The road to Korca

We set off early towards Korca, driving around the perimeter of a turquoise blue Lake Ohrid. Korca is town in southeastern Albania situated near the border with Greece and Macedonia.

The first of many stops on the Macedonian side was to visit Hoxha's private estate that was kept for his family's use. It seemed rather contradictory to have so much private privilege when he denied it to those he ruled....rather like keeping a particular part of Tirana out of bounds to anyone excepting high officials.

We left Macedonia heading south through Pogradec, passing rich agricultural land where quince, corn and wheat are grown. We arrived in the Centre of Korca to a bustling market town (not particularly charming at first glance and rather pleasingly non-touristic). I spent my free time capturing some of the market sights and sounds.

We headed off as a group to explore some of Korca's cultural heritage. The Medieval Art Museum is the only national institution in the field of iconography that exhibits most valuable art works of the post-Byzantine period, and the period of the Ottoman invasion (unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures but it was a real highlight).

The Prehistoric Museum, located in two traditional buildings of the city, give the chance to explore nearly 1,200 objects from archaeological excavations from the prehistoric, Hellenic, Roman and Paleo-Byzantine eras.

We also paid a visit to the site of the first Albanian school. The highlight for me, aside from the Icon museum, was a visit to St Mary's Church which stands on top of the hill in the mountainside Mborja village above Korca town.

The tiny Byzantine St Mary /Holy Resurrection/ dates from the 13th century and is built of local stone and timber coursing in trefoil base with small dome. The doorframe is built deliberately low encouraging visitors to bow on entry to show respect.

UNESCO researches consider frescoes of St Mary Church among the best in the Balkans. They are well preserved although had undergone deliberate defacement during the communist period. Especially interesting are frescoes in the narthex depicting hand holding a balance in which people are being weight and the sinners on their way to hell attacked by various animals including having been bitten by snakes.

I took many other photos of Korca, which can be seen here if you're interested.