MALIGRAD ISLAND
An uninhabited 5-hectare island with a cave church, a beautiful sandy beach ...Read more
SAINT-FRANÇOIS CHURCH IN SHKODRA
This Catholic church houses the world's only anti-Communist frescoes ...Read more
ST. NICHOLAS OF SHELCAN CHURCH
The interior walls of this small Orthodox church are entirely covered with ...Read more
MONASTÈRE SAINT-JEAN-LE-THÉOLOGIEN DE CERKOVICA
Rarely open to visitors, this monastery, built in 1600, gives its name to ...Read more
ÉGLISES DE LESHNICA
8 km from Cerkovica (on foot or by 4 x 4), the Agios Georgios monastery ...Read more
SAINT-DEMETRIOS CHURCH OF TUMINEC
Orthodox church in the village of Tuminec, near Lake Prespa in Pustec, with ...Read more
TEKKÉ OF MELAN
This Sufi place of worship is an old and important center of Bektashism in ...Read more
CATHÉDRALE DE LA RÉSURRECTION-DU-CHRIST
A strange Orthodox cathedral designed by a New York architectural firm and ...Read more
DHËRMI PANAGIA MONASTERY
Monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary, with frescoes painted in 1576 and a ...Read more
ST.ATHANASE CHURCH IN MOSCOW
This 1721 Orthodox church boasts remarkable frescoes by the great Albanian ...Read more
MIRAHORI MOSQUE
Oldest building in the center of Korça (1494), south of the Old Bazaar ...Read more
ÉGLISE SAINTE-EUPHÉMIE DE KALLMET
Small Catholic church perched 400 m above sea level. Beautiful views. Rock ...Read more
TEKKÉ ALI-BABA
Read moreThis Bektashi place of worship (Teqeja e Baba Aliut) occupies a hilltop at 720 m altitude in the Hotova-Dangëll Fir National Park. Access is difficult without a 4 x 4, and is best reached on foot from the hamlet of Alipostivan below. The origins of tekkés go back a long way. It was refounded around 1860 by Ali Baba, considered a "saint" by the Albanian bektashis. Completely rebuilt in 2003, the complex is home to a small community of dervishes and boasts grandiose views over the Vjosa and Nemërçka mountains.
SAINT JOVAN-VLADIMIR MONASTERY
This 11th-century Orthodox monastery is dedicated to the Serbian prince and ...Read more
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST MONASTERY OF MOSCOW
On the heights of Moscopole, this Orthodox monastery, founded in the 14th ...Read more
ST. NICHOLAS' CHURCH IN MOSCOW
Church with separate bell tower, built in 1726, decorated with frescoes by ...Read more
MBORJA CHURCH
One of the country's most precious Byzantine churches. It has been the ...Read more
LEAD MOSQUE
Built in 1774, this Arab-inspired mosque is one of the most beautiful in ...Read more
BAZAAR MOSQUE
The city's only ancient mosque, spared by the atheist campaign of 1967. The ...Read more
WORLD HEADQUARTERS OF BEKTASHISM
Headquarters of the Bektashi Sufi brotherhood, with some 7 million ...Read more
TEKKÉ HALVETI
Read moreThis former Sufi place of worship (Teqeja e Helvetive) is distinguished by its porch, whose antique columns come from the site of Apollonia in Illyria. It was built in 1780 and occupied in the 19th century by Halveti dervishes, a brotherhood now very rare in Albania. Today, it houses the regional offices of the Monuments Culturelles. The building was originally erected to house the supposed mausoleum of Sabbatai Tsevi (1626-1676), a mystical rabbi who converted to Islam and was considered the Messiah by many Jews in the Ottoman Empire. Born in Smyrna, according to the beliefs of the time, he died in Berat. Thus, for over two centuries, Dönme, Islamicized Jews who followed Tsevi, came here on pilgrimage from Thessalonica, then Europe's largest Jewish city. The shrine was built at the request of Berat's Jewish community (around 150 families at the end of the 18th century) and financed by the Ottoman governor of the Berat pashalik Ahmet Kurt Pasha (c. 1710-1787). However, it was partly destroyed by his former rival, the redoubtable Ali Pacha de Tepelena, when the city was taken in 1808, and rebuilt shortly afterwards. The so-called tomb may well have survived, as Dönme continued to gather here until the early 20th century. One thing is certain: it disappeared during the atheist campaign of 1967. As for the real mausoleum, it was identified in 1985 in Ulcinj, Montenegro, where Sabbatai Tsevi had been exiled by the Ottomans in 1673.
LEUSA CHURCH
One of the largest churches in southern Albania, set in a forest near the ...Read more
TEKKÉ DE TURAN
On the outskirts of Korça towards Moscopole, this Bektashi place of ...Read more
VILLAGE DE BOBOSHTICA
Between Korça and Dardha, an ancient Bulgarian village with two beautiful ...Read more
TEKKÉ SARI-SALTIK
Tekké betkashi in an impressive setting on the edge of a cliff at an ...Read more
MOSQUÉE ABOU-BAKR
Modern mosque framed by two 41.11 m-high minarets. Uninteresting, but a ...Read more
MONASTÈRE SAINT-GEORGES
Fortress-like Orthodox monastery founded in the 14th century atop Dema ...Read more
MOSQUÉE DE PLOMB
This 16th-century mosque owes its name to its lead-covered dome. Classical ...Read more
MOSQUÉE DES CÉLIBATAIRES
One of the few frescoed mosques in the Balkans. Named after the young ...Read more