Scanderbeg Order

Order mark (1st model)

Medal on the lady's bow

The Skanderbeg Order ( sq. Urdhëri i Skënderbeut ) was founded in 1925 by the Albanian President and later King Ahmet Zogu as a civil and military merit order. After the occupation of the country in 1939, the Italian King Viktor Emanuel III. also the Albanian royal dignity and bestowed the order until 1943 in a slightly different form.

Order classes

The order consists of five classes

• Grand Cross
• Grand Officer
• commander
• officer
• Knight

Order decoration

The medal has the shape of a double-headed eagle , is made of gilded bronze and partially red enameled. A circular medallion rests on the eagle's chest. In the middle it shows the golden helmet of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg on a blue enameled background . The medallion is surrounded by a green enamelled oak wreath .

The officer's cross has a different shape. It is a white enameled five-pointed star with small spheres on the tips. Overlying a medallion that shows the coat of arms of Albania . Two crossed sabers are attached under the star and the star is surrounded by a green enameled oak wreath. The symbol of the order is exaggerated by the helmet of the national hero.

In 1940 the medallion of the medallion (2nd model) was changed. Instead of the oak wreath, the medallion was now enclosed with an ornament formed from golden cords. In the lower semicircle, two crossed bundles of lictors can also be seen. Another feature is the animal head turned to the left on the shirt.

In the officer's cross, the spheres fell on the star tips.

Carrying method

The Grand Cross was carried on a sash from the right shoulder to the left hip and with an eight-pointed breast star on which the medallion of the medal rests. The grand officer and the commander decorated the award as a neck medal , the grand officers additionally with a reduced breast star. The officer's cross is a plug-in cross and knights wore the award on the ribbon on the left side of the chest.

The ribbon is black with red side and edge stripes.

Others

There is evidence that the order was awarded until 1945.

When the communists came to power in 1945, an award of the same name was created and awarded until 1990.

literature

• Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann , Ottfried Neubecker (ed.): Ordens-Lexikon. Part 2. The Order Collection, Berlin 1962.