Berat!

Morning, from our balcony

Yesterday, we traveled to Berat.  What a treasure!  In preparation, I developed some information on the city so you would have some background.  I'll update you a little more over the next day or so.  Prayer requests - a sore throat has turned into a full blown cold for me (Sharon).  Pray that it stays with me, remits quickly, and doesn't affect my partners!   

Night, from our balcomy

Located about two hours from Tirana in south-central Albania, Berat is known as the City of a Thousand Windows because of the many large windows on decorated historic buildings which overlook the town.  It stands as a well-preserved Ottoman city (some think the best in the Balkans), with a lower town and medieval citadel.  Its name is derived from the older term Bel(i)grad (meaning “white city” in Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian).  It is also thought to be the site of the city of Antipater, and was known during the Ottoman Empire as Belgrad-i Arnavud (Albanian Belgrade) to distinguish it from Belgrade in Serbia.

Morning, from our balcony

Modern Berat consists of three parts: Gorica or "little mountain" - divided from the rest of the city by the Osum River, Kalaja - the residential quarter within the old Byzantine citadel overlooking the town, and Mangalem.  Berat Castle is built on a rocky hill overlooking the Osum River.  Even though considerably damaged over the millennia, it is still a magnificent sight. The buildings inside the fortress were built during the 13th century and because of their characteristic architecture are preserved as cultural monuments. The population of the fortress was Christian, with about 20 churches (most built during the 13th century) and only one mosque, used by the Muslim garrison (there remains only the base of the minaret).  Only a few of the fortress churches remain, many have been damaged over the years. Even so, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas is well restored and contains a museum dedicated to Onufri, the greatest of the 16th century Albanian painters.

A 15th century mosque and many historic churches can be found in the town, some still contain Onufri’s works.  Perhaps because Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire for so long, this Christian Orthodox painter was not known until the 1950s when an inscription was found on one of his works in a church building dating from 1547: “I am Onufri, and come from the town of Berat.”  Onufri’s frescos and icons are masterful; he was the first to introduce a shiny red color which the French labelled "Onufri's Red."  His works have a unique realism for the period and an unusual degree of individuality in facial expression.  Onufri's son, Nikolla (Nicholas), inherited his father’s painting style but was never as successful as his father.

Berat is built near the junction of the Osum with the Molisht rivers, below the towering slopes of the Tomorr mountains.  According to legend, Tomorr was a giant who battled Shpirag, another giant, over a young woman.  In their effort, both giants were killed.  The girl shed so many tears, she drowned in the river formed by them - the Osum.  The two “dead giants” remain on either side of the Osum as Mount Tomorr and Mount Shpriag.

The earliest recorded inhabitants of Berat were a Greek tribe in the 6th century BC.  It later became a Macedonian stronghold in southern Illyria.  When captured by the Romans in 200 BC, the walls were razed and the male population massacred.  Subsequent to the fall of the Roman Empire, the town became part of the unstable frontier of the Byzantine Empire along with much of the rest of the Balkan peninsula, suffering from repeated invasions by Slavs and other "barbarian" tribes.
Bulgarians captured the town in the 9th century renaming it "Beligrad"; it fell to a Byzantine Greek successor state in the 13th century.  In 1345, the town passed to the Serbs and then to the noble Albanian family of Muzaka when it became the capital of the Principality of Berat.  In 1417, Berat was captured by the Ottoman Empire who ruled it until the late 1800s.

During the early period of Ottoman rule, Berat declined, having only 710 houses by the end of the 16th century.  However, during the 17th century, it became a major craft center specializing in wood carving, and during the 18th century was one the most important Albanian cities of the Ottoman Empire.

As the Ottoman Empire was declining in the 19th century, Berat played an important part in Albanian national revival.  After World War II, it hosted the second session of the Council of National Liberation of Albania when the National Liberation Movement-controlled Anti-Fascist National Liberation Committee which became the Provisional Democratic Government of Albania, with Enver Hoxha as its prime minister and minister of defense.  Hoxha became dictator and remained until his death in 1985.