MOSAÏQUES DE LIN

These early-Christian mosaics (Mozaiku i Linit) are part of a small archaeological site with a beautiful panoramic view over Lake Ohrid. Since 2019, it has been the only "cultural" element in the Albanian part of Lake Ohrid to be listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The mosaics are located on the hill of the Lin Peninsula, 30 m above the lake. They decorate the floor of the ruins of a ^6th-century Byzantine basilica. They are the best-preserved ancient and medieval mosaics in Albania. The basilica was part of a monastery. It was built on the site of an earlier ^3rd-century basilica and seems to have been destroyed by the arrival of the Bulgarians in the ^7th century. The building's foundations and pavement were discovered during the atheist campaign of 1967, after the destruction of a church occupying the site, and were excavated from 1969 onwards. An explanatory panel with a map details the layout of the various spaces. Among the mosaics on display, the finest and most complete are those in the chapel (no. 1 on the plan), the pastophoria (no. 6) and the baptistery (no. 8). The pastophoria (sacristy) is adorned with a magnificent composition of rich symbols: birds drawing water from amphorae, an evocation of the Holy Spirit for the early Christians, eye-shaped motifs on a peacock's tail, an animal associated with the resurrection, and so on. In the chapel, the pavement decoration is organized around an inscription from the Book of Psalms.