e martë, shtator 18, 2007

Higher religion in Albania?














Photo of the view from my apartment

Lord Byron once wrote,
"Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes
On thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men!
The cross descends, thy minarets arise,
And the pale crescent sparkles in the glen,
Through many a cypress grove within each city’s ken."

Childe Harold's Pilgramage

I don't know what Byron would write now - one thing is for certain, he would not say that the cross descends!
When I arrived in Albania in 1995 the mosque was just opening. I remember speaking to a young boy who was very enthusiastic. He told me that the minarets of the mosque were taller than the "kisha e madhe" ( big Catholic cathedral in Shkoder). A few years later, the Catholics rebuilt the clock/bell tower that had been knocked down in 1967. It was taller than the minarets. The Franciscan church has now built a large bell tower with an illuminated cross at the top, which shines down over the town.
I wait to see what is built next!!

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