s not a huge site and a couple of hours is adequate to get a good idea of the place, at a reasonable pace. Each time I go there the level of the water seems to get higher and from what I’ve read this was a problem from many centuries ago, forcing the abandonment of some of the lower structures.

At the moment the orchestra of the Greek/Roman theatre seems to be constantly under water, to such an extent that terrapins are regular visitors. What this flooding is doing to the structure of the buildings I don’t know, but it can’t be good news.

So what do I recommend?

The changing manner in which the Greeks and the Romans put one stone on the top of another. There is a very distinct change in the way they constructed their buildings, although they had basically the same use. What I found interesting was the similarity in building style of the Greeks to that of the Incas in Peru. At Butrint, as in Cuzco and Machu Picchu, large, worked pieces of stone are fitted together as in a jigsaw puzzle, so that there are no straight lines, I assume for a similar reason, i.e. there are no lines which provide a weak point in the event of an earthquake.

Archaeologists working in Butrint during Socialism

When you follow the path and wooden walkway taking you to the theatre look to your left just as you are about to reach the stage and the bottom of the seating. This is partly under water but there is enough at body level to see the writing in Greek, carved into the stone. Some of these are declarations of manumission made by rich Greeks who gave ‘freedom’ to their slaves in honour of one of the many gods worshipped at the time. Very easy to miss if you don’t look for them but easy to spot if you know where to look. They are referred to in the small museum in the castle complex at the very top of the site.

One place that doesn’t get a great number of visitors, due to the fact that the forum area is in front of it and people don’t make the slight diversion off the main path, and that’s the well. It’s only a small well, but what makes it special is the way that the stone has been grooved by the hundreds of thousands of time, over the centuries, a rope has rubbed against the edge with a heavy bucket of water on the end of it. It looks like a row of badly worn teeth.

The Baptistery would be the place to see if preservation of the mosaic wasn’t the most important consideration. When excavations were made an intricate and very well-preserved mosaic was discovered. But like all mosaics the biggest threat comes from the elements (nobody really steals floor mosaics – they become a somewhat difficult jigsaw to reconstruct) and is permanently covered to protect it. This is a small circular structure to the left of the signed route, not too far from the lakeside.

The Basilica is interesting in the fact that it wasn’t a Roman building taken over by the Christians but one constructed at the end of the 6^th century, close to the end of the Roman Empire. This is in the classic cross design which is the basis for most Christian churches and is in a surprisingly good condition. OK there are no walls and the roof has also gone the way of all things, but the main columns still exist and it doesn’t take too much imagination to think what it would have looked like in its heyday.

Continuing along the path it’s worthwhile taking a look at the different stages in the development of the city’s defensive walls. This illustrates the different ways of putting stones on top of one another and demonstrates the importance of the place in times past.

There are a couple of entrances worthy of investigation. The first is what is known as the Lake Gate, dating from the beginning of the settlement. Here take a look at the way the stones in the roof have been worked so they are curved. A little further along the Lion Gate (so-called because there is a carving of a lion devouring a bull’s head on the lintel) shows how the entrance was lowered so that anyone coming through would have to bow their heads. Inside this entrance there is a well and although it’s impossible to make it out now there were some colourful Christian wall paintings towards the top. The dampness of the area (now permanently in the shade) has destroyed whatever might have been there many years ago.

Many discoveries were made during the period of Socialism as research into the country’s past was considered important to get a greater understanding of its present. Butrint started to reveal itself but under capitalism such academic research only continues if a monetary value can be placed upon it.

The small museum in the castle at the top of the hill is worth a visit. If it’s closed there will always be someone around who will open it up if asked. Here are displayed some of the artefacts found at the site.

One statement particularly attracted my attention when walking around the museum and this was in relation to the inscriptions about the freeing of the slaves down at the theatre. Many of the inscription refer to women who were freeing the slaves and were therefore wealthy and in control of that wealth themselves. It seems in the early Greek days, before what is now called the Classical period, women would inherit any wealth from their husbands, as well as being able to become wealthy in their own right. This position of women in society is considered an ‘advance’. The problem is I don’t believe the slaves would have been too concerned about the gender of their ‘owners’. And in that ‘advanced’ society this equality was still denied to poor women. It wasn’t until the liberation of the country from fascism in 1944 and subsequent years that women truly found a semblance of equality in Albania.

Practical Information:

The public bus leaves from the bus stop opposite the ruins of the basilica and synagogue, just along from the Town Hall (the Bashkia). It leaves, more or less, on the hour and half hour until midday and then on the hour for the afternoon and takes about 45 minutes. Cost is L100 each way.

Butrint is open from 08.00 till dusk, all year round. Entrance is L700 for an individual (although I was charged the reduced group rate, although by myself, of L500 the second time I went there).