FORMER FRENCH HIGH SCHOOL

This neoclassical building, which is in danger of collapsing, once housed the prestigious French high school (Liceu Francez). Still known to the Albanians by this name, it was however renamed a long time ago and moved near the Skanderbeg stadium in 1995. Founded by the French army on October 25, 1917, during the period of the Republic of Korça, it was the first institution of higher learning in Albania. Its impact was immense in this country which had no school in Albanian until 1887 and which was 80% illiterate until 1945. Renamed the "national high school" in 1921, it continued to provide bilingual education under the leadership of French directors and teachers. They contributed not only to the formation of a new elite, but also to the development of Korça as a "little Paris" open to the world. Thus, the eccentric aristocrat and diplomat Xavier de Courville (1894-1984) passed on his love of Racine to a certain Enver Hoxha at the end of the 1920s, before the latter went to continue his studies in Montpellier. The future dictator returned in 1936 to teach French. The school was the first place of recruitment for the Albanian Communist Party, officially founded in Korça in 1941. Renamed Raqi-Qirinxhi in 1944 (after a teacher who was killed during the occupation), the high school has strongly renewed its ties with France since Albania joined the International Organization of the Francophonie in 1998. Today, 30% of the students learn French as their first foreign language.