Berat, Albania

Last Thursday we finished with the photography of the manuscripts in the Albanian Archive in Tirana so a couple of us decided to go to Berat, Albania on Friday. The village is an old castle site that has a few homes and an ancient monastery where two ancient New Testament manuscripts were discovered in 1968. We arrived at the site before the monastery opened for tours so we decided to walk around the town for a while. While we were making our way through the narrow roads, an older lady stepped out of her home behind us and invited us to coffee. Our Albanian friend (and interpreter) told her that we would be back by later. We walked on around the mountaintop town and rounded a corner where I saw the largest statue of a head I had ever seen. It was the head of Emperor Constantine perched on the side of a hill. We made our way around, shot some video and took some pictures of the countryside before making our way back to the monastery.


On the way back we stopped at the home of the lady who invited us for coffee. We went in and were served a sweet treat and a cup of Turkish coffee. She showed us a 150 year-old family bible with commentary that was in Greek. We visited for a while through our Albanian/English speaking interpreter before we left. It was a nice visit and was really neat being invited into the home of a local person. We made our way to the monastery and decided to get a snack to eat before heading to the monastery. We found a tavern to eat in and before I knew it, we were served stuffed peppers and a salad made of roasted vegetables (zucchini, peppers, eggplant, etc.). It was a great authentic Albanian meal.

At the monastery, we were guided through the chapel into the area where the priests would prepare the worship. In the very back of the room was a hole beneath the stone floor where two ancient manuscripts were hidden during times of war. They were specifically hidden there from Hitler during the Nazi invasion.It was very interesting to see, especially since we were privileged enough to see and photograph these very manuscripts. All-in-all it was a great day filled with really unique experiences.