Skanderbeg Museum

Main facade of the museum

The Skanderbeg Museum (officially: Muzeu Kombëtar Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu ) is a museum in Kruja , Albania . It honors the national hero Georg Kastrioti Skanderbeg (1405–1468). It is located in the fortress of Kruja above the restored bazaar.

building

tower

The building is a monumental new building that is modeled on a historic castle. The architects were Pranvera Hoxha, the daughter of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha , and Pirro Vaso. The building was opened in 1982.

location

Back of the building and castle wall

The museum is located on the northern edge of the fortress, right next to the castle wall and a historical access gate.

The historic fortress served as Skanderbeg's headquarters for a long time. The Ottoman army tried in vain to capture it in 1450, 1466 and 1467. The fortress helped Skanderbeg save this region of Albania from an Ottoman invasion for more than two decades.

Is part of the fortress further including a restored house from the time of the Ottomans in which an ethnographic museum is housed, the Teqe of Dollme the Bektashi , a hamam and the remains of ruined Sultan Mehmed Fatih Mosque .

exhibition

The museum served the communists to develop a "personality cult around Gjerg Kastrioti Skënderbej" ( Meike Gutzweiler ) and to spread the myth across the board among the population. The Socialist People's Republic of Albania reinterpreted the national hero in their own way and, after the ban on religion, staged him as a substitute for the spiritual emptiness of the population, which is also reflected in the architecture and the design of the museum's exhibition.

Statue of Skanderbeg in the entrance hall

The exhibition documents Skanderbeg's life and his military struggle against the Ottomans, including through monumental paintings. A group of sculptures in the entrance hall shows an oversized Skanderbeg surrounded by fighters. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the fame of the Turkish fighter across Europe. Most of the exhibits are replicas, including a copy of Skanderbeg's helmet with a goat's head on it. The original is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Web links

Commons : Skanderbeg Museum - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Official website (Albanian)
Photographs from inside the museum (English), 2006.

Individual evidence

↑ Ermir Hoxha: Arkitektura Shqiptare e Shekullit XX (një histori e shkurtër) . West Print, Tirana 2015, ISBN 978-9928-19987-4 , p. 94 f .
↑ Skanderbeg Museum (Muzeu Kombetar Gj. Kastriot Skenderbeu). In: Argophilia Albania. Retrieved May 8, 2016 .
↑ ^a ^b Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeg Museum of Krujë, Albania. National Geographic, accessed February 28, 2014 .
↑ ^a ^b Meike Gutzweiler: Reise Know-How Albania . Peter Rump, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8317-2194-8 .
↑ Oliver Jens Schmitt : Skanderbeg. The new Alexander in the Balkans . Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2229-0 , pp. 312 ff .

41.5075 19.793888888889Coordinates: 41 ° 30 ′ 27 ″ N , 19 ° 47 ′ 38 ″ E

[1] Ermir Hoxha: Arkitektura Shqiptare e Shekullit XX (një histori e shkurtër) . West Print, Tirana 2015, ISBN 978-9928-19987-4 , p. 94 f .

[2] Skanderbeg Museum (Muzeu Kombetar Gj. Kastriot Skenderbeu). In: Argophilia Albania. Retrieved May 8, 2016 .

[MuseumKrujë-3] Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeg Museum of Krujë, Albania. National Geographic, accessed February 28, 2014 .

[reiseknowhow-4] Meike Gutzweiler: Reise Know-How Albania . Peter Rump, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8317-2194-8 .

[5] Oliver Jens Schmitt : Skanderbeg. The new Alexander in the Balkans . Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2229-0 , pp. 312 ff .