Ruins of the Church of Shirgj

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The ruins of the church on the banks of the Buna, surrounded by a small cemetery

The ruins of the church of Shirgj ( Albanian  Rrenojat e Kishës se Shirgjit ) are a cultural monument in northern Albania . These are the ruins of a former Benedictine monastery on the banks of the Buna near the village of Shirq . The Church of St. Sergius (Kisha e Shën Sergjit e Bakut) was built in 1290 over an early Byzantine basilica by the Serbian Queen Jelena Anžujska and dedicated to Saints Sergios and Bakchos .

history

Photo from the 1890s by Jules Alexandre Degrand

At the place where Jelena Anžujska, wife of Tsar Stefan Uroš I , had the church built in 1290, there was probably already a previous building: According to apocryphal documents, the original monastery is said to have been built by Justinian I , while other sources mention that there had been a monastery since 1100. The use of a column made of black granite from Syria, a material that was often used in Albanian basilicas from the 6th century, suggests that the previous building was built as early as the 6th century.

In a document dated October 22, 1330, the monastery is the meeting place of the Prince of Raszien with emissaries from Ragusa . In another document from 1333 the monastery is mentioned as the customs office of the Principality of Raszien. Oliver Jens Schmitt describes the monastery as "one of the most important trading centers in the Western Balkans" with a number of shops and stalls and merchants from Venice , Ragusa , Ulcinj and Bar . At this river port , which was also accessible to large ships, lead and silver from Serbian mines and goods for Kosovo were loaded onto and from ships - further up the Buna was no longer navigable due to mills and weirs. Grain, Italian cloth, animals and wood were traded, and Shirgj was one of only four salt markets in the Serbian Empire. In contrast to Shirgj, there was hardly any trade in Shkodra at that time. The complex was protected by earth walls and palisades . A village had also sprung up around the monastery and the trading post; With 48 households and around 200 inhabitants at the end of the 14th century, it was one of the largest settlements on the Buna, almost resembling a town.

The chronicle of the priest of Duklja records that several members of the Vojislavljević dynasty were buried here, including Mihailo I , Konstantin Bodin and Dobroslav .

An important Catholic center in the 15th century, the monastery gradually lost its importance: poorly managing abbots , warlike turmoil and, most recently, the conquest of the region by the Turks in 1479 led to the decline of the monastery. Marin III. Bici, Bishop of Bar , wrote in a 1611 report to the Vatican that the church had been badly damaged due to the presence of the Ottomans in Albania. In 1684 Pjetër Bogdani reported that the church bell had been buried. The church is also mentioned in the work Illyricum Sacrum by Daniele Farlati . The monastery was subordinate to the Vatican during the entire active period.

The ruins around 1900

In 1790, Archbishop Frang Borci informed the Jesuit Coletti, who was working as Farletti's assistant on a new edition, that this church was the most beautiful in Albania. Architecturally, the church was a hybrid: the design is Western, but the construction is more Byzantine. The monastery church, which was around 15 by 30 meters, is said to have seated up to 3000 believers.

“The monastery church itself was probably the most beautiful building in Northern Albania: a basilica with alternating layers of ashlar and brick in three tall and narrow naves, supported by square pillars that ended in pointed arches. Each ship was closed with an apse ; the central nave towered over the two aisles. The portal was built in Romanesque style with an arched tympanum . Inside you could see painted walls and a mosaic on the floor. At the main entrance, the visitor could see two Laltonian inscriptions that reported on the generous foundations and construction work on older land that had been carried out at the behest of the Serbian Queen Helena and King Milutin in the years 1290–1293. "

- Oliver Jens Schmitt : The Venetian Albania, p. 26
The ruins around 1900
The wall and column remained

Erosion on the banks of the Buna led to the gradual destruction of the monastery complex over the past 200 years. Aleksandër Meksi also mentions a severe earthquake in 1949. When the Austrian consul Theodor Ippen described the church in his book Skutari and the northern Albanian coastal plain , published in 1907 , there were significantly more walls than there are today:

“Your left long wall and part of the altar side have been washed under by the boyana and have already crashed into the river. The interior serves as a cemetery for the Catholics of the village Širdž, a few minutes away, which has kept the name of one of the two saints. The church, a basilica, was once roofed with tiles. The shell is built in Byzantine style on the outside: layers of blocks alternate with groups of bricks. It is divided into three very tall, narrow naves, which were vaulted on square pillars with pointed arches and each of which was closed by an apse. The central nave was a little higher. A later extension can be seen on the right. The window openings are framed in a Venetian style. […] On the gable of the front wall there is a bell structure on the right. As you can still see in some places from the sequence of layers, the inner walls were painted twice. The floor was covered by a mosaic, which you come across when digging the graves. "

- Theodor Ippen : Skutari and the northern Albanian coastal plain, p. 10 f.

Today only a 14 meter long remnant of the south wall of the church and a pillar of the interior are preserved. The ruin was declared a cultural monument by the socialist government in 1973 . In 2014 the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej visited the ruins. Restoration work was carried out in 2018.

literature

  • V. Kamsi: Një kishë e stilit romaniko-gotik në Shqipërinë e Veriut, kisha e Shirgjit . Conference contribution, Session IV, Instituti i Monumenteve të Kulturës. Tirana 1980.
  • V. Koraç: Sv. Sergiji (Srç) i Vakh na Bojani . In: Starinar . No. XII . Belgrade 1961, p. 35-44 .

Web links

Commons : Ruins of the Church of Shirgj  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ardian Ndreca: Rrënojat e Abacisë së Shirgjit dhe shpëtimi i tyne. In: Gazeta 55 Online. September 15, 2008, archived from the original on January 31, 2016 ; Retrieved December 9, 2017 (Albanian).
  2. ↑ a b Etleva Lala: Mansatiri i Shën Shergjit dhe Bakut, misteret ende të pazbuluara. In: AlbaSoul. Retrieved December 9, 2017 (Albanian).
  3. ↑ Oliver Jens Schmitt: The Venetian Albania (1392–1479) (=  Southeast European Works . No. 110 ). R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-56569-9 , p. 26 u. 78 .
  4. ↑ Schmitt (2001), pp. 130 f., 158, 172 u. 210.
  5. ↑ Schmitt (2001), p. 175.
  6. ↑ Schmitt (2001), p. 98.
  7. ↑ Schmitt (2001), p. 166 and 175.
  8. ↑ Schmitt (2001), p. 175.
  9. ↑ Schmitt (2001), pp. 576 f., 613 u. 619.
  10. ↑ Guntram Koch: Christian monuments in Albania . In: Werner Daum, State Museum for Ethnology Munich (ed.): Albania between cross and crescent . Pinguin, Munich / Innsbruck 1998, ISBN 3-7016-2461-5 , p. 74 .
  11. ↑ Aleksandër Meksi: Kishat mesjetare të Shqipërisë së Mesme e të Veriut . In: Instituti i Monumenteve të Kulturës (ed.): Monumentet . No. 2 . Tirana 1983, p. 101 f .
  12. ↑ Schmitt (2001), p. 165
  13. ↑ Shkoder - Shirq. In: Shkoder by bike. Retrieved December 28, 2017 (English).
  14. ↑ Aleksandër Meksi: Kishat mesjetare të Shipërisë të Mesme e të Veriut . In: Instituti i Monumenteve të Kulturës (ed.): Monumentet . No. 2 . Tirana 1983, Kisha e manastirit të Shën Sergjit e Bakut në Shirgj të Bunës - Shkodër (pp. 82–85), pp. 83 .
  15. ↑ Lista e Monumenteve të Kulturës - Qarku Shkodër. (PDF) In: Instituti i Monumenteve të Kulturës. Retrieved December 9, 2017 (Albanian).
  16. ^ Serbian Patriarch Irinej visited the church of Sveta Trojica in Vraka and the church of St Sergius and Bacchus. In: Identitet. May 31, 2014, accessed December 9, 2017 .
  17. ↑ TV1 Channel: Konservimi i monumentit 1500 vjeçar on YouTube , October 9, 2018.

Coordinates: 41 ° 59 ′ 25 ″  N , 19 ° 26 ′ 23 ″  E