Berat

Berat is an important historical city in southern Albania, located on the banks of a river in a valley between hills, with Mount Tomor—the Olympus of southern Albania—in the background. Pine forests tower over the beautiful Ottoman city, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the distant past, Berat marked the border between Illyria and Epirus and may have been founded by the Macedonian king Xander in 314 BC.

The fortress in Berat was founded in the 3rd century BC. It burned down in 200 BC, was rebuilt in the 5th century by Theodosius, and again in the 6th century by Justinian. The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon conquered the city and called it the “White City.” After the Bulgarians, it came under the control of the Byzantines, and then of the independent Byzantine rulers of Epirus. In the 13th century, the ruler of Epirus, Michael, rebuilt it, incorporating residential quarters into the fortress, so that many of the existing buildings today were already standing during this period. At that time, there were 20 churches in the city, of which only a few remain. The Serbs took control of Berat in 1359, and the Turks in 1450.

Berat was a center of Christianity, where Albanian icon painting flourished. The Cathedral of St. Nicholas is now a museum dedicated to the paintings of the famous medieval Albanian painter, Onufri, who lived in Berat and founded a unique school of painting there. In addition to the cathedral, there are several other churches with paintings from his brush: in the Church of Mary, one can see frescoes by Nikola, Onufri’s son, from the 16th century. In the Church of St. Theodore, there are frescoes by Onufri himself.

The city consists of two parts: the Ottoman neighborhoods on both sides of the river—which is crossed by a beautiful and ancient Ottoman bridge—and the citadel on the hill, within which lies the Byzantine city. At the base of the citadel walls, one can see giant stones from the Illyrian period that are reminiscent of the Cyclopean walls of Butrinti.

In Lower Berat, the houses display a unique architectural style: all roofs are connected and have a special water drainage system, and the buildings feature large windows, which is why Berat is known as the “City of a Thousand Windows.” In the heart of the Lower City lies the Copper Mosque, built in 1555, which is the city’s main mosque. Next to it is an ancient Sufi tekke, and in its courtyard, the Berat Conservation Center.

Berat became a center of the wood carving industry in the 17th century. At this time, Sufi mystics arrived there, among them Shabtai Zvi. In the early 19th century, an independent ruler arose in the vilayet (a province in the Ottoman Empire) of Epirus named Ali Pasha, and Berat became a sanjak (provincial capital) in his kingdom. He supported the Christians and allowed them to build churches.

Icon Museum
A unique school of icon painting developed in Berat in the 16th century under the leadership of Onufri, who is considered the national painter of Albania. In the center of the fortress stands the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, built in the late 18th century during the time of Ali Pasha, as the city’s main cathedral. Today, the building serves as an icon museum dedicated to Onufri’s paintings, as well as works by other artists associated with the icon painting school he founded, including icons by his son and successor.

The paintings incorporate universal esoteric motifs such as the golden ratio and show a clear influence from Europe and the Renaissance. The hallmarks of Onufri’s school of icon painting include unusual proportions of the human body, expressiveness, and the use of bright red (known as Onufri’s red), the secret of whose production he took with him to the grave.

The icons often use a two-thirds to one-third ratio. Mystical symbols such as a fountain, a rose, and others appear, and even a depiction of mosque minarets—an otherwise unacceptable motif in Christian religious art. The icons suggest that in Berat, during the 16th–18th centuries, there was a school of occult knowledge that engaged, among other things, in Christian Kabbalah, which was developing at that time in Florence, Italy.