Pope visits Albania: 10 things you may not know one of Europe’s least understood countries
As Pope Francis visits Albania, Nick Squires lists 10 interesting facts about the former Communist country
Pope Francis' reformist instincts have brought him into conflict with cardinals Photo: REX
3:48PM BST 21 Sep 2014
Pope Francis arrived in Albania on Sunday for a one-day visit – his first to a
Muslim-majority country and the fourth overseas trip of his papacy, after
Brazil, the Holy Land and South Korea.
The visit is intended to highlight the harmonious co-existence between
Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics – against a backdrop of turmoil and violence
in much of the Islamic world.
It will also celebrate the resurgence of religious belief in Albania after the
decades in which it was suppressed by the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha.
Here are 10 facts you may not know about one of Europe’s smallest and least
understood countries.
1. In the Albanian language, Albania is known as Shqiperia. Around 10
per cent of Albanians are Catholics, while 60 per cent are Muslim and the
rest Christian Orthodox.
2. Albanians trace their routes to ancient Illyrian tribes, who
occupied the western Balkans during the second millennium BC. Their language
is derived from Illyrian, a melange of Roman and Slavic influences.
3. The word for yes in Albanian is ‘po’. The word for no is ‘jo’.
4. Albania was closely allied with the USSR until the 1960s, when it switched allegiance to Communist China.
5. Under Enver Hoxha’s dictatorial, Stalinist rule, organised religion was banned and Albania was declared an atheist state in 1967 under a Mao-style cultural revolution. All churches and mosques were taken over by the state and by 1990 around 95 per cent of religious buildings had been destroyed or converted into other uses, such as cinemas and warehouses. Nearly 2,000 Catholic and Orthodox churches were destroyed. More than 100 Catholic priests and bishops were executed or died under torture or in labour camps. Hoxha built a museum of atheism, including an exhibit allegedly portraying Pope John XXIII, who led the Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963, dancing the twist with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
6. Under the Communist regime, the only Western actor approved by Hoxha and his henchmen was the British comedian Norman Wisdom, who became a cult figure in the country. Hoxha deemed that Sir Norman's films, in which his hapless screen character Pitkin got the better of his bosses, were a Communist parable on class war. When Sir Norman died in 2010, Sali Berisha, the then prime minister, described him as “one of the brightest stars of world comedy” and “one of the dearest friends of our nation.”
7. One of the strangest features of Communist rule was the construction of tens of thousands of concrete, bomb-proof bunkers. Scattered around the countryside, they were built to repel an invasion that never happened. It is estimated that there are as many as 750,000 of them – one for every four Albanians.
8. Communist rule ended in the 1990s, to be replaced by a chaotic free-for-all marked by rampant corruption, emigration and smuggling. Around three-quarters of Albanians lost their life savings in 1996 when private pyramid investment schemes collapsed, leading to riots by rampaging mobs.
9. Perhaps the world’s most famous Albanian is Mother Theresa, the Catholic nun who worked for decades in the slums of India. She was actually born in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia, but she was Albanian in ethnicity. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor and the sick and was beatified – the penultimate step to sainthood – in 2003. She died in 1997 at the age of 87. The Pope will celebrate Mass in a square named after Mother Theresa in Tirana.
10. Tirana’s forbiddingly grey, Communist-era housing and office blocks were brightened up by Edi Rama, a former mayor of the capital, who ordered them to be painted in bright, garish colours.
3. The word for yes in Albanian is ‘po’. The word for no is ‘jo’.
4. Albania was closely allied with the USSR until the 1960s, when it switched allegiance to Communist China.
5. Under Enver Hoxha’s dictatorial, Stalinist rule, organised religion was banned and Albania was declared an atheist state in 1967 under a Mao-style cultural revolution. All churches and mosques were taken over by the state and by 1990 around 95 per cent of religious buildings had been destroyed or converted into other uses, such as cinemas and warehouses. Nearly 2,000 Catholic and Orthodox churches were destroyed. More than 100 Catholic priests and bishops were executed or died under torture or in labour camps. Hoxha built a museum of atheism, including an exhibit allegedly portraying Pope John XXIII, who led the Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963, dancing the twist with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
6. Under the Communist regime, the only Western actor approved by Hoxha and his henchmen was the British comedian Norman Wisdom, who became a cult figure in the country. Hoxha deemed that Sir Norman's films, in which his hapless screen character Pitkin got the better of his bosses, were a Communist parable on class war. When Sir Norman died in 2010, Sali Berisha, the then prime minister, described him as “one of the brightest stars of world comedy” and “one of the dearest friends of our nation.”
7. One of the strangest features of Communist rule was the construction of tens of thousands of concrete, bomb-proof bunkers. Scattered around the countryside, they were built to repel an invasion that never happened. It is estimated that there are as many as 750,000 of them – one for every four Albanians.
8. Communist rule ended in the 1990s, to be replaced by a chaotic free-for-all marked by rampant corruption, emigration and smuggling. Around three-quarters of Albanians lost their life savings in 1996 when private pyramid investment schemes collapsed, leading to riots by rampaging mobs.
9. Perhaps the world’s most famous Albanian is Mother Theresa, the Catholic nun who worked for decades in the slums of India. She was actually born in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia, but she was Albanian in ethnicity. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor and the sick and was beatified – the penultimate step to sainthood – in 2003. She died in 1997 at the age of 87. The Pope will celebrate Mass in a square named after Mother Theresa in Tirana.
10. Tirana’s forbiddingly grey, Communist-era housing and office blocks were brightened up by Edi Rama, a former mayor of the capital, who ordered them to be painted in bright, garish colours.
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